and down on his head." (pg 72)

3. He was always in the living room with his mother.  Bruno may have been young but even he noticed that his mother laughed at the lieutenant's jokes more than she laughed at his father's jokes.

4. Bruno saw him deal with a barking dog by shooting it.

5. His sister acted funny when Lt. Kotler was around. She was just becoming a teenager and was flirting a great deal with the lieutenant.

6. Whenever father was gone, the lieutenant hung around the house and acted as if he were in charge.  The lieutenant was only 19 years old. 

7. The way Lt. Kotler treated Pavel.  Bruno sees him mistreat Pavel twice.  Once when he asked for the tyre, and the second time when they were having dinner and Pavel dropped a wine bottle on Lt. Kotler.  The author tells us,

"What happened then was both unexpected and extremely unpleasant.  Lieutenant Kotler grew very angry with Pavel and no one - not Bruno, not Gretel, not Mother, and not even Father - stepped in to stop him doing what he did next, even though none of them could watch.  Even though it made Bruno cry and Gretel grow pale." (pg 148-149)

8. The way the lieutenant talked to Schmuel and how he made Bruno feel when he was confronted with their friendship.

".....he wanted to say the right thing to make things better, but then he realized that he couldn't because he was feeling just as terrified himself!" (pg 172)

"He had never felt so ashamed in his life; he had never imagined that he could behave so cruelly.  He wondered how a boy who thought he was a good person really could act in such a cowardly way towards a friend." (pg 174)

Bruno was  very relieved when Lt. Kotler was suddenly transferred. He

"....wasn't around to make Bruno feel angry and upset all the time" (pg 178)

The page numbers I have given are for my edition of the book, but you should find the quotes in near proximity to the pages I have given.

Lt. Kotler is the stereotypical Nazi officer from concentration camps: He is brutal, sadistic, and opportunistic.

From the first time that he has encountered Lt. Kotler coming out of his father's office, Bruno feels a certain discomfiture in his presence. In Chapter 7 when Bruno wishes to make a swing, he asks Kotler who is talking with his sister Gretel if there are any old tires that he can use to make a swing. Kotler calls to the prisoner Pavel, who works in the kitchen in a biting voice, using a pejorative term for Jews as he does. He orders Pavel, using a very pejorative term, to take Bruno to a storage shed where there are some tires. 

Further in the narrative, Lt. Kotler is invited for dinner and when Pavel tries to pour wine for him, his hands shake so badly that he spills some of this wine on Kotler; Bruno witnesses the enraged young lieutenant react violently to Pavel. Then, in Chapter 15, in preparation for a birthday party for his mother, Shmuel is brought to the house to clean and dry some very small glasses because Pavel's hand is too large. When Bruno sees him there, he is happily surprised. As he talks to Shmuel, Bruno eyes some chicken in the refrigerator; he takes some offers three pieces to his friend, who is at first afraid to eat it because of Lt. Kotler, but his hunger persuades him to gobble some down, anyway. Unfortunately, Kotler enters the kitchen and accuses Shmuel of eating. Shmuel tells Kotler that Bruno is his friend and he offered the chicken to him; however, out of fear Bruno denies knowing Shmuel or having given him any chicken. After this incident, Shmuel is missing when Bruno tries to apologize by going to the fence where they meet; several days later, though, Shmuel appears with terrible bruises on his face. Bruno suspects that the brutal Kotler has inflicted punishment upon poor Shmuel.

Also in Chapter 15, Bruno has several specific reasons why he detests Kotler:

1. Lt. Kotler never smiles; instead, he appears as though he figuratively "was trying to find someone to cut out of his will."
2. Whenever he addresses Bruno, he calls him "little man," and Bruno resents this because he is uncomfortable about not having yet had his growth spurt.
3. Lt. Kotler seems to always be in the living room joking with his mother who "laughs at his jokes more than she laughs at Father's."
4. Whenever his father is called to Berlin and is gone overnight, Kotler is at the house, acting as though he is in charge. There is obviously something going on between Bruno's mother and him because Kotler is at the house even when Bruno goes to bed at night and "in the early morning before he wakes up." Then, one day Bruno hears his mother call Kotler "precious" as she tells him she has some free time then, but she stops short of saying more when she sees Bruno. While Bruno does not comprehend the sexual implications, he resents his mother's affection for Kotler.
5. When Bruno has Treasure Island under his arm one day, Lt. Kotler asks where he has procured this book, but he does not pursue this topic when told that Bruno's father has given it to him. However, the cruel officer takes the book and holds it above Bruno so that the boy cannot retrieve it. Nevertheless, Bruno is quick enough to grab his novel when he can reach it.
6. Bruno resents Kotler's supercilious tone of speech to him.
7. Bruno does not like Kotler's talking and joking with his sister Gretel.

Bruno makes this comment about Lt. Kotler in Chapter Seven after witnessing the odious term that Kotler calls the Jewish prisoner Pavel twice and the vitriolic tone with which he addresses the older Pavel, who is the cook for the family.

