The Harrowing Striped Pyjamas.

I am usually of the mind that the film of a book always falls short of expectations. However the film ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ is an exception to the rule. Note I have not actually read the book but, I cannot imagine it surpassing the film in conveying the beauty of the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel, the tragedy of the holocaust and the idiocy of the Nazi regime.  

Another rarity is crying at films. I often get those lumps that develop in ones throat during a sad film but this film had tears streaming silently down my face as I bit my lip and stared at the screen.

The well known historic backdrop to the film was subtle so as not to swallow the characters but blatant as it formed the basis of the events and was alluded to in every scene. The focus of the film was not really on the war itself or on the ‘farm with the electric fences’ but on the relationship of the two unlikely friends: Bruno and Shmuel. By focusing on relationships as oppose to the shocking events of the period, the film was made more personal and accessible and thus history is made more personal: something that happened to people as oppose to a list of names and dates on a war memorial.

The innocence of the children in the film is a refreshing antithesis to the stone cold soldiers, the awkward dinners and the anguish of the grandmother expressed at the beginning of the play. Bruno catches view of the men working on the ‘farm’ in ‘striped pyjamas’; an accurate yet erroneous description of the concentration camps. This innocence is seen again with Bruno describing in amazement the Jew, Pavlov, who ‘gave up’ being a doctor to peel potatoes. The beauty of the friendship between the two children is a beacon of hope amongst the hatred and confusion within the family and the nations.

 

I watched this film with my sister and her junior youth group and what seemed to resonate most with them was the scene in which Shmuel is working at the house polishing glasses and Bruno gives him food from the table. A soldier sees him eating and confronts the boy asking if he has been stealing to which Shmuel responds ‘No, he gave it to me. He is my friend’. When asked if this is true Bruno, after a long pause for conscience battling, denies it claiming he has never seen this boy in his life. We next see Shmuel back at the concentration camp with a bruised eye. The distressing consequences of dishonesty in the film caused my sister and her friends to become more aware of their truthfulness as they started to say “Don’t lie like the boy in the film” in conversation afterwards. Shmuel’s act of forgiveness is yet another example of hope in the film and another example for my sister of how to treat others…

 

 

So the next day I jump on a plane and fly to Germany. The Cologne Cathedral or Dom is a huge structure that seems almost out of place. At times it looks sinister with its blackened walls and gothic form which contrasts to the rest of the city due to the war having flattened all of Cologne save this cathedral. Walking through the city with my neck crooked upwards and this dark old structure staring at me was a poignant reminder of the war and its dark and destructive effects.

 

Some houses and shops in Germany also have gold tiles on the pavement outside to pay respect to each of the Jews that were killed during the war from that residence. Walking past a shop with 15 gold tiles at its doorstep, the reminders continue.