The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Shmuel is a Jewish boy from Cracow, Poland who shares the same birthday with Bruno. In many ways, Shmuel is a counterpart to Bruno’s character. Even though they are born on the same day, their lives have been very different: Shmuel was forced to leave his home—first for cramped, filthy living quarters in a ghetto, and then for a concentration camp, where his family is separated. Shmuel is shorter than Bruno; he is very thin, and his skin is grey in color because of the unhealthy living conditions.

Thanks to the fact that his mother was a teacher, Shmuel can speak German, which makes it possible for the two boys to communicate. As opposed to Bruno, Shmuel has no illusions about the reality in which he lives: he is one of many thousands of Jews wasting away in Auschwitz, living in appalling conditions, starving, and dying in gas chambers. Although he is reluctant to admit to himself that the disappearance of his father and grandfather means they are dead, crucially he shows full awareness of the realities of war. He often shows bruising from beatings he receives from the German soldiers. While Bruno, even when he notices the bruises, somehow manages to avoid the truth, Shmuel appears resigned to it. Shmuel is a counterpart to Bruno in that he experiences the atrocities of war firsthand, and he contains within himself all the realizations about the cruelty of the real world that Bruno rejects. Their death in the gas chamber, while holding hands and professing eternal friendship, emphasizes the complementary polarity of their existences, and the author uses Shmuel’s character as a foil to Bruno’s protagonist. 

Bruno’s father, Ralf, is a commandant in Hitler’s army. A hero from World War I, Ralf is loyal to the party and the Nazi regime, which is why Hitler personally chooses him to head the Auschwitz concentration camp. He is a stern man, whom Bruno adores and respects, and he is an excellent army leader. However, he also shows a softer side. The family’s maid, Maria, tells Bruno how his father saved her family from starvation and gave them all jobs. Additionally, after a year in Auschwitz, Ralf accepts his wife’s wishes that she should move back to Berlin with the children, even though this may create an unfavorable image for him in the Nazi regime. In fact, both Maria and his own mother Nathalie question how he is able to accept the position he has, knowing his nature.

Within the novel’s structure, Bruno’s father plays an ambiguous role: On the one hand, he is clearly the villain because he orchestrates deaths of thousands of people every day; but on the other, he is Bruno’s father, a man who obviously cares for his family. The author uses this ambivalence to position Ralf as instrumental in his son’s tragic fate by making him the one who shaves Bruno’s head, thus enabling him to sneak into the camp. His child’s death destroys the man, and by the end of the novel, he has renounced his career and does not care what happens to him. The terrible truth remains, however, that he contributes to the death not only of his own son, but also to so many other unnamed deaths. 

Kotler is a 19-year-old soldier who serves as Father’s assistant. He is tall and lean and has yellow-blond hair; his looks represent the Aryan ideal. He serves as the story’s antagonist because he is casually cruel to prisoners and animals. For example, Bruno observes him killing a dog for no reason. Kotler humiliates Bruno by calling him “little man,” which the boy hates, and he seemingly enters into an illicit relationship with Bruno’s mother. However, the most terrifying thing Kotler does happens because he lets slip during dinner with Bruno’s family that his father is a professor of literature who left Germany for Switzerland before the war in protest against Hitler. Realizing that his status will forever change because of this fact, as it reveals he is not the perfect Aryan model, Kotler vents his rage by killing Pavel after he accidentally spills wine on the soldier. The brutality of his act remains unexpressed in the novel, because form Bruno’s perspective this is not something he can accept and process. Nevertheless, it is clear that Pavel dies a horrible death at Kotler’s hands.

Kotler represents the near-perfect German soldier, one who is blind to the suffering of others, obeys orders, and enjoys sadism. His removal from the camp comes only because of his father’s “sin,” not because of his cruelty to others.