THE BOYS IN THE STRIPED PAJA

The Haircut

It had been almost a year since Bruno had come home to find Maria

packing his things, and his memories of life in Berlin had almost all faded

away. When he thought back he could remember that Karl and Martin were

two of his three best friends for life, but try as he might he couldn't remember

who the other one was. And then something happened that meant that for two

days he could leave Out-With and return to his old house: Grandmother had

died and the family had to go home for the funeral.

While he was there, Bruno realized he wasn't quite as small as he had

been when he left because he could see over things that he could't see over

before, and when they stayed in their old house he could look through the

window on the top floor and see across Berlin without having to stand on

tiptoes.

Bruno hadn't seen his grandmother since leaving Berlin but he had thought

about her every day. The things he remembered most about her were the

productions that she and he and Gretel performed at Christmas and birthdays

and how she always had the perfect costume to suit whatever role she played.

When he thought that they would never be able to do that again it made him

very sad indeed.

The two days they spent in Berlin were also very sad ones. There was

the funeral, and Bruno and Gretel and Father and Mother and Grandfather

in the front row, the Father's wearing his most impressive uniform, the starched

and pressed one with the decorations. Father was particularly sad, Mother

told Bruno, because he had fought with Grandmother and they hadn't made it

up before she died.

There were a lot of wreaths delivered to the church and Father was

proud of the fact that one of them had been sent by the Fury, but when Mother

heard she said that Grandmother would turn in her grave if she knew it was

there's.

Bruno felt almost glad when they returned to Out-With. The house there

had become his home now and he'd stopped worrying about the fact that it

had only three floors rather than five, and it didn't both him so much that the

soldiers came and went as if they owned the place. It slowly dawned on him

that things weren't too bad there after all, especially since he'd met Shmuel.

He knew that there were many things he should be happy about, like the fact

that Father and Mother seem cheerful all the time now and Mother didn't

have to take as many of her after naps or medical sherries. Gretel

was going through a phase-Mother's words-and tended to keep out of his

way.

There was also the fact that Lieutenant Kotler had been transferred away

from Out-With and wasn't around to make Bruno feel angry and upset all the

times. (His department had come about very suddenly and there had been a lot

of shutting between Father and Mother about it late at night, but he was gone,

that was for sure, and he wasn't coming back; Gretel was inconsolable.) That

was something else to be happy about: no one called him 'little man' any

more.

But the best thing was that he had a friend called Shmuel.

He enjoyed walking along the fence every afternoon and was pleasured to

see that his friend looked a lot happier these days and his eyes did not see

so sunken, though his body was still ridiculously skinny and his face

unpleasantly gray.

One day, while sitting opposite him at their usual place, Bruno remembered,

'This is the strongest friendship I've ever had.'

'Why?' shmuel Asked.

'Cause every other boy I've ever been friends with has been someone

that I've been able to play with, ' he replied. 'And we never get to play

togetherness. All we get to do is sit here and talk.'

'I like sitting here and talking, ' said Shmuel.

'Well, I do too of course, ' said Bruno. 'But it's a pity we can't do

something more exciting from time to time. A bit of exploring, perhaps. Or a

game of football. We've never even seen each other without all this wire

fencing in the way.'

Bruno often made comments like this because he wanted to pretend that

the incident a few months early when he had denied his friendship with

Shmuel had never taken place. It still preyed on his mind and made him feel

bad about himself, enough Shmuel, to his credit, seen to have forgotten

all about it.

'Maybe someday we will, ' said Shmuel. 'If they ever let us out.'

Bruno started to think more and more about the two sides of the fence

the reason it was there in the first place. He considered speaking to Father or

Mother about it but suspected that they would either be angry with him for mentioning it or tell him something unexpected about Shmuel and his family,

so instead he did something quite unusual. He decided to talk to the Hopeless

Case.

Gretel's room had changed quite considerably since the last time he had

been there's. For one thing there wasn't a single doll in sight. One after a

month or so earlier, around the time that Lieutenant Kotler had left Out-With,

Gretel had decided that she didn't like dolls any more and had put them all

into four large bags and throw them away. In their place she had hung up

maps of Europe that Father had given her, and every day she put little pins

into them and moved the pins around consistently after consulting the daily

newspapers. Bruno thought she might be going mad. But still, she didn't tease

him or bully him as much as she used to, so he thought there could be no harm

in talking to her.

'Hello, ' he said, knocking politely on her door because he knows how

angry she always got if she just went in.

'What do you want?' asked Gretel, who was sitting at her dressing table,

experimenting with her hair.

'Nothing, ' said Bruno. 'Then go away'

Bruno nodded but came inside anyway and sat down on the side of the

bed. Gretel watched him from out of the side of her eyes but didn't say

anything.

'Gretel, ' he said finally, 'can I ask you something?'

'If you make it quick, ' she said.

