correct and never thinks poorly of his decisions. Bruno seems to find all of the qualities that annoy him in Gretel and does not point out any good traits. When he knows that there are other children who he can see outside of his window, Gretel shows that she is not all bad. She wants to go with him and see what he is talking about. Her demeanor as a bossy know-it-all disappears and her childish curiosity is at the forefront. Of course, Bruno does not take note of this positive and endearing quality because he is so used to seeing his sister in only one way. In fact, Gretel seems to put on a brave face for Bruno much of the time. She tries to soothe him by saying that the house is not so bad and that it will be for a short time only, but when she is walking towards the children she is very hesitant and nervous. Despite these feelings, she elbows Bruno to the side and says to follow her, almost as if she does not want to appear frightened for his sake. The reader gets to know more about Gretel through her inner feelings, which Bruno cannot see, so he does not know these parts of her. If he did, he would probably not be so scared of her.

Gretel is Bruno's big sister. Though older, she's not necessarily wiser. She is as ignorant of the outside world as her younger brother, having also been brought up in a closed society where independent thinking is considered an act of treachery. When her family arrives at Auschwitz, Gretel is as puzzled as Bruno as to what the concentration camp actually is. It looks like a big farm, she thinks, except that there don't appear to be any farm animals about the place.

Nevertheless, Gretel does develop much greater curiosity in relation to her surroundings and to the war in general. She knows, for example, that the fence separating her family from the inmates is to stop the Jews from getting out. Thanks to her indoctrination she's become a full-blown anti-Semite. As far as she's concerned, the Jews are the Germans' enemies and that's all there is to it.

Ironically, Gretel's curiosity simply leads to even deeper ignorance rather than enlightenment. Closely monitoring the troop movements of the Wehrmacht may be a completely different activity from playing with dolls, but it's still just a fantasy world to her all the same. Gretel symbolizes the inability of millions of Germans to face up to the grim realities of life in the Third Reich. Moreover, she's abdicated her responsibilities as an older sister. Instead of acting as a guide and mentor, she's separated herself from Bruno, becoming more of a Nazi fanatic as the war progresses. In the figure of Gretel we see an illustration of how authority figures in Nazi Germany abused their positions to keep millions of people in ignorant subjection while they set about the systematic extermination of Europe's Jewish population.

In chapter 12 of John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Shmuel describes his life before his life in the concentration camp. He tells Bruno how his people, the Jews, were treated before going to the camp and also how they are treated within it. Shmuel is more educated and aware of his circumstances than Bruno is. Shmuel is kind, though, and never tells Bruno how ignorant he is. For example, Shmuel describes having to wear armbands with the Star of David on his clothes every time he went outside. Bruno tells Shmuel that his dad wears a symbol on his clothes, too. Shmuel kindly says, without malice, "Yes, but they're different, aren't they?" (127). Shmuel doesn't come right out and tell Bruno that the symbols that his family had to wear represent something totally different than what Bruno's father wears on his uniform. Therefore, Shmuel is kind to Bruno, but he is sad about his predicament in life.

Throughout most of chapter 12 and the rest of the book, Shmuel is kind to Bruno not only because of the food he gets from Bruno, but because they are two boys caught in a very huge war and they are both powerless to do anything about it. Shmuel also likes to have a friend in Bruno. During the few times that Shmuel interacts with Bruno, he is always kind and never rude—even after he finds out that Bruno's father is the boss of the camp and is very mean and scary. Therefore, he is also respectful in his attitude with Bruno, but he is obviously sad about his circumstance.

In Chapter 9 of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno decides to amuse himself with an activity with which he occupied himself in Berlin. He dons his overcoat and an old pair of boots and leaves the house in the direction of the tall fence, the wooden telegraph poles, the garden, and the bench with the plaque on it. In Chapter 10 as Bruno approaches these objects, he notices a dot which grows to a blob and becomes a boy in striped pajamas, a boy with "an enormous pair of sad eyes." As he looks at the boy, Bruno decides he

...had never seen a skinnier or sadder boy in his life but decided he had better talk to him.

