Gretel's The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

Imagine you were a young girl in Nazi Germany. You are getting taught in classes that people with cultural differences were horrible people, or not even people at all. This happened to Gretel in The Boy in The Striped Pajamas. The character Gretel demonstrates the Nazi’s indoctrination of children, due to her education, the men in her life, and her getting rid of her dolls for maps to track the war on.

Children's education was used to brainwash them in Nazi Germany. Gretel's tutor Herr Liszt changed her view on not only education but war. Gretel and Bruno used to perform plays with their Grandmother (Boyne, 88). With Herr Liszt teaching though the children are told that “books about things that matter in the world”(Boyne,97) , are history books. Art books and storybooks are not important to their education. Herr Liszt tells Bruno that he will be learning “About all the great wrongs that have been done to you” (Boyne, 98). It can be inferred that he is teaching Gretel the same thing. It is evident that Gretel's education played a part of her brainwashing.

When Gretel first got to “Out-With” she agreed with bruno on how she did not think the place was very nice (Boyne, 24). The longer she stayed around Lieutenant Kotler, Father, and the other soldiers she was more frequently told bad things about Jews and how great germany was. Father tells Bruno that Jews are not really people when they first get to “Out-With” (Boyne, 53). Later when Bruno goes and talks to Gretel about the Jews Gretel tells Bruno that the Germans are the opposites of jews (Boyne, 183). It can be presumed that Father had had a similar` chat to Gretel about the Jews. It can be clearly seen that the men in Gretel's life played a role in her