John Boyne, author of the renowned novel ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’, has refuted critiques of his work, stressing that in-depth knowledge of the Holocaust isn’t conveyed through novels. The highly successful children’s book, published in 2006, narrates the heart-rending friendship of an SS officer’s son and an imprisoned boy at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Response to the book from Jewish organisations and historians sparked controversy.
The story was adapted into a film in 2008 featuring Asa Butterfield from ‘Sex Education’, who played the eight-year-old Bruno. Bruno is oblivious to the realities of the concentration camps, mistakenly believing that the captives are wearing pyjamas.
While featuring on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Boyne countered that the publishing world currently treads lightly around contentious topics. He admitted to being conscious of the criticism levied at the book, some of which he acknowledges and some he disagrees with. He emphasised the book’s nature as a fictional novel, a fable with a central moral lesson. He stated that the book was never suggested to be an accurate representation of the Holocaust and reinforced that fact-based knowledge of the Holocaust should be sought from non-fiction, rather than novels.
Boyne noted that during his numerous school visits globally, he clearly communicated to students that the narrative is a fabrication. He rejected the idea of the book being utilised as an educational resource to study the Holocaust, asserting that a diverse selection of materials, including non-fiction, should be employed instead. Boyne confidently defended his work, acknowledging that many children have gleaned an initial understanding of the Holocaust from reading his book and have enhanced their knowledge through further reading, which he regards as a significant achievement.
The Dublin-born author, now 53, has also openly discussed his personal experiences, claiming that he was sexually victimised by a teacher at Dublin’s Terenure College.
Boyne expressed his discontentment over the fact that the teacher he accused of abuse passed away from natural causes in his 80s without facing trial. He was disheartened as this wouldn’t allow other victims to experience the emotional relief of recounting their experiences, unlike his opportunity as a writer. He commented that abuse was a regular occurrence at Terenure, even going as far as to say that the school had a prevailing culture of violence. Despite this, Boyne remarked there was once a sense of community in the more religious Ireland of the past. He lamented that the uncovering of abusive incidents since around 2000 led to a loss of this spirit in Ireland.
During the writing of one of his books, A History Of Loneliness, Boyne spoke to a parish priest who expressed concern over having altar boys or girls due to the potential risks. Boyne empathised with this sentiment, hinting at a sense of sadness.
In his body of work, including The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas and its sequel All The Broken Places, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, and A History Of Loneliness, Boyne has consistently unravelled the theme of complicity. He confessed to being bewildered by the ignorance and inaction of people in Ireland during his formative years amidst alleged abuse. While he agreed that writers do not have the responsibility to provide solutions, he believes they are adept at iterating the right questions, something he has strived to do in his works.