The Boy In The Striped Pajamas In class, we read the book, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. It was about the friendship of two young boys and how different their beliefs are. One of the boys is Jewish and the other has a father who works for Adolph Hitler and the Nazis, but Bruno (the son of the Nazi Commandant) has no clue what a Jew is or what a Nazi is. But Shmuel know that he is Jewish and that him and Bruno shouldn’t be playing with each other and that doesn’t interfere with their friendship what so ever. Nine year- old Bruno is very lonely, and ignorant until he meets his new best friend for life; he is very friendly to this boy that wears striped pajamas all day but still has many commonalities. Bruno had to move with his family to a place he thinks is named OutWith but is really pronounced Auschwitz, because of father’s promotion and his job is very important. When he left his lovely house in Berlin, he also had to leave his grandmother and grandfather along with his three best friends for life, Karl, Daniel, and Martine. Bruno and his family left their friends and family for a place with horrid scenery outside your bedroom window. The view you get is of a fence and on the other side; there are badly treated people. Another down about this new house is that there are soldiers and lieutenants walking in and out of your house as if they owned the place. The worst part about the house for Bruno and his sister was that there weren’t any other boys and girls their age that were on their side of the fence. Bruno was stuck with his sister, Grettle, the hopeless case, all day. That was until he decided to go exploring one day and as soon as he was going to call it quits for the day he saw a speck in the distance and decided to walk a bit further towards it. The little speck got larger and larger until it formed the shape of a boy, not much smaller than Bruno. Bruno sat cross-legged in front of the boy. They each introduced themselves, the boys name was Shmuel, and it turned out that they were the same exact age! Bruno would feel extremely lonely when the rain would get in the way of their daily get together in the spot they met and always meet. Bruno’s ignorance would agitate the hopeless case all the time. Especially when Bruno mispronounces words such as Auschwitz, he always says it Out-With; and that’s the way she told him it was pronounced in the beginning. She would also get very annoyed when he says the fury for Adolph Hitler instead of the furor. And she was so surprised at the fact that he didn’t know what a Jew was and got very angry when he asked her if he and is family were Jewish. Bruno didn’t understand how people didn’t like the Jews so he kept on asking about the other side of the fence. It wasn’t completely Bruno’s fault, but he didn’t quite understand things so much about the war so he went to the other side of the fence disguised in striped pajamas as small Jewish boy. Bruno was a very friendly boy to almost everyone, that one exception was Grettle who always made fun of and picked on him. Bruno was especially kind to Shmuel. He always kept him company by sitting there and just listening. Bruno listened to Shmuel’s memories of his old life in the nicer side of Poland and Bruno told Shmuel about his house in Berlin. Shmuel and Bruno talked about how different it was there at “Out-With” then their old homes and neighborhoods. And Bruno listened to Shmuel’s problems about the concentration camp. Before Bruno went to their usual spot near the end of the fence he would try to sneak as much food as possible into his pocket to give to his abnormally thin friend. His small friend would gobble the food down too fast for Bruno to tell him to slow down. And then Bruno did the riskiest thing of all. He went under the fence all dressed up as a small boy in the striped pajamas. Bruno went under the loose part of the fence that could fit a small boy just his size, so Bruno crawled under to meet his very best friend on the other side. Shmuel took Bruno on a tour and just as they were about to leave to find Shmuel’s papa, they got caught between a group of soldiers gathering prisoners and marching them to a very large room and shoved them all in. they were all cramped together, and Bruno and Shmuel, for the first time ever held hands. Just after that moment, the doors shut and so did the lights. Neither Bruno nor Shmuel let go of each other’s hands. And that was the end of their lives. Young Bruno was a very lonely, ignorant, and very friendly to a very nice Jewish boy just his age. Nothing got in the way of these two boys and their friendship; not even their beliefs or their family’s beliefs. The message of this story, I believe is that you never have a best friend for life until you have been through the worst with them, and that is the unbeatable companionship Bruno and Shmuel had.