Bruno is polite; although he asks the boy his name, he does not inquire about the reason why he seems so morose. As they talk, Bruno learns that his name is Shmuel and he is from Poland where his father had a watch repair shop. He was born on April 15, 1934; coincidentally, this is also Bruno's birthday. 

Here are some other character traits that describe Shmuel:

• He is emaciated.
• His skin appears grayish.
• He is from a large family.
• He loves animals and wants to work in a zoo.
• He speaks German because his mother has taught him.
• He has never done any exploring.
• He no longer plays.
• He is hungry most of the time.
• He is small and very thin.
• He is afraid of being caught where he sits alone by the fence and says he must go.
• He is careful about what he asks, and he does not speak of certain things that he knows may effect his punishment.
• He is kind to Bruno despite knowing that his father is a Nazi officer.
• He loves his family and becomes deeply anxious when he cannot find his father.
• He is brought to Bruno's house to polish the small glasses because his hands are small; this activity is done in preparation for the dinner with "the Fury." 
• He is so hungry that he eats the chicken Bruno gives him and is punished.
• He is terrified of Lt. Kotler. 
• He considers Bruno a friend.
• He changes his mind about exploring and elicits Bruno to help him search for his father by procuring striped pajamas for Bruno.

While we are not given a direct description of Gretel's appearance in the novel, here are some details about her character that may help to form an image of Bruno's older sister for you:

In John Boyne’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, in addition to being repeatedly referred to by her brother Bruno as a “Hopeless case,” and, at the beginning of Chapter 3 as “nothing but trouble,” Gretel is further described in that chapter as Bruno’s older sister by three years, as the following text from the book demonstrates:

“Gretel was three years older than Bruno and she had made it clear to him from as far back as he could remember that when it came to the ways of the world, particularly any events within that world that concerned the two of them, she was in charge.”

As Bruno is described in this chapter as being nine-years-old, that, obviously, makes Gretel 12-years-old.  While Bruno clearly chafes at life under the domineering and occasionally taunting presence of his sister, he recognizes her as the more mature person with a better understanding of the ways of the world, at least until the family arrives at its new home, which happened to be the home of the newly-appointed commandant of the concentration camp where Jews were being held in preparation for their slaughter.  As Boyne describes Gretel’s discovery, courtesy of Bruno, of their strange new surroundings, he provides another bit of information on this character:

“She stood still for a long time staring at them. She was twelve years old and was considered to be one of the brightest girls in her class, so she squeezed her lips together and narrowed her eyes and forced her brain to understand what she was looking at.”

Gretel will develop a schoolgirl crush on Lieutenant Kotler, the young aide to Bruno and Gretel’s father who displays arrogance towards the children and a deep hatred for the Jewish prisoners, despite the secret regarding his family that will be revealed in time.  As a sign of her innocence and youth, Gretel possesses a large collection of dolls in her bedroom that Bruno was convinced monitored his movements.  While Bruno discoveries the humanity in the Jewish prisoners by virtue of his blossoming friendship with Shmuel, Gretel remains an unrepentant junior Nazi, adorning her bedroom with Nazi paraphernalia and maps of Europe and newspaper articles she uses to follow the war:

"Gretel had decided that she didn't like dolls any more and had put them all into four large bags and thrown them away. In their place she had hung up maps of Europe that Father had given her, and everyday she put little pins into them and moved the pins around constantly after consulting the daily newspaper."

In the end of the novel, Gretel returns to Berlin with her mother, while father remains in command of "Out with," the sounds Bruno had heard that was actually "Auschwitz."

Perhaps, Gretel is more naïve than she is innocent as she lacks judgment and does not deduce what goes on behind the wire fences, the kind of person Lieutenant Kotler is, what transpires between her mother and the lieutenant, and what her father's role is in the German government. 

In Chapter 3, after Bruno's family arrives at "Out-With," Bruno talks to his sister about how unpleasant their new home is, and she agrees. Being three years older, she explains to her younger brother that Out-With is the name of the house in which they now will live. "Out with the people who lived here before us."

"It must have to do with the fact that he [the former commandant] did not do a very good job, and someone said 'out with him and let's get a man in here who can do it right,'" (Ch.3) she tells Bruno.

