In John Boyne's novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, an important relationship is the one between Bruno and Shmuel. This relationship helped me to understand a key message, which is how hard it was to survive as a Jewish person in World War Two. While most of the Jewish people were running and hiding for their lives, Shmuel had unfortunately already been captured and sent to Auschwitz with not much hope of escaping. While Shmuel was scared to death Bruno was as happy as could be, playing in the streets with his friends all day. This has helped me to understand some of the poor and cruel events Jewish people had to go through in order to survive compared to the Germans which I think was horrible. Unfortunately there were a lot of children in similar situations to Shmuel who didn’t know what was happening around them.
While Auschwitz is no place for children to grow up, and Bruno has also been through many painful weeks of isolation from other teenagers, Bruno has still made Out-With (Auschwitz) his home. When Bruno was forced to leave Berlin because of his Fathers new job he also left behind his friends and family; although this was difficult for Bruno he still thrived at Auschwitz by cultivating a relationship with Shmuel. The two boys would meet each other at the same place in the fence each day not knowing that they were supposed to hate each other because of their ethnicity, ‘''Ah, those people,' said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. 'Those people ... well, they're not people at all, Bruno.''’ (Boyne p.53.) This helped me to understand a key message of the vile hate Hitler and the Nazis had for Jewish people. I think the standards set for Bruno to hate Jewish people are terrible, I’d hate being punished for having friends of a certain religion or race.
At first the relationship between Bruno and Shmuel, like every other relationship, is weak, as Bruno is a very curious person and Shmuel is a very fearful person, ‘'I've never spoken to him,’ said Bruno immediately. ‘I’ve never seen him before in my life. I don’t know him.” (Boyne, p.172.) From this quote you can tell that Bruno and Shmuel's relationship isn’t very strong as Bruno wasn’t prepared to admit his friendship with Shmuel, he was hoping to avoid being punished as he was scared of what Lt. Kotler would have done. Even though Shmuel has been forced through many painful things like being pulled out of his home and then being put into Ghettos and being transported to different places without having time to think about what's going on. Even this small act has helped me understand what the Jewish people had to go through to survive in such cruel circumstances.
Later we see the relationship between Bruno and Shmuel blossom and get stronger as they tell each other about their life stories, “Before we came here I lived with my mother and father and my brother Josef in a small flat above the store where Papa makes his watches.” (Boyne, p.126.) This quote shows how the two children are evolving their relationship by sharing their life stories with each other. This has helped me to understand how even two people whose countries are at war with each other can still be friends. I think that the way the two boys have bonded is great as they're supposed to hate each other.
At the end of the novel, we see that their relationship is now stronger than ever as Bruno is preparing to risk his life intending to find Shmuel's father on the other side of the fence, ”Bruno had an urge to give Shmuel a hug, just to let him know how much he liked him and how much he'd enjoyed talking to him over the past years.” (Boyne, p.206.) This quote has helped me to understand the strong bond between the two children that has been formed over the past years. I think that very few things would be able to fracture Bruno and Shmuel’s relationship because of how strong it is.
Through the novel, the relationship between Bruno and Shmuel develops from being weak and fragile to being strong and sturdy due to the many things the boys went through together. For instance both the boys were isolated from having fun with other children their age which ended in strengthening their connection as their friendship was rare. This relationship helped me understand a key message in the novel, that the Jewish people were substantially discriminated against throughout the Holocaust. In my opinion, the vile conditions that the Jewish people were forced to go through in order to survive were inhumane and disgusting. I don’t think anyone should be forced to go through what the Jewish people endured.
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