I have watched many holocaust movies. All of them have certain emotional appeal. But The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is, according to me, takes you to another level of poignancy since the story revolves around two kids of the same age but of different religions. This movie doesn’t show violence. It rather tells us about the friendship and contrasting lives of two children.

The movie plot is based on the (fictional) novel of the same title written by the Irish novelist John Boyne.

In Berlin, the eight years old Bruno’s life is mostly about going to school and playing with his friends comes to a halt when his father the SS officer (Schutzstafflel) is promoted and transferred to a country. Bruno isn’t excited about moving to their new house since he has no one of his age to play with and he’s not allowed to leave his garden. From his bedroom window he spots certain people in the stripped pajamas working behind the barbed wire. Having no idea that they were Jewish prisoner being kept in the concentration camp he misunderstands them for peasants.

He wasn’t allowed by his mother to go their but one day he sneaks out to take a closer look at the people working there. He befriends a Jewish boy of his age called Shmule. They meet at the barbed wire and keep meeting until a fateful day when the lives of SS officer Ralf, mother Elsa and his elder sister Gretel change forever.