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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Bruno, an eight-year-old German boy living in Berlin, is uprooted to occupied Poland with his family after his father Ralf, an SS officer, is promoted. The boy notices an extermination camp from his bedroom window, but believes it to be a farm. His mother Elsa forbids him from going in the back garden.
Ralf arranged for Herr Liszt, a private tutor, to home school Bruno and his elder sister, Gretel. Liszt's anti-semitic teachings and Gretel's crush on her father's subordinate, Lieutenant Kurt Kotler, make her a fanatical Nazi supporter. Bruno struggles to absorb the racist rhetoric after Pavel, a doctor-turned-family slave, tends to a minor injury Bruno suffers. Bruno's explorations of nearby woods takes him to a barbed wire fence surrounding the camp where he befriends Shmuel, a boy his age. They meet at the fence regularly, and Bruno learns Shmuel is a Jew brought to the camp with his parents. Bruno sneaks him food.
Kurt inadvertently reveals to Elsa that the smell from the camp is from the crematoria, and she angrily confronts her husband. When Kurt reveals his father left Germany for Switzerland to avoid national service, Ralf berates him, and Kurt in turn beats Pavel for spilling a glass of wine. Ralf later informs his family of Kurt's transfer to the Eastern Front but Elsa realises the real reason for his transfer was his refusal to renounce his father.
Bruno sees Shmuel working in his home and offers him cake. Kurt finds them talking and berates Shmuel. After seeing him eating, Shmuel informs Kurt that Bruno offered the cake, which he fearfully denies. Later, Bruno tries to apologise to Shmuel, but he does not reappear at the fence for several days. A short time after, Bruno clandestinely watches his father and other officers reviewing a propaganda film depicting the camp's conditions as positive. Shmuel eventually reappears at the fence, but with visible injuries. Bruno apologises to Shmuel, who forgives him.
Ralf's mother Nathalie, who disapproves of the Nazi regime, is killed by an Allied bombing raid on Berlin. At the funeral, Elsa tries to remove a wreath from the Führer out of respect for Nathalie and her beliefs. Ralf stops her, and they quarrel. Elsa informs Ralf she does not want the children living in the vicinity of the camp and Ralf tells Bruno and Gretel their mother is taking them to live with their extended family until the war is over. Bruno visits Shmuel before he leaves, and on learning Shmuel's father has disappeared from a work party, decides to help Shmuel find him. Shmuel provides Bruno with a prisoner's striped outfit and cap, but they're captured by the guards after Bruno digs into camp under the fence.
Gretel and Elsa burst into Ralf's office during a meeting when they realise Bruno is missing. A search dog tracks Bruno's scent to his discarded clothing by the wire. Ralf enters the camp as a group of prisoners are processed in a gas chamber for extermination by pesticide gas. Bruno and Shmuel have been killed, leaving Ralf, Elsa, and Gretel devastated.