memorize quotes mills

superior and hubristic beliefs - Bruno`s father

“Those people, they’re not people at all Bruno” (P. 53).

extreme nationalism enforced onto kids at a young age - Bruno

“Well, because Germany is the greatest of all countries,” before adding, “we’re superior” (P. 112).

overcrowding - Shmuel

“There are thousands of us” (P. 151).

• fear and uncertainty experienced by prisoners

• many families lost loved ones without ever knowing what happened to them

• they suffered immense physical suffering and emotional pain at the hands of the Nazis.

- Bruno

“And yesterday he told me that his grandfather hasn’t been seen for days and no one knows where he is and whenever he asks his father about him he starts crying and hugs him so hard that he’s worried he’s going to squeeze him to death” (P. 158).

Implies that Pavel is suffering from starvation

“He (Pavel) seemed to grow smaller and smaller each week”(P. 142).

great effort was made to find Bruno, while missing Jewish prisoners were ignored and treated as disposable - author

“the soldiers had searched every part of the house and gone into all the local towns and villages with pictures of the little boy” (P. 214).

• Bruno’s body could not be identified because he was dressed the same as the Jewish prisoners

  • there is no real difference between the two boys despite the Nazis’ hateful beliefs

- author

“It was as if he had just vanished off the face of the earth and left his clothes behind him” (P. 214).

• shows how deeply Nazi ideologies influenced the German society, especially children who had accepted these beliefs without questioning them

• by describing Germans as the opposite of Jews, it suggests that the Jewish people were viewed as inferior and unwanted by the Germans.

- gretel

“We’re the opposite” (P. 183).

• the Jewish people lost all their previous statuses and titles

• the Nazis would use all the prisoners as common labour no matter their previous occupations

- Pavel

“Before I came here, I practiced as a doctor” (P. 83).

shows discrepancy between germans and jews

Bruno observes “happy, laughing, shouting soldiers in their uniforms” beside “unhappy, crying people in their striped pajamas” (P. 208).

desolate environment

“There wasn’t any grass after the fence, in fact there was no greenery anywhere to be seen in the distance” (P. 32).