Child Abuse In 'The Boy In Striped Pyjamas'

Each year over 170,000 people report child abuse. On average only 46% of these reports are further investigated. Only 46%. That’s not even half. Child abuse is not just something you just see in the media, it’s real life and children are growing up thinking that their bruises and their pain are normal things. They are being influenced in the wrong direction and we, together, are going to put a stop to it.
Children all around Australia and the world are being abused by their parents or another adult either physically or emotionally. Child abuse is exploitation by parents or caregivers which puts a child or young person's in danger. Child abuse can be one individual incident, but most commonly it is repeated over time. Physical child abuse is …show more content…
Lieutenant Kotler abuses Shmuel psychologically and there is no doubt that he does physically also. In the text Shmuel is forced into hard labour that a child should not be unwillingly made to do. “He brought me,’ said Shmuel … ‘You don’t mean Lieutenant Kotler?’ ‘Yes. He said there was a job for me to do here.” (Chapter 15) Shmuel was only 9 years old and he was being compelled to work hard. 9 years old! When you were aged 9 you would have been playing with your toys and going to school. How would you feel if you were forced into polishing 64 glasses, and all because you had small fingers that were the result of not being fed near enough and being treated in a horrible …show more content…
At this time Bruno didn’t step up to save his friend and this was because he too was scared and didn’t know what to do. “Lieutenant Kotler marched over to Shmuel and glared at him. ‘What are you doing?’ he shouted. ‘Didn’t I tell you to polish those glasses?’… ‘Who told you that you were allowed to talk in this house?’… ‘Do you dare disobey me?’.” Bruno didn’t know how to respond to this as he, himself is only a young boy. “… because he was feeling just as terrified himself” (Chapter 15) Just like Bruno there are so many people that have witnessed child abuse and don’t know how to handle it. Do they report it, do they step in, what should they do? Bruno was put in this confusing position when he was present at a scene of child abuse. He was given two choices, save himself or put him and his friend in even greater danger. Obviously as a naïve, young boy Bruno chose the first option and denied knowing the boy standing before him that had been subject to abuse since he arrived at ‘Out-With’. After this was over Bruno did not report it nor did not mention it ever again although he was constantly thinking about it.
Child abuse is very rarely a one-time incident and is always harmful. Tens of thousands of children are emotionally and/or physically endangered each year from the impact of child abuse and neglect. Far too often that damage lasts a lifetime

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