"There really was no other way to dress it up; he was just plain nasty."

Another reason that Bruno finds Kotler "nasty" is the way that he conducts himself; for, Bruno finds him very arrogant. He stands outside the house as those he is in charge of it, and he talks deprecatingly to Bruno as those he were just a small child. In addition, Bruno disapproves of how his sister Gretel, who is not thirteen, flirts with Kotler. Later, he hears his mother, who does not know that anyone is listening, call Kotler "precious" and she laughs at his remarks and jokes much more heartily than she does at his father's. 
One day as a dog approached the fence barklng loudly, Kotler "marched right over to the dog and shot it," Bruno observes.

Further in the narrative, after Shmuel gets into trouble for eating the meat that Bruno denies having given him, Lt. Kotler beats Shmuel severely back at the camp. Certainly, there is no question that Kotler is a cruel, sadistic, and spiteful young man, who has become thoroughly indoctrinated in Nazism.

In John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Lieutenant Kotler treats Bruno differently than Father does, even though they both seem to be fairly strict. First of all, Father loves Bruno because they are family; however, Lieutenant Kotler, who works under Father as a soldier, seems to act like a neighborhood bully toward him. For example, when Bruno is upset about the move from a lovely home in Berlin to a humble home in Auschwitz, Father listens respectfully to his concerns. Then Father says the following:

"Just settle into your new home and be good, that's all I ask. Accept the situation in which you find yourself and everything will be so much easier" (53).

In chapter 7, Bruno interacts for the first time with Lieutenant Kotler and goes away unimpressed. Kotler does not seem to be very mature for his status as a Lieutenant because he teases Bruno and won't give him straight answers. Also, when Kotler tells Pavel to assist Bruno with finding a tire for a swing, he condescendingly speaks with slurs and a harsh tone. Later on, in chapter 15, Kotler's teasing makes Bruno infuriated as follows: 

"Bruno narrowed his eyes and wished he were taller, stronger and eight years older . . . It was one thing, he decided to be told what to do by Mother and Father--that was perfectly reasonable and to be expected--but it was another thing enirely to be told what to do by someone else. Even by someone with a fancy title like 'Lieutenant'" (165).

As shown above, Lieutenant Kotler acts immaturely and like a bully with Bruno and other people; whereas his father, on the other hand, treats his son with dignity and respect even though he may also be strict. As a result, Bruno appreciates his father, but he does not appreciate Lieutenant Kotler.  

Although Bruno's father is responsible for ordering unspeakable acts of violence, Lieutenant Kotler is the novel's main antagonist. Lieutenant Kotler is arrogant, immoral, and violent throughout the novel. Kotler treats Bruno like a baby and displays contempt towards him. Kotler is "two-faced" and disrespects the Commandant by having an affair with his wife. Kotler is also violent and shows a lack of empathy for Pavel and Shmuel. When Pavel accidently spills wine on Kotler, Kotler ruthlessly beats the weak old man. Kotler accuses Shmuel of stealing food from Bruno's fridge and also beats him badly. Shmuel comments on how Kotler is feared by the Jews inside the camp. His direct interactions with the prisoners depict his character to be personally involved in the annihilation of the Jews, whereas the Commandant's position is further removed. Also, Kotler has no redeeming qualities and proves to be a disloyal soldier.

Maria's story about Bruno's father sheds light on his kind, caring nature. Bruno's father is misguided and has no choice but to obey Hitler's orders. He treats his children with respect and even listens to his wife when she tells him Auschwitz is no place to raise children. The reader feels sympathy for Bruno's father at the end of the novel when he loses his son and his position. Despite giving the orders to systematically slaughter thousands of Jews, he has no choice but to obey Hitler's commands. Bruno also looks up to his father, unlike Lieutenant Kotler, who he despises.

Bruno dislikes being called "little man" by Lieutenant Kotler because the man uses the term in a patronizing manner that is meant to make Bruno feel insignificant.

The lieutenant doesn't often speak to Bruno at all, but when he does so, he often addresses him as "little man" instead of by name. Bruno's mother assures him that he "just ha[s]n't hit his growth spurt yet"; Bruno is physically small and feels at least somewhat self-conscious about his size. Lieutenant Kotler recognizes this, and the use of "little man" sarcastically demonstrates the lieutenant's snide personality regarding Bruno's small size.

Bruno also doesn't like the increasingly flirtatious behavior that exists between his mother and the lieutenant when his father isn't around. Just before a party, Bruno addresses this in vague terms, telling Lieutenant Kotler that he will be on his best behavior for the party, but he can't say the same for the lieutenant. This clearly strikes a nerve with Lieutenant Kotler, who replies that Bruno has "a lot to say for such a little man." Again, he is asserting his own physical dominance over Bruno, inflating his own sense of importance by attempting to make Bruno feel small and vulnerable. Since Bruno's father outranks the lieutenant, these attempts don't work well.

After a night of angry shouting between Bruno's parents, Bruno finds that Lieutenant Kotler is suddenly transferred elsewhere, and he is happy that "no one called him 'little man' any more."