The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Age Appropriateness:

• Rating: PG-13
• Our recommendation: Middle School
• Ending shows graphic detail of concentration camp and gas chambers, however other than the last 10 minutes, there isn’t any difficult imagery for middle school children

Summary: 

Bruno, an eight-year-old son of a Nazi commander, leaves his comfortable life in Berlin to live in the countryside in order for this father to run a concentration camp. Bruno is unhappy with his new lonely life, until he wanders off his family’s property and finds an 8-year-old Jewish boy named Shmuel sitting behind an electric fence. Throughout the movie Bruno battles the tension between caring about his new friend Shmuel and the blatant anti-Semitism he learns from his family and his tutor.

Historical accuracy:

•  https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005142
• Children were prioritized for killing as a measure of “preventative security”. By killing children, Nazis ensured the ending of a bloodline by restricting possibility for future reproduction.
• Adolescents (13-18 years old) had a higher chance for survival because they were capable of doing forced labor, however 8-year old Schmuel would most likely have been killed or taken for experimentation upon arrival and would not have been able to meet Bruno.
•  http://auschwitz.org/en/history/fate-of-children/the-fate-of-the-children
•  https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/children.htm
• Slave Labor
• Whether children were sent immediately to the gas chambers or kept for forced labor was determined by their age and ability to work.
• Hitler Youth
•  Boys starting at age 6 were eligible to attend Hitler Youth, although it wasn’t required until age 10, due to Bruno’s father position in Hitler’s army, it is most likely that he would have been sent at age 6.  
•  Bruno would have already been in Hitler Youth, and would have been indoctrinated about how Jews were ruining Germany. Unfortunately, even at 8 (especially due to the fact that his father was a Nazi Commander) it is unlikely that he would have embodied the innocence and openness to Shmuel that is demonstrated in the movie.
•  https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007820
• The Nazi regime made it a priority to shape the young minds of the German population. Bruno’s sister and her admiration and sense of obligation towards Hitler “the Führer” is accurate to the time.
• Hitler Youth worked to inspire a sense superiority of the “Aryan race”, and extreme loyalty to Hitler

Our Take:

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is too historically inaccurate to be considered a suitable educational Holocaust text. Although it may be heartwarming, Bruno and Shmuel’s relationship simply would not have been possible.  Young children were prioritized in mass murder. This was part of the Nazi ideology to cut off the bloodline. Therefore, Shmuel would not have survived for that long at Auschwitz unless he was taken for experimentation, in which case he would not have been able to come to the electric fence. There were daily roll calls in Auschwitz, and every prisoner was constantly accounted for. When someone was not found, their entire barrack would be punished. Shmuel would not have been able to sit by the fence without being noticed. Bruno, the son of a Nazi commander, would have been in Hitler Youth starting at age 6, or at least been constantly being taught about “the Jew” awhile before coming to Auschwitz.  

However, this film provides a space to discuss how Nazis tend to be conveyed in Holocaust media. Bruno’s father is depicted as a good father, as well as a high ranking Nazi commander. Bruno’s mother is tortured by the idea of mass murder when she finds out. Bruno’s sister is portrayed as a good sister and young impressionable girl, rather than an “evil” figure. This complicates our conception of Nazis being simply evil people, and illustrates how it could be easy to buy into the idea that Hitler was trying to build a better Germany.

Discussion Questions:

• Did Bruno deserve to be killed? Did anyone?
  • How does Bruno’s murder put the mass murder into context?
• Would it have been possible for Bruno to have met Shmuel and befriended him?
  • See above for children during the Holocaust and Hitler Youth
• What was the Nazi ideology surrounding Jewish children?
• How does the role of the mother complicate our view of Nazis?
• How did Nazis indoctrinate German children?
• What were all the historical inaccuracies?
• How did you feel about Bruno’s family? What stereotypes do we have about Nazi families?
• How does the theme of hope and innocence affect how you look at the Holocaust in this movie? Is this a problematic theme or is it useful? In what ways?
• What lessons does this movie try to teach about the Holocaust?
• What was the average day at Auschwitz like? What were roll calls?