Kurt Kotler is a nineteen-year-old German soldier at Auschwitz who frequents Bruno’s home. He is well-dressed, over-cologned, and has striking blond hair—seemingly the ideal “Aryan” of Nazi ideology. Gretel develops a crush on him, and Mother strikes up a friendship (and likely an affair) with the young handsome soldier. He is cruel to the prisoners, and taunts Bruno by calling him “little man,” something the boy despises. Kotler is eventually transferred away from Auschwitz when Father discovers that Kotler’s father, a literature professor, fled from Germany in 1938 at the start of the war.Lieutenant Kotler Quotes in The Boy in the Striped PajamasThe The Boy in the Striped Pajamas quotes below are all either spoken by Lieutenant Kotler or refer to Lieutenant Kotler . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ). Note: all page and citation info for the quotes below refers to the David Fickling Books edition of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas published in 2007. Chapter 7 Quotes
“Young man,” said Pavel (and Bruno appreciated the fact that he had the courtesy to call him ‘young man’ instead of ‘little man’ as Lieutenant Kotler had), “I certainly am a doctor. Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer, you know.”
Related Characters: Pavel (speaker), Bruno, Lieutenant KotlerRelated Themes: Page Number and Citation: 82 Cite this QuoteExplanation and Analysis:
In an effort to defeat his boredom, Bruno creates a swing out of an old tire and a tree just outside the house. He soon falls, and hurts himself. Pavel, one of the new butlers at Auschwitz, runs out of the kitchen and takes the injured boy inside to clean up his scrapes. Bruno insists he must be taken to a doctor, but Pavel tells him he will be just fine with the bandage he has made. Bruno argues that Pavel cannot know this since he is not a doctor, and Pavel says he used to be one.
As a prisoner of the Nazis, Pavel has been captured from his home and career as a doctor to serve Father, his family, and the Nazi soldiers that visit. Able bodied Jewish men and women from every profession were forced to work in labor camps; the young, old, and those who could not work were often immediately killed. Boyne once again emphasize's Bruno's innocence by showing that he has no understanding as to why someone who is trained as a doctor would peel his vegetables and serve dinner. Bruno has been taught that the prisoners at Auschwitz are "not people at all," but this idea doesn't seem to fit with what Bruno now learns about the intelligent, friendly Pavel.
