Bruno never could figure out why the people living on the other side of the wire from where his house was situated in ‘Out With’ all wore the same attire – striped pyjamas. Recently moved to Poland from his German home in Berlin Bruno hated his new environs. His friends he had left back home in the German capital were the people he wanted to be with most rather than have the dubious company of his sister. She, as he was fond of reminding her, was a ‘hopeless case’. Nor did he like the rude, mocking teenage lieutenant who made a habit of hanging around mother while father was away.
Stuck he was in this strange home far away from Berlin. It was near his father’s new office which provided little in the way of consolation. An important office no doubt, after all the ‘Fury’ who seemed to be very important had asked his father to go there to serve as commandant of Out With. And lest he forget, his sister was quick to remind him that the Fury ran the country. Everybody on their best behaviour when the Fury came to dine at the family table. Father was so important that when grandmother died the Fury even sent a wreath. Grandmother, Bruno’s mother said, would have turned in her grave at the thought of it.
In the midst of all the unsolicited turbulence he made a new friend. The relationship that developed has provided the backdrop to what has been described as a tale of innocence in a world of ignorance. It is an apt description. The ignorant and brutal Nazis were constructing their death camps as part of the envisaged final solution of the Jewish Question. Bruno’s father had been placed in charge of some very crucial business at Auschwitz, which is a polite way of describing mass extermination. The SS officer who loved his own children and worried about them, made his living murdering other people’s children.
Bruno’s world changed when he met Shmuel the little Jewish prisoner who could speak German. Their friendship blossomed although both boys were separated by wire. Shmuel, emaciated and unhappy, because of experience was by far the shrewder of the two. When both sat and discussed emblems Bruno thought the swastika was nicer than the Star of David. He had no grasp of context. He loved soldiers while Shmuel hated them all.
My daughter received this book as a Xmas gift from one of my sisters. She asked me to read it first. We do that sometimes, read each others books and then discuss our views on them. She likes to read books about children around her own age and the two central characters in this story are nine, sharing the same birthdays. Fate it seemed had conspired to draw them together in a brutal world fashioned by Nazi Germany.
As the story draws to its conclusion and it is time for the boys to bid each other farewell there remains the hope that by some stroke of fortune Shmuel will make his way back to Berlin with Bruno where the friendship will continue forever. It has lasted against the odds thus far.
John Boyne, 2006, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. David Ficklin Books: Oxford
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AM-
ReplyDeleteJust saw the film a while back-
What went on in those camps was sick- after all those bodies being burnt it was the nazi Goverment which went up in flames-
Michaelhenry,
ReplyDeletedidn't get to see the film but the book is certainly very good