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journal #1

As I came home from school, I found Marie packing my stuff into my suitcase. I was outraged. Who let her go through my personal belongings. I told her to not touch my belongings but she did not stop and shook her head. Mother brang me downstairs said we are moving temporarily to another house for fathers new military job. I never really knew what his jobs was but mother said it was very important to him and whoever he worked for.

I am going to miss Daniel, Martin, Karl. I don’t understand why we have to leave. I made so many great memories here I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t have enough time to say goodbye though because we were such in a rush. Like playing tag with my friends, playing soccer in the front yard  and going swimming in the lake during the hot summer days. The car ride was so long and boring. Dad said I would like the new house. It looked like we were in the middle of now were.

The new house was nothing like our house in Berlin. It was smaller,  isolated, and had a wire fence surrounding the property. I didn’t feel safe and it gave me the creeps just staring at it. The thing that made it worst was that there was no one around to play with. Unlike my previous house where there were other houses and people nearby that I could talk to But not here. I miss home

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Journal #2

Its been a while since we’ve moved. I really mis my friends and school. There is nothing fun to do here. Gretel is to busy playing with her dolls. The only interesting thing to do is explore outside home, the fence of our house. It is super tall and wrapped with barbed wire. The only way to get to the other side is to climb thru the window of the shed. Mother says it’s not safe and to never to go on the other side of the fence because of dangerous. but Im curious as to whats over there. And I’m happy I did.  

On the other side is a whole other world. There is a road that takes me to a lake with fish swimming in it. I tried to catch some of them but they were too fast for me.  I walked in the sun to dry off my shorts for a while but it seem like forever. It had been a long time of me being outside home. As I leaving back home I saw a little boy. He seemed very sad. His name is shmuel. He is eight years old just like me. He told me how to get to the farm.

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journal #3

Ive been meeting Shmuel almost everyday after mother goes to run errands. Each time I see him he seems to get weaker everyday. I always bring him snack because he seems hungry. I was passing by to go to my room, but then I see Shmuel. He’s in my kitchen cleaning mothers glass set. He said lieutenant kotler brang him over to help clean. Shmuel seemed very hungry so I offered him so left overs from the fridge. While me and Shmuel are talking lieutenant kotler walks by and starts yelling at Shmuel. He asks if he had stole the food. Shmuel tells the truth about me giving it to him. lieutenant kotler asks me if he was telling the truth, and I said no.  I was so scared that I lied.

I told Lieutenant I have never seen him in my life. He looked back at Shmuel, grabbed him aggressively and took him out of the kitchen.

I couldn’t believe what I had just done to my only friend. I felt so guilty I couldn’t go to sleep that night. I didn’t know what he was going to do to Shmuel.

The next day I went to the fence but he wasn’t there. I was worried about him until two weeks later when I saw him all bruised and beat up. I told him I was truly sorry. I didn’t expect him to forgive me but he did. 

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journal #4

Its been quite a while since we’ve moved from berlin. Dad has decided that it would be better for me and Gretel to move somewhere else. I do not want to move again. Dad said he would be staying because he is still needed.  I’ve finally made a friend and I don’t want lose a friend again. I didn’t know how to tell Shmuel. I don’t want to Shmuel to feel bad. I told the day before I go that I will be leaving. He said his father had been missing. The last time he saw him was a week ago. Shmuel seemed very sad and terrified  so I decided I would help. I promised Shmuel that I would dress up in striped pajamas and go inside the fence to help him look  for his father before we left back to Berlin on Saturday. It would be the last time we would talk together but it was the first time we would have actually played with each other. I was very excited about tomorrow. I knew it would be a great day and a great way to say goodbye. I hope we find Shmuel’s father and they are reunited.

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Historical websites

#1 - https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/

#2 - https://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Holocaust/websites.html

#3 - http://remember.org/

#4 - http://www.auschwitz.dk/

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Websites relating to the book

#1 - https://bookpage.com/reviews/4855-john-boyne-boy-striped-pajamas-teen#.XGaIx89Ki5w

#2 - https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/boyinthestripedpajamas/

#3 - http://www.filmjournal.com/film-review-boy-striped-pajamas

#4 - http://www.cbn.com/entertainment/screen/elliottb_boyinstripedpajamas.aspx?mobile=false&u=1

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"They're very far away of course, but it looks like there are hundreds. All wearing the striped pajamas." (17.1160)

Here, Bruno explains to his father what he's seen from his window. This is the first time in which his father realizes that Auschwitz might not be the best place for a kid to grow up. Uh, you think? We're amazed it took him over a year to come up with that brilliant opinion.

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"I'd prefer for all of us to stay together." (17. 1154)

When Bruno's father asks whether the children want to go back to Berlin, Bruno gives this surprising answer. After all the complaining, he's actually happy where he is, the main reason being that now he's got Shmuel in his life. Blood, it seems, isn't always thicker than water.

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"A home is not a building or a street or a city or something so artificial as bricks and mortar a home is where one's family is, isn't that right?" (5.246)

This quote shows Bruno's father asks him this poignant question when Bruno says that he wants to leave their new house and go back to Berlin. Thing is, though, Bruno's father is hardly ever at home, his mother's often unconscious, and Gretel wants nothing to do with her little brother. So, yeah—not the strongest argument in defense of the Auschwitz house, Dad.

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"Who are all those people? […] And what are they all doing there?" (4.190)"

Bruno asks this question out loud to himself when he sees the prisoners for the first time on the other side of the fence. At this point in the novel, he does not know that the majority of them are Jews (nor does he realize that he is no longer in Germany).

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Relevant images 

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Personal narrative

“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” is a novel written by John Boyne. The novel begins in Germany during the 19640’s. A young boy named Bruno comes home from school and finds the maid packing his things. He learns that his family has been forced to relocate from Berlin because of his dad’s new military position. Adding to his problems, the family’s new house is smaller than their previous house, and isolated were little Bruno has nothing to do or no one to play with, plus the property is surrounded by a wired fence. On the other side of the fence is the Auschwitz concentration camp that Bruno can see from his bedroom window. It makes him feel unsafe and weirded that they are all wearing the same striped pajamas. After a few weeks, Bruno decides to make a tire swing and gets help from Lieutenant Kotler and Pavel but then falls off and hurts himself.  A short time later, Bruno begins exploring the wire fence that divides his family’s property from the concentration camp. Bruno comes across a little boy in striped pajamas sitting on the ground on the other side of the fence. The boy’s name is Shmuel and he and Bruno share a birthday. Shmuel explains what happened to his family before coming to the camp. They become friends immediately and see each other almost every single day. Soon after, Bruno is shocked to see Shmuel in the kitchen cleaning the fancy crystal glasses owned by his mother. Shmuel gets in trouble when Lieutenant Kotler catches him eating a piece of chicken Bruno gave him. Bruno afraid to tell the truth, lies and lets Kotler think he stole the chicken. To make it up to Shmuel for lying about the chicken, Bruno enters the camp dressed up in pajamas to help him look for his missing father. Unfortunately they don’t find his father. Just as Bruno is about to head home he find’s himself in the middle of large group of people, surrounded by soldiers and forced to march into a small building.Once inside the gas chamber, Bruno and Shmuel hold hands as people begin to panic. Unfortunately we know the ending is not going to be happy. Bruno dies in the gas chamber with Shmuel which is discovered a year later by his father.

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timeline