When his father is promoted to Commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp,
![]( "boy in striped pajamas")
- Follett Titlewave
nine-year-old Bruno moves with his family from Berlin to “Out-With” .
Their new home overlooks the camp, so Bruno and his sister ask themselves, “Who are all those people wearing striped pajamas, and what are they doing there?”
Without his family’s knowledge, Bruno goes exploring and befriends a boy “from the other side of the fence.”
Most afternoons Bruno and Shmuel meet at the fence, away from patrolling soldiers, where they sit on the ground facing each other and talk.
Using Bruno’s innocent voice, the author raises important questions such as “Were the people different?” and “Who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?”
John Boyne, in the Author’s Notes, states:
I believed that the only respectful way for me to deal with this subject was through the eyes of a child, and particularly through the eyes of a rather naive child who couldn’t possibly understand the terrible things that were taking place around him. After all, only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.
Ultimately, this book raises the issue of complacency in the face of evil.
Bruno’s father justifies his work based on his belief that the Jews were not people at all (p.53). He asks Bruno, “Do you think that I would have made such a succes of my life if I hadn’t learned when to argue and when to keep my mouth shut and follow orders?” (p.49)
Bruno’s mother takes frequent naps and “medicinal sherries.”
When Bruno tries to talk with the family’s maid about his feelings, she counsels him to “stay quiet . . . . We must all just keep ourselves safe . . . . What more can we do than that after all? It’s not up to us to change things.” (p.65)
Every generation faces its own evils.
While this book engages our emotions about the Holocaust, it should shake us awake from complacency about evil in our time.
The publisher, Random House, provides a free online Teacher’s Guide and Reader’s Guide.
Highly recommended. Included on the Webster Christian School Library Suggested Reading List for 9th and 10th grade.