'Everything here at Out-With-' he began, but she interrupted him

'It's not called Out-With, Bruno, ' she said angry, as if this was the worst

mistake anyone had ever made in the history of the world. 'Why can't you

the pronounce it right?'

'It is called Out-With, ' he protested.

'It's not, ' she insisted, pronouncing the name of the camp correctly for

him.

Bruno frowned and shrugged his shoulders at the same time. 'But that's

what I said, ' he said.

'No it's not. Anyway, I'm not going to Argue with you, ' said Gretel, losing

her patience already, for she had very little of it to begin with. 'What is it

anyways? What do you want to know?' I want to know about the fence, ' he said firmly, deciding that this was the most important thing to begin with. 'I 'I

want to know why it's there.'

Gretel turned round in her chair and looked at him curiously. 'You mean '

you don't know?' she asked.

'No, ' said Bruno. 'I don't understand why we're not allowed on the other

the side of it. What's so wrong with us that we can't go over there and play?'

Gretel stared at him and then suddenly started laughing, only stopping

when she saw that Bruno was being perfectly serious.

'Bruno,' she said in a childish voice, as if this was the most obvious thing

in the world, 'the fence isn't there to stop us from going over there. It's to stop

them from coming over here.'

Bruno considered this but it didn't make things any clearer. 'But why?' he

askeds.

'Cause they have to be kept together, ' explained Gretel.

'With their families, you mean?'

'Well, yes, with their families. But with their own kind too.'

'What do you mean, they own kind?'

Gretel sighed and shook her head. 'With the Other Jews, Bruno. Didn't you

know that's? That's why they have to be kept together. They can't mix with us.'

'Jews, ' said Bruno, testing the word out. He quite liked the way it

soundeds. 'Jews, ' he repeated. 'All the people over that side of the fence are

Jewesses.'

'Yes, that's right, ' said Gretel.

'Are we Jews?'

Gretel opened her mouth wide, as if she had been slapped in the face.

'No, Bruno, ' she said. 'No, we most especially are not. And you shouldn't even

say something like that.'

'But why not? What are we then?'

'We're.' by Gretel, but then she had to stop to think about it. 'We're...'

she repeated, but she wasn't quite sure what the answer to this question really

was. 'Well we're not Jews, ' she said finally

'I know we're not, ' said Bruno in frustration. 'I'm asking you, if we're not

What are we instead?'

'We're the opposites, ' said Gretel, answering quickly and sounding a lot

more satisfied with this answer. 'Yes, that's it. We're the opposites.'

'All right, ' said Bruno, please that he had it settled in his head at last.

'And the Opposite live on this side of the fence and the Jews live on that.

That's right, Bruno.'

'Don't the Jews like the Opposite then?'

'No, it's us who don't like them, stupid.'

Bruno frowned's. Gretel had been told time and time again that she wasn't

allowed to call him stupid but still she persisted with it.

'Well, why don't we like them?' he asked.

'Cause they're Jews, ' said Gretel.

'I see's. And the Opposite and the Jews don't get along.'

'No, Bruno, ' said Gretel, but she said this slowly because she had

discovered something unusual in her hair and was examining it carefully.

'Well, can't someone just get them together and-'

Bruno was interrupted by the sound of Gretel breaking into a piercing

scream; one that woke Mother up from her after nap and brought her

running into the bedroom to find out which of her children had broken the

other one's.

While experimenting with her hair Gretel had found a tiny egg, no bigger

than the top of a pin. She showed it to Mother, who looked through her hair,

pulling strands of it apart quickly, before marching over to Bruno and doing

the same thing to him.

'Oh, I don't believe it, ' said Mother angry. 'I know something like this

would happen in a place like this.'

It turned out that both Gretel and Bruno had lice in their hair, and Gretel

had to be treated with a special shampoo that smelled terrible and

afterwards she sat in her room for hours on end, crying her eyes out.

Bruno had the shampoo as well, but then Father decided that the best

thing was for him to start afresh and he got a razor and shaved all Bruno's

hair off, which made Bruno cry. It didn't take long and he hated seeing all his

hair float down from his head and land on the floor at his feet, but Father said

it had to be done.

Afterwards Bruno looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and he felt

sick. His entire head looked misshapen now that he was bald and his eyes

looked too big for his face. He was almost scared of his own reflection.

'Don't worry, ' Father reassured him. 'It'll grow back. It'll only take a few

week.'

'It's the filth around here that did it, ' said Mother. 'If some people could

only see the effect this place is having on us all.

When he saw himself in the mirror Bruno couldn't help but think how

much like Shmuel he looked now, and he wonder if all the people on

that side of the fence had lice as well and that was why all their heads were

shaved too's.

When he saw his friend the next day Shmuel started to laugh at Bruno's

appeal, which didn't do a lot for his dwindling self-confidence.

'I look just like you now, ' said Bruno sadly, as if this was a terrible thing

admit.

'Only fatter, ' admitted Shmuel.