The end of the book is actually really shocking and needs some time to be handled. Though what happens to Bruno and Shmuel is not described explicitly, everyone who knows about the historical facts and the Final Solution can guess what happens with the two boys standing in the dark room and holding hands - a great symbol of friendship and trust.

When Bruno and Shmuel think up their great adventure - Bruno enter the area behind the fence and the two boys would explore the area - it seems clear that something extraordinary, whether good or bad, would happen. Since Bruno still does not know that the area fascinating him is a concentration camp, he is not aware of the dangers. Neither Bruno nor Shmuel can guess what had happened to Shmuel's father who had suddenly disappeared forever.

If Bruno had known about what his father's job was about and what a concentration camp was, the ending might have been different - but the story not as touching and meaningful. The two boys, born on the same day, thus being "nearly" twins, share the same destiny from the day they meet on. Being born on the same day in the same year carries huge symbolic meaning and kind of foreshadows that their lives - and passing aways - are linked together. Yet, since they are just innocent children, the end also points out cruel and unreflected the "nazi" ideology was.

The narrator finally concludes: "Of course all this happened a long time ago  and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age." It's a wish and a hope. Yet, it is necessary to not forget what had happened so that nothing like this would ever happen again. This also means that we need people who know more about the ideology behind the events as well as about prejudices and xenophobia in general.
And one should never forget that in other parts of the Earth, further cruel human rights abuse still exists.

After reading the book, I am also thinking about watching the movie soon.

This statement portraits perfectly what the novel is about. Bruno, feeling very lonely, starts exploring the area around the house - though he is not allowed to do so at all, "With No Exceptions". Bruno had already seen from his window that a group of male humans were living on the other side of  a fence. One day he reaches the fence and meets another boy, called Shmuel. He is wearing striped pyjamas which, just as the armband with the star on it and the boy's name and the fact that both boys were born on the same day, April 15, 1934, surprises Bruno.

The two boys start talking, and especially Bruno appears quite unknowing. He does not know about Concentration Camps, the Holocaust and the Final Solution. Only does he seem to be happy to have found a "friend" right in the middle of what had appeared to him as nowhere. Divided by a fence, two boys are making friends who were, from the ideological point of view of that time, not supposed to meet or talk or even stay close together. In their innocent way, the two children demonstrate that their is no "real" difference between them seeing them simply as human beings who can be friends - with the exception that Shmuel is marked as a Jew and has an uncertain future, maybe non at all. Bruno does not know about the ideology of the "Nationalsozialismus", thus encounters Shmuel open-mindedly and does not realize any difference between them. This points out quite clearly that the whole ideology was not based on any real evidence - and explains the statement " in a world of ignorance".

The pictures are taken from the film that had been produced on the basis of the book.

When Bruno's father gets a new "very important" job, the family, comprising Bruno, his sister Gretel and their parents, as well as maid Maria, leave Berlin and move to a new house.
Bruno is nine years old and his sister, whom he calls a "Hopeless Case", three years older. Bruno does not know what kind of job his father is doing, but during the course of the book, he always points out that he is sure that his father is a good man who would never do anything wrong or unethical.
Moving into a solitary house which appears to be miles away from "civilization", Bruno is not sure what to think about his new home. He starts calling it "Out-With". This name reflects how Bruno is feeling: lonely and far away from other children to play with thus missing his friends from Berlin.