History Literature / TheBoyInTheStripedPyjamas

* PrejudiceAesop: The book and movie not only have the standard "persecuting minorities is bad" Aesop, but also that persecuting others can come back to bite you. At the end of both the book and the movie, [[spoiler:Bruno is accidentally gassed, and his father (in the book) realizes he had it coming]].
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Some reviewers of the film and book expressed disbelief that Shmuel would still be alive at the camp, saying that Nazis would gas those who couldn't work first. While the bulk of young imports were processed by the extermination camp, the concentration/work camp part of the complex really did retain some. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_in_the_Striped_Pyjamas_(film)#Reception 600-700 boys around the ages of eight were registered to be alive at that part of the camp during 1944-45]].

* NothingIsScarier: As if [[spoiler:Bruno and Shmuel's fate]] wasn't horrific enough, there's a chilling lack of detail to it in the film, attributed mainly to its PG-13 rating. [[spoiler:Immediately after the deadly gas infiltrates the chamber, the place goes dark and it cuts away. The final shot of the movie is a panning-away shot of the now silent chamber.]]

* OhCrap: Quite a few times during the film:

** At the end of the film Bruno pulls off a brilliant one when he looks up wide eyed as him, Shmuel and the other Jews are about to be gassed to death.

** The ending, when Bruno and Shmuel [[spoiler:are led on the long walk to their demise in the gas chambers and believe they're going for a "shower", although it can be argued that the Jewish soldiers simply made it up so there would be no panic, as well as the implication they had to use a cover story to hide the fact everyone is getting executed]].

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: The book depicts the Holocaust from Bruno's point of view. His [[ChildrenAreInnocent innocence]] tends to cause him to miss the true horrors of what's going on:

** Arguably the most infamous one is the end, when Bruno and Shmuel [[spoiler:are literally led on the long walk to their demise in the gas chambers and believe they're going for a "shower", although it can be argued that the Jewish soldiers simply made it up so there would be no panic, as well as the implication they had to use a cover story to hide the fact everyone is getting executed]].

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Justified, as Bruno and to a lesser extent Shmuel are only 9-year-old (8 in the movie) boys in the Holocaust:
** Bruno thinks Pavel the Jewish manservant is peeling potatoes because he wasn't "qualified" to be a doctor.
** At first, Bruno believes the Jewish inmates living on the camp with Shmuel are "farmers" rather than inmates.
** When Bruno sees the uniforms Shmuel, Pavel and the other Jewish inmates wear for the first time, he thinks they're "pyjamas", and that the tag numbers on them are part of a "game".
** Shmuel refuses to play football with Bruno not out of rudeness but because it's too dangerous, while Bruno sees no problem with it, oblivious that Shmuel is trying to warn him they could get caught.
** Bruno sees the propaganda film his father, grandfather, Kotler and other Nazis are watching, and literally believes the camp is like a place for enjoyment, only for him to see the true picture of the camp near the end of the film.
** Shmuel believes his father is now working mending boots, implying he thinks that's his new job rather than to an extent slavery.
** Arguably the most infamous one is the end, when Bruno and Shmuel [[spoiler:are literally led on the long walk to their demise in the gas chambers and believe they're going for a "shower", although it can be argued that the Jewish soldiers simply made it up so there would be no panic, as well as the implication they had to use a cover story to hide the fact everyone is getting executed]].

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Justified, as Bruno and to a lesser extent Shumel are only 9-year-old (8 in the movie) boys in the Holocaust:

** Shmuel refuses to play football with Bruno not out of rudeness but because it's too dangerous, while Bruno sees no problem with it, oblivious that Shumel is trying to warn him they could get caught.

* ForWantOfANail: Kotler orders Pavel to take Bruno to the back garden despite it being out of bounds to get a tyre for a swing. Had Bruno not suggested he wanted to make a swing, he may not have went to the back garden and discovered he can fit through a shed window that leads him into the woods towards the camp, where he meets and befriends Shumel.

** Shumel's terrified face when Kotler asks him if he been 'stealing' food.

** At the end of the film Bruno pulls off a brilliant one when he looks up wide eyed as him, Shumel and the other Jews are about to be gassed to death.

* TakingTheKids: After Elsa asks why are there ashes falling from the skies, Lt. Kotler jokes about how the ashes are med up of Jews, and when she confronts Ralf about this, he doesn't deny the fact of that his mission as a concentration camp commander includes the extermination of the inmates, which causes Elsa and Rolf to get into screaming matches and [[YouMonster her calling him a monster]]. After Rolf's mother's funeral, Elsa makes the decision that she and the children will leave her husband's house in the countryside and spend the remainder of the war with one of her relatives. When Bruno tells Scmuel that he'll be leaving soon, Bruno has the bright idea to [[spoiler: sneak into the concentration camp for a proper goodbye, gets mistaken for an inmate, and [[TogetherInDeath both boys]] are sent to [[DownerEnding a gas chamber]]]].

** Bruno not knowing ''who Hitler was'' is implausible to say the least. Thanks to the exhaustive efforts of Nazi propaganda, children were taught from the earliest age possible to regard Hitler as a sort of living deity, singing songs of praise for him and wishing good health upon him. At nine years old, Bruno would be legally mandated--and would be taught to be excited--to join the junior branch of Hitler Youth on his next birthday. Also, Bruno's father is an SS officer, the social standing of which would make Hitler's image inescapable.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Bruno, really, is strikingly oblivious. Maybe over-protection can account for some of it, but he apparently can't hear words right or understand that a concentration camp is a bad place to [[spoiler:sneak into]] even when looking right at it. Even when talking to one who is an inmate of it almost every day for a year. This is lampshaded by one of Gretel's friends, who insists he must be six instead of nine.