As they talk, Bruno mentions that the children do not look very good, either. Gretel has no idea what he means, so Bruno invites her to look out his window. When she does, Gretel does not like what she sees. There are wire and sharp spikes all around the fence. While Gretel wonders why anyone would build such "a nasty place," she concludes that it must be the countryside where food is raised somewhere. When Bruno questions her, she tells her brother that she learned in school about the countryside where there is so much land. So, this is where they must be. Then, she "shivers and turns away" and tells her brother that she is going back to her dolls in her room where the view is much nicer.

Further, Gretel enjoys feeling older as Lt. Kotler flirts with her; as a result, she naively believes that he is nice because she lets her emotions rule her. In fact, she does not really assess what a cruel, sadistic young man he is. When Gretel is with Lt. Kotler, she "...laughed hysterically and twirled her hair around her fingers...." (Ch.9)

Gretel's mother talks privately with Lt. Kotler, calling him affectionate terms, but Gretel does not seem to notice, while Bruno catches her.

"Oh, Kurt, precious, you're still here," said Mother....I have a little free time now if--Oh! Bruno! What are you doing here?" (Ch. 15)

Of course, Gretel knows nothing of mother's "afternoon naps" and is also innocent of why Lt. Kotler is transferred. Also, she does not know what lice is when she finds an egg in her hair. Later, when her father finally decides that the children must depart from "Out-With," but it is mainly because Mother wishes to return to Berlin, Gretel is unaware of this, as well.

I would say that the Nazis are the primary antagonist.  Lt. Kotler is a good example of this.  Bruno has nothing but disdain for the manner in which Kotler carries himself and has even less respect for him when he abuses Pavel in such a callous and cruel manner.  Bruno constantly questions the Nazi condition of absolute power.  The questions that Bruno asks to himself, to Gretel, to Herr Liszt, and the thoughts that form his being are decidedly against the Nazi rise to power. Bruno's willingness to don the "striped pajamas" is reflective of how he displays resistance against the Nazis.  In the sacrifice of his life for his loyalty to Shmuel, Bruno offers his own defiance to the antagonist embodied in the gas chamber and the machinery of death.  Bruno's courage and sense of resistance in a world where so many capitulated and conformed to the embodiment of evil is what makes the Nazi ideology the faceless enemy against which Bruno wages war.  He might not know that he is waging a war against the Nazi ideology, but the fervor with which Bruno pursues that which is right is distinctive.  It is because of this that Nazi ideology is the antagonist.  

Twelve-year-old Gretel is Adolf Hitler's idea of the perfect child. Not only is she the daughter of a Nazi commandant, but she actively espouses Nazi ideology, having been successfully brainwashed, just like many other people of her age in Europe at the time. Her attitude is something of a contradiction to that of her brother, Bruno, who is skeptical about all the Nazi propaganda that he hears.

Gretel is an enthusiastic follower of the values encouraged by the Hitler Youth movement. She and her brother bicker regularly, as is common for siblings of their age. Since there is a massive ideological rift between them, it seems likely that their fights would have become more serious in nature as the war progressed and they began to understand more.

Her dedication to the Nazi movement is showcased by her decision to give up her doll collection and replace it with Nazi literature and posters. After the family arrives in the Auschwitz proximity, she develops a crush on Lieutenant Kotler, who ends up getting sent to the front.

Gretel's appreciation for Nazi propaganda and anti-semitism is further showcased by her enthusiasm for her lessons with Herr Liszt, who is hired to home school her and Bruno. Her mind is thoroughly programmed to the Nazi way of thinking, whereas Bruno appears more inclined to think for himself.

In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Bruno refers to his sister Gretel as "The Hopeless Case." Bruno is the narrator and so the story is told from his perspective and Gretel's key characteristics or attributes are seen from his view. When he first learns that the family must leave his beloved Berlin, he wonders why, if it's because of Gretel (which is the assumption he makes), the whole family must suffer. He also wonders, when he realizes that the family really is moving, why she doesn't stay behind because she is "nothing but trouble" (chapter 3). Bruno is quick to point out Gretel's shortcomings which include her inclination to spend too long in the bathroom, her tendency and that of her "unpleasant" friends to tease Bruno and her unnerving doll collection. Although they seldom show any affection for each other, both children do agree that their new home is "horrible."

