BRUNO

Bruno is a nine-year-old German boy and the novel’s protagonist. He misses the life and the
friends he left behind in Berlin when his family unexpectedly moved to Poland for his
father’s career. Although Bruno intuitively feels that his family’s new home at Out-With
(Auschwitz) Camp is “the loneliest place in the world,” he does not understand what the
place really is or what goes on there. He doesn’t comprehend why a massive fence stands so
near to the family’s house, or why so many soldiers have been stationed there. Nor does he
understand who the people on the other side of the fence are or why they are all wearing the
same striped pajamas. Though Bruno eventually learns that the fence exists to separate a
group of people known as “Jews” from people like him and his family, the lesson never fully
makes sense to him. To the very end of the novel, when he tragically dies in a Nazi gas
chamber, Bruno remains fundamentally ignorant of the real purpose of Out-With.

Despite remaining unaware of the historical and political context in which he lives, Bruno’s
childlike innocence endows him with an important virtue that other characters in the novel
lack. Namely, Bruno has the capacity to keep an open mind. The adults in the novel all have
settled opinions about what’s occurring at Out-With and in Europe more broadly. Even
Bruno’s sister, Gretel, graduates from playing with dolls to closely tracking Germany’s
progress in the war and mindlessly echoing prejudices against Jews. By contrast, Bruno lacks
preconceived notions about Germans, Jews, and any essential differences between them. It is
precisely this lack of formal prejudice that allows Bruno to befriend Shmuel, the Jewish boy
he meets one day while walking along the fence. Bruno’s friendship with Shmuel provides
the main arc for the development of his character. When the two boys first meet, Bruno is
self-centered and proves unable to really listen to what Shmuel says about his life and
experience. With time, however, Bruno grows increasingly introspective, starts to notice his
own selfish behaviors, and learns to see things through Shmuel’s eyes. Even as the novel
moves toward its tragic conclusion, Bruno demonstrates a powerful sense of empathy with
and responsibility for his friend.

SCHMUEL

shmuel is a young Polish Jew who is a prisoner in Auschwitz. Bruno meets him at a fence
while exploring near his house. Shmuel is in many ways as innocent as Bruno and seems to
not quite understand why he is a prisoner. Shmuel reveals that his mother is a teacher who
speaks German (which she has taught him), French, Italian, and English (which she plans to
teach him). Until the deportation, Shmuel lived with his mother, father, and brother above his
father’s watchmaking shop. He tells Bruno about how he came home from school one day to
find his mother making armbands for the family, which the Nazis forced them to wear. Bruno
has a hard time comprehending some of the stories Shmuel tells him because it seems so
unimaginable to him. Shmuel becomes worried once his father goes missing in the camp and
asks for Bruno’s help in finding him. Bruno’s willingness to help his friend results in both of
them dying at the merciless hands of the Nazis.

Bruno and Shmuel seem to lead parallel yet mutually exclusive lives. They share common
interests, the same birthday, and a similar perspective on life. Their friendship is not just
unlikely; it defies possibility. In a world and a time where people were being told what to
think, whom to hate, and what relationships were acceptable, Bruno and Shmuel demonstrate
how resistant and resilient children can be and how important kindness and compassion are