Goofs

When Bruno selects the tire for his swing in the shed, Pavel selects a tire that has less tread, and is also a different pattern from the one that's then used as the swing.

The state of decay on Shmuel's teeth changes from scene to scene.

When in the commandant's office, both he and his wife look and point in the opposite direction to the camp they are referring to, as the camp is behind the house, not in front of it.

In the scene where the boy is playing checkers on his bed, the color of the pieces changes - at the start, the white pieces are to the left of the shot, in the next shot the black pieces are.

In the many times Bruno and Shmuel meet each other, the pattern of the barbed wire fence changes from shot to shot, especially noticeable with the horizontal wires. The changes are dependent upon the perspective i.e. the wires are consistent when seen from either Bruno's perspective or Shmuel's perspective, but different comparing the two different perspectives. They are also different between the close-ups and the long shots.

At Auschwitz, (and other camps) there were double fences, 3 meters apart, around the compound. Too much distance for an outsider to touch an insider.

Near the end of the film Bruno and Shumel are led on a march with other Jewish inmates to the gas chambers by Sonderkommandos. In reality though Sonderkommandos despite having no choice but to work for the Nazis didn't help to kill the other Jews but instead helped to dispose of the dead after the Jews were gassed to death.

In the train Gretel is saying a prayer before sleep, but Nazis excluded any religious education from the schools, as well as following such traditions was not welcomed by the regime.

In a running gag Shumel is seen near the fence doing nothing. In reality Jews that were slacking off were killed by the Germans.

Bruno's family hold a party to celebrate Ralf being promoted but in reality parties in Nazi Germany were forbidden especially when the country was in the middle of a war.

"The story mixes up the German Wehrmacht (army) and the SS (Hitler's paramilitary "protective" forces). While the Wehrmacht was not directly involved in the holocaust (though they committed war crimes and killed civilians), the SS was in charge of the concentration camps. Bruno's father's uniform is a mix of Wehrmacht and SS. The Wehrmacht uniforms were green, whereas SS uniforms were black and had the skull ("Totenkopf") symbol on the cap." Incorrect: the black "allgemeine SS" uniform, so beloved of Hollywood because of its iconographic qualities, was discontinued during the war. On the green 1940-1945 SS uniforms, the black colour was only retained on the peaked cap bands, the collar patches, as underlay for badges and on some varieties of shoulder board pipings. Camp Guards wore copper-brown uniform piping, the "waffenfarbe", denoting the camp guards branch. Just look at the original pictures of uniformed SS guards in the camps from the period 1940-1945.

The dedication document shown at Bruno's grandmother's funeral is titled "von dem Führer" (by the Führer). It has been claimed even though the grammatically correct German would be "vom Führer", the text would still be too sparse and informal for such an occasion as a funeral. However, "Vom" is just a contraction of "von dem" but "vom" is more colloquial in German. An official piece of writing like shown in the movie would state "von dem", that is, if such a dedication is actually based on an original anyway.

Ralf, Kotler and the other soldiers would also wear Nazi armbands which they don't in this film.

Concentration camp personnel did not wear armbands as witnessed by many surviving Auschwitz staff photos.

"In the beginning of the film the main character's father has the common SS bullets on his right collar. Shortly after, the Father's uniform collar changes to a Skull and Crossbones patch, which is inaccurate. The Skull and Crossbones or "Totenkopf" was worn on the SS man's Hat." This is not a goof: the Totenkopf insignia was used as a "trade" badge on the collar patch by that branch of the SS that guarded and administrated the camps, the so-called "Totenkopf-Verbaende" that were part of the SS-Verfuegungstruppen". They wore this variant of collar patch in combination with copper brown piping, "waffenfarbe", denoting the camp guards branch. The SS hat badge consisted only of a skull, without crossbones. Just look at original pictures of uniformed SS concentration camp guards.

At the farewell party in Berlin at the beginning of the film, the singer with the dance band was using a Shure 55SH, an iconic American microphone. However the Germans would have used Sennheiser or Neumann microphones. They were very proud of their engineering, and pioneered early audio recording technology which is still sought after by collectors and studios.

The Kommandant (SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lt.-Col.) is wearing the "Blut-Orden" (Blood Order) on his right breast pocket which was awarded SS members who took part in the Munich Beer-Hall Putsch of 1923. However, on his right forearm he should also have the "alter Kämpfer (old fighter)" chevron, similar to a corporal's stripe, which was awarded to all SS members who served prior to 1933 - which as a veteran of the Putsch the Kommandant was supposed to wear.

Gretel, who gets brainwashed to supporting the Third Reich, throws away her dolls to act more 'mature': but if you look carefully when she gets a present from Elsa, a doll is seen near her bedside.

Despite Ralf claiming both his parents were bombed in Berlin with his mother being killed his father has no injuries.

The Nazi banners at the film's beginning are sheer and translucent: silk, nylon or rayon. Nazi banners were constructed of wool and were never translucent.

During the breakfast scene where Maria is scrubbing the blood stains off the floor a phone is seen attached to the wall which is too modern at that period of time.

As Bruno is waving goodbye to his friends near the beginning of the film, you can see some gates behind his friends. There were electronic motor actuators on these gates that would not have been around during the 1940s.

The exterior of the house is far too modern from the inside during that period of time.

Even though Bruno somehow manages to sneak to the camp and back without his parents knowing until the end of the film he did not consider the possibility his parents could had discovered he went missing at any time of the day.

In the scene where mother is knitting while listening to the radio, the actress is knitting using the British method, holding the wool in the right hand and "throwing" it. No German mother knits the British way and would use the continental method, holding the wool in the left hand and "picking" the stitch.