Gretel reveals her insecurities when Bruno shows her the "other children" because, from this distance, they do not look friendly. These are the children in the camp, in the far distance and which children Gretel and Bruno are not supposed to acknowledge or show any interest in. Gretel is shocked that there are any children at all and she does have some sense of foreboding when she sees the barbed wire and sharp spikes that surround the camp. She does try to explain that this must be "the countryside' and the camp must be a farm. She is determined not to let Bruno get the better of her but is prepared to concede that her vision of the countryside is unlikely.

Gretel lacks understanding and is very self-absorbed. Rather than recognizing the plight of the children, she considers how dirty they look and is glad that she does not have to play with them. Gretel pretends to be older than she is but her actions belie her immaturity. She shows little respect for Maria, the maid and when she does befriend Lieutenant Kotler this only serves to increase her interest in the Nazi party and she seems to have little concern for what she has seen on the other side of the fence or for anyone else's concerns, except her own. 

Shmuel is the little Jewish boy discovered by Bruno within the fence of Auschwitz. Shmuel demonstrates heroic attributes by being kind, brave, and loyal during his time as a prisoner in a death camp. First, Shmuel is kind because he never discredits or vilifies Bruno's father. For example, Shmuel tells Bruno that he doesn't know of any good soldiers. Bruno quickly protests, "Except my father" (140) who happens to be the executive officer of Auschwitz and is probably pretty intimidating to Shmuel. Shmuel doesn't agree or disagree with Bruno about the Commandant, which is a kind and heroic act because he could have told his German friend how he really feels about all Nazi soldiers. Also, Shmuel could have told Bruno about all of the despicable things his father does inside of the fence, but he doesn't. Shmuel probably realizes that it isn't right to destroy a boy's image of his father.

Next, Shmuel is brave when Lieutenant Kotler catches him talking and eating food with Bruno in the kitchen. Bruno denies knowing Shmuel. This denial leads Lieutenant Kotler to tell Shmuel that he will have a discussion with him later about what happens to little boys who steal. Shmuel could have thrown Bruno under the proverbial bus at this point and called him out on his lie. However, the following happens:

"Shmuel nodded and picked up another napkin and started to polish another glass; Bruno watched as his fingers shook and new that he was terrified of breaking one. His heart sank, but as much as he wanted to, he couldn't look away" (173).

Unfortunately, Shmuel probably knows well that there would be no justice or mercy given by revealing his friend's secret, so he bravely finishes polishing the glasses and accepts his fate. 

Finally, Shmuel is loyal to his friendship by not holding a grudge against Bruno after the kitchen incident. When Bruno apologizes for not sticking up for his friend in front of Lieutenant Kotler, Shmuel does another heroic act:

"Shmuel smiled and nodded and Bruno knew that he was forgiven, and then Shmuel did something that he had never done before. He lifted the bottom of the fence up like he did whenever Bruno brought him food, but this time he reached his hand out and held it there, waiting until Bruno did the same, and then the two boys shook hands and smiled at each other" (175).

Not only does Shmuel forgive Bruno, but he doesn't mention the consequences that he probably suffered at the hands of Lieutenant Kotler after he polished the glasses that day. Again, Shmuel's strength of character extends to heroic spheres because heroes never brag about what they face; they simply endure.

In the story, Gretel is actually as naive as Bruno is in regards to Out-With and the circumstances surrounding Jewish incarceration. However, because of her tendency to exude what she considers an air of nonchalant sophistication, Gretel's innocence is not as apparent. Gretel hides her naivety behind a facade of sarcasm, irritation, and denial.

By Chapter 16, it is obvious that Gretel has lost her innocence. She no longer plays with her dolls. In their place are maps of Europe. Gretel now spends so much time poring over them that Bruno fears for her sanity. The text tells us that "every day she put little pins into them and moved the pins around constantly after consulting the daily newspaper." It appears from Gretel's actions that she is tracking the course of the war on the maps.

