This

book
follows
a 9yearold
boy
named
Bruno[
4]
growin
g up
during
World
War II
in
Berlin,

Germany.[5] He lives in a huge house with his parents,

his 12-year-old sister Gretel and servants, one of whom
is called Maria. After a visit by Adolf Hitler and Eva
Braun, Bruno's father is promoted to Commandant, and
the family has to move to "Out-With" because of the
orders of "The Fury". Bruno is initially upset about
moving to "Out-With" (never identified, but cf.
Auschwitz[6]) and leaving his three best friends for life,
Daniel, Karl, and Martin. His mother, who is against the
move herself, says that they "[do not] have the luxury of
thinking". From the house in Out-With, Bruno sees a
camp enclosed by wire fences but does not understand
what it is. Bruno is very bored in his new house, with no
friends to play with and nothing in the house to explore.
One day, despite being warned not to, Bruno decides to
explore the strange wire fence. As he walks along the
fence, he meets a Jewish boy named Shmuel, whom he
learns shares his birthday. Shmuel says that his father,
grandfather, and brother are with him on this side of the
fence, but he is separated from his mother. Bruno and
Shmuel talk and become very good friends, although
Bruno still does not understand very much about
Shmuel and his side of the fence. As the meetings go
on, Bruno's navete shows that his innocence has been
preserved despite being near a death camp. Shmuel
shares some of his knowledge of the suffering in the
camp but still does not fully explain why he is there.

When lice eggs are discovered in Bruno's hair, he is

forced to get all of his hair shaved off. Bruno comments
that he looks like Shmuel, and Shmuel agrees, except
that Bruno is fatter. Bruno's mother eventually
persuades his father to take them back to Berlin and
stay at Out-With without them. Bruno hears that
Shmuel's father has also gone on a march and plans to
help find him before the trip to Germany.

The next day Bruno concocts a plan with Shmuel to

sneak into the camp to look for Shmuel's father. Shmuel
brings a set of prison clothes, and Bruno leaves his own
clothes outside the fence. As they search the camp,
both children are rounded up along with a group of
prisoners to be sent to the gas chamber. Bruno
apologizes to Shmuel that they didn't successfully find

his father, which Shmuel does not have a chance to reply to before the gas is turned
on, and Shmuel and Bruno both die holding hands.

The book concludes with the family's search for the missing Bruno, the finding of his
clothes beside a weak point in the camp fence, and his father's working out what
had happened. Bruno's father is heartbroken, and glad when he is moved away from
the camp.