Shmuel Thesis

“Shmuel may well have opened his mouth to say something back, but Bruno never heard it… as the door at the front was suddenly closed and a loud metallic sound rang through from the outside” (Boyne 213). The Holocaust was a tragic event that happened all throughout Europe from 1933-1945. The Nazi’s would take Jews or any other person who could potentially hurt them and hold them captive. There were concentration camps that held these people. They were forced to work long hard days with little food and water. If one person did something wrong or out of order the soldiers had harsh punishments waiting for them. Many people died from hunger, malnutrition and other diseases that were found in the camps (History.com). In the book The Boy in the Striped

“What’s happening?” whispered Bruno. ‘What’s going on?’ ‘It happens sometimes,’ said Shmuel. ‘They make people go on marches’” (Boyne 210). These marches are not just marches they are called ‘Death Marches,’ they take the Jews to gas chambers and burn them so that they can keep gaining more Jews just to kill them off. Each and every day that Bruno went to visit Shmuel he not only put himself in danger but he put Shmuel in danger by denying their friendship when Shmuel was caught. Bruno felt so bad for what he had done to Shmuel that he decided he would help Shmuel find his papa. Although, this was on the opposite side of the fence. Bruno crawled under the fence to help Shmuel and after a good amount of time Bruno wanted to go home but before he could they were swept away into the “Death

Bruno’s family felt the pain to lose a loved and close person, what about all of the other families who were torn apart, bruno’s family only cared about themselves. Bruno’s naivety however was a bad thing because it had lead him right into the light, and also because it made reading this book more complicated than it should be. Bruno was just 1 of the 6 million people killed during this time, Bruno wasn’t even supposed to be one of them (ushmm.org). Bruno should have known what was happening all around him, one simple lesson could have saved his life. People aren't always going to be to have your