Gretel's loss of innocence helps her survive but in a negative way. She survives by adopting and cherishing the same bigoted views that have resulted in the mass slaughter of innocents. Because of her youth, Gretel is unable to process her loss of innocence in a constructive way. So, she resorts to the same illogical prejudice that is championed by German leaders. When questioned by Bruno, Gretel cannot explain why Germans must hate Jews. 

In fact, she cannot even explain what being a German means. All Gretel knows is that Germans are the "opposite" of Jews. She understands that Germans are to hate Jews but not the reasons for doing so. So, Gretel's loss of innocence helps her survive by reinforcing what she has been programmed to believe.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a novel written by John Boyne. This story is about a young boy named Bruno and his family's experiences during the Holocaust. Because the story is written from Bruno's point of view, readers get an interesting perspective about the war and the Holocaust in general.

Bruno's older sister is named Gretel. Gretel is a young girl who is infatuated with herself and being socially accepted. She believes she is much wiser than her younger brother and often acts as though she knows everything. Due to the fact that not many children are available to be playmates for Bruno and Gretel, the two are forced to interact more frequently than they did in their previous home. Gretel provides a lot of information to Bruno. Unfortunately, this information is not always accurate.

Gretel is a kind girl. She does her best to be a friend to her brother and will entertain him when it is convenient. She commiserates with her brother about their new home and agrees with him that their new home is an interesting place.

Gretel is also a girl who wishes to learn as much as she can. She often studies geography and the war. Although Gretel is somewhat skewed in her perspective about the war, because of the attractive Nazi soldiers, she learns more about her father's job and eventually must make her own decisions about confronting her father. This is difficult for Gretel because, like most adolescent girls, Gretel desperately wants to be a part of the "in" crowd.

Gretel is a character caught up in the Nazi propaganda that was so prevalent during the time period.  She is an adolescent girl, which means that her maturation convinces her to be enamored with the prestige of the Nazis and a particular infatuation with Nazi men of uniform.  This helps to create her as a "hopeless case," in Bruno's eyes. Gretel understands the need to be socially accepted and, as a result, she embraces the Nazi rise to power.  Gretel is not depicted as one who fully idolizes the ideology of the Nazis, but is in love with the social respect that the Nazis carry.  When she "posterizes" her room with Nazi propaganda, it reflects her desire to be a part of the "in" crowd.  Her infatuation with Hitler as well as other Nazi guards reflect this desire to seek social acceptance.

The Boy in The Stripped Pajamas is novel that takes place during World War II and the Holocaust. Most of the main characters are either Jewish, Nazis, or related to Nazis.

Bruno

Bruno is the main character. He and his family have to leave big city Berlin to live near the notorious Auschwitz ("Out-With") concentration camp.

Bruno could be described as naive and ignorant. He doesn’t understand what’s happening. He doesn’t know that there’s a genocide going on a short ways away form his new home.

You could also describe Bruno as innocent and without biases or prejudices. His lack of knowledge could be more favorably called a lack of indoctrination. His lack of Nazi conditioning enables his relationship with Shmuel. Bruno doesn’t see Shmuel as a Jew. He doesn’t see Shmuel as someone who’s less-than or disposable. He sees him as someone like him. They’re not enemies—they’re equals, they’re friends.

Lastly, Bruno could be described as loyal. The tragic ending demonstrates that Bruno, ultimately, will stick by his friend.

Shmuel

Shmuel is a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz. Shmuel and Bruno share many surface similarities, but they are ultimately very different in terms of circumstances.

Both Shmuel and Bruno describe how they had to move. Yet Shmuel had to move to a tiny room in a Jewish ghetto while Bruno has to move to a house so that his dad can supervise the oppression and extermination of Jewish people.

Both Shmuel and Bruno describe the armbands they or their families wear. Shmuel and his family have to wear armbands, and Bruno’s dad also has to wear an armband, but the armband on Bruno’s dad signifies power while the armbands on Shmuel and his family signify the inferior, disposable identity that the German Nazis constructed for Jews.

These details are a specific description of Shmuel's circumstances. A more general description of Shmuel is that he is a Jewish boy who’s suffered terrible things but who hasn’t lost his humanity or ability to forge meaningful relationships.

