The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

This week, for the World War II Movie Blog, I am focusing on the movie, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

This movie shows the audience the view of the Holocaust in Germany during World War II through a young boy's eyes. The eight-year-old boy, Bruno, has a father who is an SS Officer. The movie starts with the family having to move away from Berlin, and Bruno and his older sister Gretel having to adjust to the move. Bruno really has no idea what his father's job is. In fact, most of the family doesn't really know what is going on in the concentration camp next door besides the father obviously.

The mother character in the story is told that the camp that her husband is running is just a labor camp. She teaches Bruno, her son, that they are living next door to a farm. Bruno, not having his friends, becomes extremely bored. One day, while he is seeking adventure, he finds himself escaping through a shed window in order to venture into the woods. He comes across a fence, which is enclosing the prisoners in the concentration camp. It is during this part of the movie where he meets 8-year-old Shmuel. Bruno and Shmuel become best buddies. Bruno continues to visit Shmuel and take him food, and the boys play games through the fence. Eventually Shmuel clears Bruno of his belief of that the camp is a farm. Shmuel has to explain to Bruno that he is a prisoner at a camp, and that he wears the striped pajamas because he is a Jew.

Bruno and Gretel are home-schooled. Their teacher fills them about information on current events, and fills their heads about the ideas of the Nazi party. He tries to explain how horrible the Jews are to the children, but this is difficult for Bruno to grasp because the Jews he knows in his life, Shmual and Paval, a Jew that works in their home, are good people. Gretel on the other hand becomes like all creepy and obsessed with the Third Reich.

One night at supper, Paval, accidently spills one of the Nazi's wine glass. To punish him, the Nazi takes Paval into the kitchen and sadly beats him to death. I didn't like this part of the movie at all. I liked Paval. He was a good man. But anyways, to take Paval's place, Shmuel becomes a house boy. He tells Bruno how he is hungry so Bruno tells him to have a piece of cake. When he still is eating the mean Nazi that killed Paval comes in and makes Bruno scared so he betrays his friend. When Bruno goes back to the camp to visit Shmual he finds him there with his eye all swollen and it is obvious that he had been beat. The two boys make up and become friends again.

When the mom in the story finds out that the camp is actually a Death Camp she does not approve of what her husband is doing and they decide that the mother should take herself and the children to go and move in with their aunt. The parents were still unaware of the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel, and had no idea what the two boys were planning. Shmuel had told Bruno that his dad had gone missing so Bruno, being the adventurous and kind-hearted boy he is, tells Shmuel that he is going to help him find his father. The boys cast out on their adventure the day that Bruno is supposed to move away. The boys planned that Bruno would get into the camp by digging a hole under the fence, and he would change into the striped pajamas and wear a little striped hat so he would look like a Jew.

The boys never do find Shmuel's father. Instead, they find themselves being hearded into a room where they are told they will be taking a shower. As most of us know, the boys would not be taking a shower. They were going to be gassed.

When Bruno's family realizes Bruno is missing, they all go frantic and start a massive search. Eventually they come across a hole under the fence, and Bruno's clothes laying on the dirt ground. The father goes in to search for Bruno, and to find that his son had been gassed at a death camp that he was in charge of.

I think that this movie really captures the horror of what was going on in the concentration camps, and how some people saw them. Although I'm guessing no person in history had an experience such as Bruno's, I still think it is a very good and educational movie and I suggest people that havent seen it should watch it.

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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

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