[1][2] Friedrich Schneider is a young Jewish boy growing up in an apartment house in Germany, with the narrator as his neighbour and friend.
Though the story is told by his non-Jewish friend (Hans Peter Richter or the narrator), Friedrich is the protagonist.
Friedrich is forced to switch to a Jewish school and is thrown out of swimming pools and movie theaters.
An angry mob goes to his house and kills his mother (see Pogrom).
Friedrich finds a girlfriend, Helga, whom he likes, but soon he must stop seeing her, or she will be sent to a concentration camp.
After the raid, the narrator, his family, Herr Resch, and his wife return to the house.
Herr Resch decides to get rid of him by kicking him, and they realise that Friedrich is dead, killed by shrapnel (not specified).
The narrator talks about how he and Friedrich never met: their parents lived in a different apartment building, which was owned by a man named Herr Johann Resch.
When Friedrich drops the pancake, they decided to share and eat it from the ground.
Also,the narrator's mother remarks that Friedrich looks "like a little Jew" (in a non-hostile way), probably due to the fact he is circumcised.
However, since the narrator's and his family are poor, they are helpless to Schneider's generosity, which makes them feel even poorer.
The narrator and Friedrich were playing with a ball when Hans accidentally threw it into a shopkeeper's window, breaking it.
The woman accuses Friedrich of breaking her shop window and trying to steal and insulted him for being a Jew.
Hans immediately confessed to breaking her window and denied that Friedrich was trying to steal.
Someone had called the police, and the woman explained the attempted 'burglary' of her shop, while Hans defended Friedrich.
Then, Herr Schneider came and the woman explained the situation to him, leaving out her insinuation about Jews.
Herr Schneider agreed to pay her for the damage, if the police let Friedrich free.
Herr Schneider and Friedrich disappeared inside the house while the narrator stood outside.