How does Bruno discover his family is moving in chapter 1 of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

Bruno may be a naive little boy in many respects, but even he recognizes without being told that his family is moving. It all happens after he comes home from school one afternoon and finds the family maid Maria in his bedroom, pulling his belongings out of the wardrobe and packing them up into large wooden crates.

Bruno asks Maria what she's doing before telling her to take her hands off his things. Maria says nothing; she simply points Bruno in the direction of the staircase, where the boy's mother has just appeared. Bruno's mother takes him downstairs, where Bruno asks her if they're moving, which is an indication that he knows what's up.

Bruno's mother tells him that the whole family is going away on what she calls “a great adventure.” She says this is because Bruno's father has “a very special job,” one that requires him and the whole family to move out of Berlin.

Bruno doesn't quite know the half of it, but he's sure that this is all because “The Fury”—that is to say, Hitler—has big plans for his old man. Bruno is blissfully unaware of precisely what his father does for a living. All he knows is that it's very important and he gets to wear a fantastic uniform.

Where does Bruno's family move in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

Chapter one of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne is set in Berlin, Germany. Bruno and his family--mother, father, older sister Gretel, and nine-year-old Bruno--live in a large house which Bruno enjoys exploring. They all have friends in Berlin, and Bruno's father's parents live quite near them, as well. In this chapter, Bruno is surprised to learn that he and his family will be moving very soon.

We learn that Hitler had come to dinner at Bruno's house and gave Bruno's father a promotion; Bruno's father is now a commandant and has a new job. The story is told through the eyes of young Bruno, so we kind of have to figure out where they are moving. Here are our clues:

• Bruno assumes they are not moving very far away, but his mother says it is quite a long way. Bruno still does not quite realize what this means as he approaches his new bedroom window for the first time:

He walked slowly towards it, hoping that from here he might be able to see all the way back to Berlin and his house and the streets around it and the tables where the people sat and drank their frothy drinks and told each other hilarious stories. 

• They have moved into a house right next to a place Bruno calls "Out-With," but everyone in his family tells him he is pronouncing it incorrectly.
• The place next door is some kind of camp, and the people inside it all wear a kind of uniform (which Bruno calls "striped pajamas").
• Gretel later tells Bruno that the people in the camp are all Jews, their enemies. 

Putting all the clues together, we can surmise that Bruno's family has moved from Berlin, Germany, to southern Poland, where the Auschwitz concentration camp was located. They live in isolation near the camp, not near a specific city. 

Bruno's life dramatically changes when he moves from his lovely, five-story home, "if you include the basement," in Berlin to Auschwitz, which Bruno refers to as Out-With. In Auschwitz, Bruno does not have his three best friends to play games with, and there are no bustling town streets to walk up and down. His new home at Auschwitz is significantly smaller, uncomfortable, and has a cold, threatening atmosphere. Bruno cannot slide down a massive banister at his new home in Auschwitz and cannot spend time with his grandparents because they stayed in Berlin. There are also fewer places to explore at Auschwitz, and the environment is extremely perplexing.

Bruno does not understand that Auschwitz is a Nazi concentration camp and believes the prisoners are wearing striped pajamas. He also cannot understand why there is a large fence surrounding the camp and initially wants to head back to Berlin. As time passes, Bruno becomes close friends with a Jewish boy named Shmuel, who is a prisoner on the opposite side of the fence. Eventually, Bruno gets used to his life at Auschwitz and enjoys spending his days secretly talking to Shmuel.

In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, why does Bruno's family have to move?

In the book, Bruno's family has to move because his father has been ordered to relocate on the orders of the Fury (the Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler). Essentially, Bruno's father has been promoted to a Commandant position at Auschwitz, and this is why the family has to leave their house in Berlin.

Bruno doesn't especially like Auschwitz (which he calls Out-With), as he misses his grandparents and his friends. Also, he yearns for the familiar surroundings of his previous life in Berlin. Bruno's father humors him for a time, but he resolutely expects Bruno to resign himself to the family's new situation. As commandant, Bruno's father has an especially important position, and he must not fail in his tasks. The family's livelihood and survival depend on Bruno's father fulfilling his orders to the letter.

So, this is part of the reason why Bruno's father cannot entertain at length any complaints from Bruno. Like everyone else, Bruno's father must submit himself to the Fuhrer's demands or risk his wrath and certain reprisal for any failure to comply.

Why must Bruno's father relocate for his job in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne is set during World War II, and Bruno's father is a Nazi officer in Hitler's army. After Hitler and Eva Braun come to Bruno's house for dinner, Bruno's father is promoted to Commandant. This news gets a mixed reaction from Bruno's grandparents.

Bruno's grandfather says:

"It makes me so proud to see you elevated to such a responsible position. Helping your country reclaim her pride after all the great wrongs that were done to her."

Bruno's grandmother, on the other hand, is ashamed at what her son has become. She says:

"That's all you soldiers are interested in anyway.... Looking handsome in your fine uniforms. Dressing up and doing the terrible, terrible things you do. It makes me ashamed."

Bruno hears his grandparents' comments as well as the comments from others about his father's promotion, but he does not really know what to think so he just congratulates his father because it seems like the right thing to do.

One of the consequences of this promotion to Commandant is that Bruno's father changes jobs. He and his family must leave their comfortable home in Berlin and move to southern Poland, site of the Auschwitz prison camp. Though Bruno does not quite realize it, his father is the Nazi Commandant in charge of the infamous Auschwitz death camp. He has to move because he is obviously not able to do this job from his home in Berlin.

Where does Bruno move to in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

Once Bruno and his family leave Germany they relocate to the Polish town of Oświęcim, which the Germans had renamed to Auschwitz after they took it from Poland in the first days of World War II. Bruno does not like his new house, which is smaller than the one they had in Berlin, nor does he like the fact that soldiers are continually coming and going from it.

In the story, Bruno's father is made commander of the concentration camp located in that city (which Bruno knows as Out-With.) In real life, the camp's commander, Rudolph Hess, testified in war crimes trials after the war that about 3 million people were killed while at the camp (though the Auschwitz museum has revised the number down to about 1.1 million, 90% of whom were Jews.)