WARTIME LETTER

Dear Natalie,

It has been one week since I left home and I already miss you. I have no idea how much time is going to take for the War to end. We arrived at the trench yesterday and the situation here it’s horrible. As soon as I got here I could smell the horrible smell of dead bodies, smelly soldiers, gas, and smoke. Everyone says I’ll get used to the smell, and I hope so, otherwise I’ll die. Las night was horrible, I was trying to sleep, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Also, I couldn’t sleep because of the constant booming and banging from both sides and I sleep in a very uncomfortable bunk. I have to admit that I’m scared, random bullets firing at us, bombs exploding, every day there are men dying. Every day we are climbing the trenches to attack the enemies’ trenches hoping that I don’t get killed. I’ll always have you in my heart just wait for me to get back.

I love you,
Alan

BOOK REPORT "THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS"

This novel is about the point of view of 9 year-old boy during the World War II. The book starts with Bruno living in Berlin. Bruno was a very curious guy, like most of the kids of his age he liked to explore. He lived in a huge beautiful house where he had lots of fun exploring it every day. He also has a 12 year-old sister named Gretel although she was very annoying. Bruno disliked her attitude because she was not only annoying, but she also acted like someone older, like a 16 year-old girl. Bruno´s parents were total different to each other, his father was an officer that worked for “The Fury” (Adolf Hitler), he liked his job because he always wanted to serve his country, but he also cared a lot about Bruno and Gretel. On the other hand, Bruno’s mom was very nice, and sweet, she wasn’t as strict as the father, but she also lover Bruno and Gretel very much. In the house they lived they were also servants, Bruno liked them very much and sometimes enjoyed spending some time with them.

The interesting part of the book comes when “The Fury” comes to Bruno’s home to have dinner. They all had a nice talk and enjoyed dinner, but later Bruno and Gretel got bored because they were kids and didn’t cared a lot of what the adults were talking about. That night “The Fury” promoted Bruno’s father to Commandant, but they have to move away to a place called Auschwitz. As soon as they moved Bruno got impressed by the house because it was smaller and uglier that the older house, he didn’t like that house at all. Every afternoon Bruno would get really bored because there wasn’t anything that he could explore. One day he made a swing with a tire that got from the help Kurt Kotler. Kotler worked for Bruno’s father and he was very rude, he treated Jews like trash. Bruno hated when Gretel was with him because she wanted to act older, flirt with him and that was the time when she would get the most annoying. After making the swing, it was the first time Bruno was having fun, but it didn’t last long because the rope broke and he fell and got hurt. Then Pavel, the waiter that worked for Bruno’s family, went with him and helped him. He got Bruno in the house and cured his leg that got hurt. Then Bruno’s mother came and found out what happened, most of the Nazis would have done something bad to Pavel for touching Bruno, but because the mother was really sweet she only thanked Pavel for helping Bruno. One day he was bored at his house, and he noticed through the window a group of people wearing the same striped pyjamas but because he was just a kid he didn’t understand who they were and where they were. The reality is that those people were at a concentration camp and they were wearing uniforms. At that camp there were only Jews, and they were treated really bad with no mercy, and there were a lot people killed every day. Even though Gretel also was young she could understand the situation because of their teacher. Gretel and Bruno, they were both doing homeschool with the same teacher, but they only learned some subjects like math, history, geography, and Bruno didn’t like any of them he liked poetry and literature better. That’s why Bruno didn’t learn very much because he wasn’t very interested in those subjects, but Gretel started liking them and then the teacher started telling her about the situation. As Bruno liked to explore, he was very brave and when he saw those people with the striped pyjamas he wanted to find out who they were. So one day he found out a way to escape from his house and he did it. He walked for long time next to a fence but he didn’t find anything. He was like a explorer so he kept on walking until he gave up, it was getting late and he had to get home for dinner so he said he was going back tomorrow. And he did, he walked again next to the fence until he saw this little kid named Schmuel. Bruno was kind of nice to him even though he was Jewish, but of course Bruno didn’t understand that difference between Jews and Nazis. They talked for a long time, Schmuel was the same age as Bruno bur he did understand the whole situation because he was at a concentration camp, and he explained Bruno he and his family got kicked out of his house and got sent here, but what Schmuel wanted was to be with his father. Bruno thought it was fun to live in a concentration camp because there were a lot of kids that he could play with, but he didn’t know they were mistreated only Schmuel knew that. Then Bruno got back to his house because it was getting late, but he felt very happy because he made a new friend and he could have fun talking to him every day. After a lot of meetings between Schmuel and Bruno they became best friends and they started to meet there almost every day. Everything was normal until one day the mother persuades the father to take them back to Berlin. One day before going back to Berlin, Bruno goes as a final adventure with Schmuel but he got in the concentration camp to help Schmuel find his father. Bruno got one striped pyjamas and went with Schmuel to help find his father, but Bruno had no idea he was getting in a concentration camp not even he could get hurt. After looking for him for a long time they got mixed with another group of Jew. It also started raining and they still couldn’t find Schmuel’s father. Bruno wanted to go home because of the rain but because he was a good explorer he was brave and kept on looking for Schumel’s father. Just about he was going to give up and go home, they got in a march and then finally got into a gas chamber, he was very innocent and he assumed it was to keep dry during the rain, but like we all know it was for killing Jews. Then the end comes when Bruno and Schmuel hold hands in the gas chamber, it was very dark and we all know what happened next. Bruno’s father looked for him for a whole year but he only found Bruno’s clothes next to the fence. His mother thought he went back to Berlin by himself and she expected he was going to be there when she got to their home in Berlin but Bruno wasn’t there. Gretel kept crying because she missed his brother very much and no one could find him because he was dead. Bruno’s father got really depressed for losing Bruno and stops caring about his job, the Red Army arrived few months later to liberate the people from the concentration camps, but they also ordered Bruno’s father and other Nazis to go with them. He went without complaining because he didn’t mind what they did to him anymore.