Lauren Martin

Mr. Osborne
World History Honors
31 May 2015
Historical Movies: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
On May 31st, I watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas as my historical movie. This is a
very emotional movie set during World War II about the eight year old son of a Nazi officer who,
during the Holocaust, becomes friends with a Jewish boy in the concentration camp run by his
father. At the beginning of the movie, Bruno, the young boy, comes home to find his family
packing their things and they inform him they will be leaving Berlin and moving to Owicim,
Germany, the location of Auschwitz. When they arrive, the kids are very sheltered and not
allowed to explore the area around the house. One day, Bruno sees the concentration camp out
his window and thinks it is a farm. He sees the prisoners of the camp and thinks they are new
potential playmates. His mother quickly forbids him from exploring which only increases his
temptation to do so.
One day while adventuring through the woods, Bruno reaches the fence of the
concentration camp where he quickly befriends a young prisoner named Shmuel. Bruno is
confused about the number on Shmuels chest, the armband with a star on it, and the striped
pajamas he is wearing. As the days goes on, Bruno and his mother become slowly more aware
of what is going on around them. Bruno watches his sister fall into extreme Nazi propaganda
from their teacher and newspapers. As the war continues on, Berlin is bombed and Brunos
grandmother dies. At her funeral they portray her as a Nazi supporter even though she was not,
and when her daughter attempted to correct them she was restrained. After this, problems

between Brunos mother and father worsen and they agree that Bruno, his sister, and his mother
will move out until the war is over. Over time, Bruno and Shmuel become close friends. Bruno
sneaks him food and visits him everyday to play through the fence.
One day, Shmuel was brought into the house to use his small hands to clean the glasses.
Bruno let him have some of their food and was talking to him in the dining room. Abruptly, a
soldier entered and punished Shmuel for stealing the family's food and socializing instead of
working. Bruno denied sharing the food and his lies cause a greater punishment for Shmuel.
Bruno feels terrible about what he did and promises to make it up to him. In the following days,
Shmuels father goes missing in the camp and Bruno vows to help Shmuel find him. Shmuel
steals him a cap and set of striped pajamas and Bruno digs his way into the camp. Once they are
in and begin their search, the soldiers begin to bark orders and force the prisoners to the
showers. By this time, Brunos family realizes they are missing their son and frantically start
searching for him. Meanwhile, Bruno, Shmuel and the other prisoners are forced into what they
believe is a shower but is actually a gas chamber. They are stripped down, packed into the
chamber, and the gas was released, killing Bruno, Shmuel, and all the other prisoners. As the gas
is released, Brunos family arrives, trying to rescue their son but they quickly realize they are too
late. The movie ends with the sobs of Brunos family as they mourn the loss of their loved one.
This movie addressed the events of World War II and Holocaust. It showed the life of the
soldiers and how they were able to justify their cruel actions. This movie also relates to the
effects of the bombing of Berlin in the 1940s. It discussed the losses faced by families and how
people adjusted to the actions around them. It showed the propaganda used by the government
and in schools to make the Nazi party and their ideas seem beneficial to the country. They altered
the way schools were taught and the material they were allowed to read. This movie also address

the issue with the soldiers and military leaders running concentration camps. It gave viewers an
inside perspective of what was going on in the mind of the leaders at the time. At one point in the
movie, Brunos father was talking about the prisoners and referred to them as not human. They
thought so little of the Jews they were starved, beaten, worked, and treated like animals.
Overall, this movie is a moderately accurate representation of history. According to
Time.com, this movie made the events that occurred at the concentration camps extremely
obvious and made the people seem unintelligent. This is false because, during the war, the camps
were much more secluded and the smell of human flesh burning would not have been as obvious
and the camps would not have been able to be stumbled upon by a curious kid. Another
inaccuracy according to Aish.com was that in real life, Shmuel would not have lived long enough
to build and/or maintain a relationship with Bruno because young boys not old enough to work
were immediately gassed. Finally, the scene towards the end of the movie where Bruno is able to
crawl under the fence is not factual because an electric fence runs underground and would not
have been that easy to dig under. It would have shocked and most likely killed Bruno if he tried
to crawl through that close to the electricity.
Although there were some inaccuracies, there were many times where the information
was accurate. During the movie, they showed prisoners that had previously held important jobs,
such as doctors, being forced to complete tasks such as peeling potatoes and doing manual labor
outdoors. This is accurate because during this time, Jews were forced to give up their identity
and follow all orders from the soldiers. According to History.com, prisoners were starving, had
many injuries, were dirty, and had broken and cracked teeth. The directors of the movie did an
amazing job of showing the prisoners in a similar light to how they would have been. Also, when

the war was beginning, the movie discussed how people would leave their homes and flee to
other countries for freedom and/ or safety.
In my opinion, this was a very great film, I enjoyed it very much and would recommend
it to all history students and the public. It gave an educational insight to people interested in a
broad knowledge of the holocaust. It allowed viewers to experience what not only victims were
going through but witnesses and even the thought process of the soldiers. The movie was
extremely entertaining and quick to catch the viewer's attention. The acting was very high quality
along with the staging and dialogue of characters. All actor/actresses sounded authentic and there
was nothing that, while watching the film, struck me as out of place or not believable. It gave a
very good historical representation of the events, architecture, and fashion of the time.
If I were in charge of re-making this film, I would try to increase the historical accuracy. I
would change how Bruno enters the camp and locate the camp in a more remote location. I
would not want to insult the intelligence of any person and/or make them seem disconnected
from the issues of the time. I also would have cut out the part of Bruno finding the naked dolls in
the basement because although they tried to tie that in with propaganda it seemed generally
irrelevant and confused me as I watched the film. I would continue the focus on propaganda
because I found that extremely interesting throughout the film. I also would have broadened the
character development of the concentration camp and introduce an older character to gain
another perspective in the film. Overall, I found this movie very emotionally moving and I very
much enjoyed watching it.