If you love historical movies and also films that make you think more than entertain you, then you will want to see this movie. Last night as my wife and oldest son were at the Rec center in town for Karate class and my youngest was watching cartoons, I sat down at the computer to read email, catch up on Twitter, and read some news, I decided to find a movie to watch on Netflix. I chose The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. In one sense I am glad I did, but at the same time I wish I hadn’t.
The film is about a young boy named Bruno whose father is a Nazi during WWII. The family moves from Berlin to Poland to a new military post. As you might guess the “farm,” which is what they tell Bruno, is really a Nazi concentration camp.
Bruno’s parents try to shield him from the camp, not even letting him play in the part of the yard where he can see it. But as most boys would do, he wants to explore so he disobeys. He sneaks out into the yard where he sees, huddled next to some steal along the fence of the camp grounds, another young boy his age. Bruno and Shmuel begin talking and become friends.
The story is strangely quaint at this point. You are obviously amazed as you see the juxtaposition of a Nazi death camp along side a simple period story about two boys dealing with the horror of a holocaust and overcoming the prejudices of life to embark on an innocent friendship. You are delighted by the way the events seem to quietly remind us of the evils of this genocide. It is understated and even enjoyable. The friendship is giving us a lesson on what can happen if we would only return to our childhood innocence where kids are just kids until we grow up and realize we are supposed to hate one another. Before that happens, that other boy is just someone to play football (soccer for us Americans) with.
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After a horrible evening when an SS office kills the Jewish house servant, young Shmuel is asked to come inside and clean some glasses for dinner. He explains that it is because his hands are small so he can get inside them. Bruno sees him in the dining room and and is excited to see his young friend. A plate of cookies is on the table and Bruno offers some to Shmuel who is starving and devours some quickly. The same SS officer find the two boys and confronts Shmuel. Afraid he will get into trouble he of course tells the truth. It was Bruno who offered them. The anger of the officer is directed at our young hero and he, like 9 out of 10 young boys would do, lies to keep from getting into trouble. Even as he does this horrible thing, he is innocent. Sure it is wrong to lie. But, he cannot even imagine that his young friend would ever receive the kind of punishment that a Nazi SS officer would give for such a minor infraction.
The next time he sees his friend, he is badly beaten. Feeling guilty about what he did, he offers to help Shmuel find his father in the camp. Of course this will require that he sneak into the camp.
Now, Bruno was not the only family member oblivious to the horrors of the death camp. Upon returning from a shopping trip, the mother sees the column of ash and smoke rising from the two smoke stacks above a large brick building in the center of the camp. The SS officer that works with her husband walks by seeing her looking at the smoke and grimacing at the smell. He says, “They stink even when they are burning.” She suddenly realizes what is happening and confronts her husband. Eventually, with the marriage in trouble, they decide it would be best for Bruno, his mother and older sister to return to Berlin where it would be safer
Knowing this is his last chance to help his young friend, on the day of their leaving, he sneaks into the camp with Shmuel. It is at this point that you realize that this movie is not what it seemed. Up to this point it was a quiet, nice film about the innocence of childhood and the beauty of young morals untainted by adult hatreds. But on the very day that Bruno sneaks into the camp to help his friend find his father is also the very day that one of the men’s dorms is going to be “exterminated.” Of course the boys go into that dorm to find Shmuel’s father. And of course it is just as those men are being marched to the gas chamber for their “shower.” And of course it is at that point that the family realize he is gone. They never could even imagine he would do what he did because they know of the horrors that hid behind the barbed wire. So they do not even think to look in the camp until they find the hole dug under the fence.
When you get to the end you are expecting the father to make it to the gas chamber just in the nick of time before the horrible chemicals are poured into place to murder these people. He does not!
And the blank lines above are exactly what my emotions felt like after the credits began to role. It was a shock. I was at first numb. About midway through the film my son returned from Karate and he loves historical movies. So he pulled up a chair next to my computer and watched. We both sat there in silence and numb. And we looked at each other stunned. And then we both started to cry.
Films like this are important. They need to be made. They are artistic and beautiful. But then it is as if you are invited for a nice walk in the park on a lovely day. It is uncomfortable to see a little of the litter that lines the walk way, but it is still a nice day and you think how much nicer it would be if that garbage was not there. Then suddenly large man jumps out and hits you over the head with a shovel. That is how I felt watching this movie. It was a nice film about innocence in the midst of horror. But to end it without really ever seeing the horror would have trivialized this terrible historical occurrence. It must have been a terrible shock for the allied forces to discover these death camps. This film does a good job of making you feel the emotion. It is the perfect example of a PG-13 film with little if any profanity, no sexual content, and very little violence. But the emotional horror of the subject means you definitely don’t want to be fooled into thinking this is a movie for kids. Just because the two main characters are likely under ten.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves historical movies and realizes that films are not always there to entertain. Sometimes they are meant to make us think and this one made me thankful that there is a God who has settled the problem of sin once and for all.
