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Roberto goes to a film at the movies with his brother Sergio and his friends Memo and Samuele.
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Nazi soldiers invade the theatre and take the Italian boys on a train to work for them in camps.
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The Nazi soldiers seperate the boys so that it is likely that they will not speak the same dialect of Italian, therefore making it difficult for them to communicate. Roberto and Samuele are seperated from Sergio and Memo.
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Roberto and Samuele must work together to hide the fact that Samuele is Jewish. They do so by changing Samuele's name to Enzo. Another boy at the camp finds out that Enzo is Jewish so he blackmails them for food.
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By now winter was taking effect and it was really cold. Food was scarce and the boys had been taken to another camp in Europe in the Ukraine. The boys found themselves working next to a concentration camp and would help sneak food to two Polish girls in the camp.
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The boys were caught by the German soldiers and were sent to a more diciplined training camp.
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Many of the Italian boys would freeze to death from the harsh European winters. When the boys (or Nazi soldiers) died, the boys would take their clothes. Enzo was caught taking a Nazi soldier's boots and was beaten to death.
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Roberto somehow manages to escape the German training camp and wanders into the woods alone.
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Roberto is alone in a forest fighting for survival from the harsh cold and lack of food.
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Roberto eventually finds a destroyed village with what looks like no survivors. However there was one survivor, a young boy that he called "Rigazzo", the Italian word for boy.
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Despite the language barrier between the boys, they manage to work together to gather any remaining supplies and food from the destroyed houses.
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After some travelling with the boy, Roberto is caught by Nazi soldiers and shot.
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The boy helps Roberto recover from his wound and they carry on travelling together.
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Roberto and the boy part ways and Roberto finds a boat.
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Roberto begins his journey home on the boat when he is caught by an Italian soldier named Maurizio.
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Maurizio is an Italian soldier who dropped out of fighting because he saw that it was wrong. Roberto's wound gets infected and he has a fever.
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Maurizio helps Roberto heal his infected wound and helps him get back home. Roberto learns that Maurizio plans on joining the partigiani to protest against war. Roberto decides he will join too.