Father

Father is what Bruno’s dad is called. You could describe him as a Nazi. You could also describe him as caring and communicative with his son. He tries to speak thoughtfully to Bruno and help him figure out how to deal with his new surroundings. Calling the dad “caring” and “communicative” doesn’t excuse or mitigate his actions, but it might show that he’s not a total monster, though his actions as a Nazi are unforgivable. The dad is a human. As history shows, ordinary humans are capable of perpetuating and participating in atrocities.

Grandmother

As the name suggests, Grandmother is Bruno’s grandma, his father's mother. You could describe his grandma as a moral or conscientious woman. During Christmas, Bruno’s grandma comes right out and lambasts her son for his Nazism. You could also describe her as a person of strong convictions. Denouncing Nazis could bring her deadly trouble.

Pavel

Like Shmuel, Pavel is a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz, but Pavel is much older than Shmuel. Before Auschwitz, he was a doctor. Now Pavel is a domestic worker. However, his doctor training comes in handy when he has to help Bruno deal with a cut. Like Shmuel, you could describe Pavel as kind and compassionate. He takes care of Bruno even though Bruno’s dad is overseeing the extermination of his people.

Aside from these characters, there are some minor players that could be described. You could describe Bruno’s sister as a know-it-all, Kotler as a sadistic anti-Semite, and Bruno’s mom as pulled between her husband and her conscience.

In John Boyne's novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Gretel is the older sister of the story's main protagonist, Bruno, the nine-year-old German boy who innocently befriends a young Jewish concentration camp prisoner named Shmuel. Gretel, we are told, is three years older than Bruno, who is nine at the story's opening, thereby making his sister twelve-years-old. Typical of older sister-younger brother relationships, Bruno considers Gretel a constant source of irritation, repeatedly referring to her as a "Hopeless Case" who "caused nothing but trouble for him." Gretel is smart and pretty, but becomes smitten by a young German Army officer under her father's command, Lieutenant Kotler, who serves in Boyne's novel the role of the quintessential Nazi, obediently executing every command, no matter how vile. 

While Gretel is the older of the two children, she is equally adversely affected by the family's move to Poland. Like Bruno, she is lonely, having been forced to leave her friends behind in Berlin, and is forced to console herself with her large collection of dolls. In Chapter Sixteen, however, Bruno observes a strange transformation in his sister. Gretel has placed all of her dolls in bags and began to decorate her room instead in a wartime motif, with maps adorning the walls and pins inserted to track the progress of the German Army. It is Gretel who enlightens Bruno on the nature of the facility for which their father is commander, explaining that the fence surrounding the facility is intended to keep the Jews isolated because "[t]hey can't mix with us." 

The Boy in The Striped Pajamas is set in the World War II era and revolves around the relationship, and unlikely friendship, between two young boys, Bruno and Shmuel. Bruno is German and has had to go to Poland with his family as his father is a Commander in the German army. It is assumed that Bruno's father is instrumental in the running of Aushwitz, which Bruno calls "Outwith," and which concentration camp Bruno has no understanding of. His friend, Shmuel, actually resides in "Outwith," and, ironically Bruno is sometimes jealous of what he perceives Shmuel to have - such as friends; something Bruno sadly lacks in his new home: "You get to have dozens of friends and are probably playing for hours every day." Bruno has no understanding of his friend's pain when they meet at the fence, secretly, and imagines what he thinks it may be like inside the fence.

Bruno talks about "the Fury" and what he represents and this is a dynamic caricature of Adolf Hitler. The "Fury" means the Fuhrer and it is Bruno's simplification and innocence and the irony of such a word (fury), in this context, being indicative of Adolf Hitler's nature and the chaos and tragedy he caused, which increases the intensity of its meaning. 

“Heil Hitler," he said, which, he presumed, was another way of saying, "Well, goodbye for now, have a pleasant afternoon.”  

Bruno has no concept of the situation. The "Fury" comes to dinner at Bruno's home and Bruno can sense his unpleasantness, despite having no idea of the person behind the title ("The Fury"). 

The story revolves around the friendship which develops between Bruno and Shmuel but the reader is moved by the historical aspect of this fictional story and how Adolf Hitler's actions in real life and, "The Fury's" actions in the story, changed the face of humanity.