Earlier tonight, my brother and I both saw a movie called The Boy In the Striped Pajamas. It was an EXCELLENT movie! It was so sad though! It was a story about two little boys in Nazi-era Germany during World War II. One boy was named Bruno, and the other one named Shmuel (発音：シュモル). Bruno was the son of a high-ranking Nazi commander, and Shmuel was a Jewish child in the concentration camp that Bruno's father controlled. Bruno was bored everyday because he had nothing to do at his new house. However, one day, Bruno was walking through the forest when he saw a wire fence. He walked closer, and then he saw a little kid sitting down on the other side of the fence. Bruno was so innocent that he had no clue that Shmuel was a prisoner--Bruno even thought that the clothes Shmuel was wearing were pajamas, but they were actually the uniform for prisoners.
As the story progresses, Bruno wonders more and more if his father is actually a bad person. When his mother finds out that her husband is in charge of killing all of the Jewish people in the concentration camp, she becomes physically sick and wants to move to a new house immediately--far away from the smokestacks that burn the bodies of the prisoners. At the end of the story, (on the day that Bruno's family is moving to a new place) Bruno wants to say goodbye to Shmuel. He goes to the prison camp and digs a hole under the fence to help Shmuel find his dad (they are both so young so they think that Shmuel's dad is just missing, but of course, he is actually dead). Both of the boys are taken with a crowd of people into a gas chamber, and they have to take off their prison uniforms and wait in the room. In just a few minutes, the gas is turned on, and everyone is dead. Shmuel and Bruno, of course, die immediately.
The story ends with Bruno's mom, dad, and sister running as fast as they can to get to the death camp. They realized that Bruno MUST be there because they could not find him at the house. All three of them are a few minutes too late. They were not able to save Bruno. The mom falls down on the ground and begins to cry extremely hard! I felt so sad for her!
The movie ends there. It lets the audience wonder about what happened after that. Did Bruno's dad quit his job? Did Bruno's sister denounce all of the anti-Semitic things that she used to proclaim? Did Bruno's mom divorce or leave her husband? Did the family leave Germany and go to somewhere like Switzerland? Did the particular concentration camp that Shmuel was in get closed down? Lots of questions!
The most important thing about this movie is that it makes you think about how war impacts the most innocent and most vulnerable people. It also reminds us that we must take the time to look around ourselves and see if there is any injustice that we can help to stop. This movie left me feeling that humanity should never (no matter what the circumstances are) create a war even half the size of World War II. We should make an effort to deal with political differences in a much more productive manner--because killing millions of people just because of political differences is not a good reason to go to war! I hope the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stop soon, because even though they may not be as "bad" as World War II was, there is no reason to continue killing people because of clashes between governments.
The Boy In the Striped Pajamas was based on a book of the same title. I am definitely going to read it during Christmas break. I know this was a very long post, but I thought it was important to write about the movie I saw because the movie was a reminder of how the world once was--and we do NOT want the world to return to its old ways.
The movie I saw was extremely moving and I hope that all of you will be able to see it. It will probably be translated into Japanese and other languages very soon, because it is such a strong and important film.
Here is the official website for the movie:
http://www.boyinthestripedpajamas.com/#/home
***In the picture above, the word "pajamas" is spelled "pyjamas." The word パジャマ is spelled "pajamas" in American English, and "pyjamas" is British English.
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