The Boy in the
Striped Pyjamas
By John Boyne

Characters
Bruno
Gretel
Mother
Father

Chapters 1-5

Chapter 1
Berlin, 1940s
Maria is packing things
Conversation with mother
Moving
Father’s job

Chapter 2
The new house
Bruno tries to convince his mother
The blond soldier
Last words of chapter 2:
“He put his face to the glass and saw
what was out there, and this time when
his eyes opened wide and his mouth
made the shape of an O, his hands
stayed by his sides because something
made him feel very cold and unsafe.”

Chapter 3
“The Hopeless Case”
Out-With
“The Other Children”

Chapter 4
“To begin with, they weren't children
at all. Not all of them, at least. There
were small boys and big boys, fathers
and grandfathers. Perhaps a few
uncles too. ”
Berlin vs. “the countryside”
“You're nine,' countered Gretel. 'How
would you know? When you get to my
age you'll understand these things a
lot better.”
“It must be some sort of rehearsal,”

Chapter 5
Flashback
Talk with Father
“The people I see from my window. In the
huts, in the distance. They're all dressed
the same.'
'Ah, those people,' said Father, nodding his
head and smiling slightly. 'Those people…
well, they're not people at all, Bruno.”
“Heil Hitler,' he said, which, he presumed,
was another way of saying, 'Well, goodbye
for now, have a pleasant afternoon.”

Chapters 6-10

Chapter 6
Bruno’s conversation with
the maid.
Very unhappy with the
house.

Chapter 7
“How Mother Took Credit for Something
That She Hadn't Done”
Weeks pass.
Bruno decides to build a tire swing.
He gets help from Pavel.
Bruno falls.
Pavel helps him.

Chapter 8
Flashback.
Christmas with the family.
Grandmother
Bruno writes a letter to his Grandmother.

Chapter 9
Private tutor: Herr Liszt.
Plaque on the bench:
"Presented on the occasion of the
opening of Auschwitz Camp, June
nineteen forty”.
Bruno walks toward the fence.

Chapter 10
“The Dot That Became a Speck That Became
a Blob That Became a Figure That Became
a Boy”
Bruno sees a boy on the other side of the
fence.
““Shmuel stared at him for a moment and
opened his mouth and closed it twice, as
if he was considering his words carefully.
'But this is Poland,' he said finally.”

Chapters 11-15

Chapter 11
Flashback:
Hitler visits Father.

Chapter 12
Back at the fence.
Bruno and Shmuel talk.
Bruno decided not to tell anything.

Chapter 13
Bruno is getting used to living at Auschwitz.
He now has a friend in Shmuel, who he brings food.
Bruno asks Maria about Pavel.
Pavel spills wine.
“What happened then was both unexpected and extremely
unpleasant. Lieutenant Kotler grew very angry with Pavel
and no one—not Bruno, not Gretel, not Mother and not
even Father—stepped in to stop him doing what he did
next, even though none of them could watch. Even
though it made Bruno cry and Gretel grow pale.”

Chapter 14
Shmuel has a black eye.
“Bruno assumed that there were bullies
all over the world, not just in schools in
Berlin, and that one of them had done
this to Shmuel.”
Bruno asks why everyone wears the same
clothes.
Bruno tells Gretel about Shmuel.

Chapter 15
Constant rain.
Bruno sees that Shmuel is getting thinner
and thinner.
The kitchen
Bruno apologizes.

Chapters 16-20

Chapter 16
A year has passed.
Grandmother dies.
The fence.
Lice.

Chapter 17
A couple of weeks pass.
Bruno
Gretel
Mother
Back to Berlin?

Chapter 18
Bruno tells Shmuel.
Bruno has lost his father.
“Thinking Up the Final Adventure”

Chapter 19
The last visit to Shmuel.
Bruno is surprised by what he sees.
No luck in their adventure.

Chapter 20
Everyone looks everywhere. They only find clothes.
Mother goes back to Berlin.
Father’s theory.
“Other soldiers”.
“And that's the end of the story about Bruno and
his family. Of course all this happened a long time
ago and nothing like that could ever happen
again.
Not in this day and age.”

Important themes
Family
Lies
Race
Violence
Friendship
Isolation

The Holocaust
The Final Solution
11.000.000 people died.
6.000.000 Jews.
Others; Soviet POW’s, non-jewish Poles,
Serbs, disabled people, Romani,
Slovenes, homosexuals, Jehovah’s
Witnesses.
2/3 of the Jewish population of Europe

The Holocaust
1400 (work)camps in total.
7 camps especially built to
systematically kill people.
Chełmno, Bełżec, Sobibór,
Treblinka, Auschwitz,
Majdanek, Trostenets

Auschwitz
Auschwitz I
Auschwitz II-Birkenau
1.300.000 people
1.100.000 people died
90% were Jewish
1/6 of all Jewish victims

Auschwitz
Commandant Rudolf Höss was
hanged in Auschwitz I.
Liberation.
Tip:
Auschwitz: Nazis and the ‘Final
Solution’ (BBC)