Author's Note: The actual title of the movie is "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" but in the book's title, pajamas is spelled with a "y" so I decided to spell it that way.
Honestly, no one will ever be able to understand the cruelty of the Holocaust. The survivors will try again and again to tell their story and open our eyes, but the absolute horror of what the Nazis did to those in the concentration camps is so unreal, that sometimes it's impossible to cope with what they went through.
I am a major Holocaust researcher. I spend my free time reading books such as "Anne Frank's Diary" and looking up blogs on the Internet about Holocaust survivors. I aced the test on the Holocaust in English before we even started looking in on the subject.
The other day my friend on AIM IMed me saying, "We're learning about the Holocaust in English!" She started joking around about how the Jews were so skinny and they looked funny when they exited the camps after the Americans came. I almost ditched her, right then and there. I said earlier we cannot fully understand the horrors of Auschwitz and such but we can take a step forward to at least try. And when I hear people saying, "Oh, the Holocaust was so sad!" I just want to grab them and shake them so hard screaming "What do you know?! What on earth do you know about pain and suffering?!"
I don't pity people much. Everyday problems are so small and idiotic compared to the real world. I care, but I don't care enough to pity you when your boyfriend broke up with you or when you failed your math test. When you lay in bed all day worrying about what's to come, get up, my God, and LIVE.
I decided to take my friends to see a movie the first day of Thanksgiving break. I decided to introduce them to the world of the Holocaust by going to see the movie, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I knew it wouldn't be too intense considering it would be shown in a child's point of view, but powerful enough to slap them in the face so they would "get it."
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the story of a small boy named Bruno, who lives with his mother, his sister, Gretel, and his father who happens to be a Nazi officer in the 1940's of Berlin, Germany. Bruno's father gets promoted and they have to move out to a place which Bruno calls "Out-with." When they first arrive and Bruno is exploring his room, he looks out his window a notices a farm. Smoke continuously billows from chimneys above the "barn", creating an incredibly disgusting smell. One day in the kitchen, Bruno mentions the farm to his mother and explains the people who work there all wear pyjamas.
Bruno soon discovers that one of these "farmers" works in his kitchen peeling potatoes. His name is Pavel, a Jewish doctor who was forced to come to the concentration camp, Auschwitz. After setting up a tire swing in his front yard, Bruno discretely explores out in the back until he stumbles upon a large barb wired fence. He notices a small boy on the other side, wearing the same gray and white pyjamas Pavel was wearing. He soon learns the boy's name is Shmuel and him and Bruno are both eight years old. Bruno begins making daily visits, excited he has made a friend, often bringing with him mountains of food. He notices Shmuel always seems to be hungry. Shmuel explains to Bruno that he wears his "pyjamas" because the soldiers had taken his family's clothes away. Bruno mentions his father is a soldier, " . . . but not the kind that takes people's clothes away."
After an incident that involved Bruno getting Shmuel in trouble with a Nazi officer, Bruno decides to make it up by helping Shmuel's father, who had mysteriously disappeared. Bruno manages to get a pair of "pyjamas", slip under the fence, and help find Shmuel's father. But what happens when Bruno realizes Auschwitz is not what it seems?
A few words of criticism:
This movie was extremely well done, with great ignorance drawn to Bruno and what is really happening around him. There were a few historical errors. First of all, it would have been impossible for Bruno or Shmuel to have gotten anywhere near the barbed wire fence because according Holocaust survivors, anyone who dared to get at least a few feet from the fence would have been shot. Secondly, it also would've been impossible for Bruno to have merely dug a hole and climbed under the fence to the other side, considering the fences at Auschwitz plunged several feet into the ground.
The movie was greatly done, capturing the horrors of the Holocaust in the eyes of a little, ignorant child. Not only was Bruno ignorant, but so was Shmuel. But what can you expect from two eight year-olds?
My friends and I clung to each other throughout the whole movie. We were the only teenagers there, the rest being adults. We cried and cried and laughed. When we walked out of the theater we were greeted with excited teenage girls all over the theater lobby gushing over Twilight. My friends looked at me and shook their heads. We linked arms and walked out of the movie theater and headed home.
I was crying, not because of the movie, but because they finally understood what I had been trying to tell them.
-msof57
Author's Note: Sources: http://www.boyinthestripedpajamas.com/#/about-the-film
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0914798/
Picture source: http://www.impawards.com/2008/posters/boy_in_the_striped_pajamas.jpg
