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[possible changes to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas article]

In both 2007 and 2008, it was the best-selling book of the year in Spain,

Analysis
Sophie Melissa Smith, a PhD candidate at the University of Southampton, argues that writing a factual story as a fable is damaging as it may produce misconceptions about the Holocaust. Examples include the ability of Shmuel to escape work and Bruno's ability to approach an electrified fence.

Smith claims that Boyne lowers the culpability of Nazis like Bruno's father by not just humanizing them but also creating a sense of obligation in characters like Bruno's father, as Bruno's father was a Commandant at a large concentration camp. Additionally, the depiction of the story told through Bruno creates a greater ignorance of the Nazi regime by using words such as "the Fury" in place of the Fuhrer and "Out-with" in place of Auschwitz. Generally, critics see the trivialization of the Nazi regime in this portrayal as damaging to Holocaust education.

Bruno's ignorance was not common for civilians during this time period, but for someone of his age to fully understand the events unfolding around him is a bit of a stretch whereas children were not involved in Nazi Youth until the age of 10. The organization was divided into two categories, one for members ages 10-14, and the other for members 14-18. The purpose of the Nazi Youth was to indoctrinate Nazi ideology early and to ensure the vitality of the "Thousand Year Reich" and was based on Hitler’s anti-intellectualism, focusing on military training in preparation for becoming a soldier at 18.

Educational implications
A 2009 study by the London Jewish Cultural Centre conducted a survey in which 75% of respondents thought Boyne's novel was based on a true story. Many students also thought "the tragic death of Bruno brought about the end of concentration camps."

Criticising the book's accuracy, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum commented in 2020 that the novel "should be avoided by anyone who studies or teaches about the Holocaust."

Many people believe that the purpose of this novel was to educate about the Holocaust, but Boyne had a different intention. In an Interview with the Author, Boyne states that the Holocaust occurred because of complacency. That "one of the reasons why the Holocaust happened, one of the reasons why [genocide has] continued to happen... is through the complacency of people who sit by and watch"