The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Warning! Spoiler!

In this book, a young German boy named Bruno moves with his family from Berlin to "Out-With" where his father has taken charge of a strange city filled with people in gray, striped pajamas. Bruno is curious about the people in the pajamas and jealous of all the time his father spends in their "city." One day, while walking the outside of the fence that keeps him outside of their area, he encounters a boy his own age. A friendship develops between the two and one day Bruno slips beneath the fence to join his friend and never returns.

The Holocaust through the eyes of a child is a particularly surreal and horrid thing. In this book, Boyne presents Auschwitz through the eyes of the commanding officer's naive and innocent son. The horror comes home to the father when he realizes his son has gone into the camp and been gassed by his own command. It is a disturbing book, in part because it does not allow one to view the Holocaust in black and white. Finally, a warning. This looks like a book for children because of the young age of its main character. It is not. For the youngest set, Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti is an excellent choice.