The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Summary

The movie is set in Nazi Germany during WW2 where a nine year old boy named Bruno was living with his family in Berlin and had to move to a new place since his father was a commandant officer in German army so they had to shift in a residence that was close to the Jewish concentration camps. Bruno was unhappy since he had to leave his friends and was restricted to go in the backyard or certain places. Bruno was an adventure loving kid denied all the restrictions and goes on to explore his backyard where he met up with a child sitting next to the other side of the fence wearing striped pajamas and torn clothes. The boy’s name was Shmuel and he was also a Jew serving alongside other prisoners inside the concentration camp. Bruno and Shmuel quickly became friends and shared the same birthdays. Bruno used to bring food for Shmuel everyday hiding away from the others inside the house. Meanwhile Bruno’s mother and father had an argument over the issue of the concentration camps and they decided to move back to the city where they could peacefully live their lives. Bruno came to know that Shmuel was a Jew and he wanted to help him find his father before he left with his family towards the city. Shmuel brought Bruno some pajamas so that they could blend into the atmosphere and both sneaked into the concentration camp. On that fateful day Bruno and Shmuel were dragged along other Jewish prisoners by the German soldiers to the gas chambers where they met their ultimate death hand in hand.

Reflect

The movie was dedicated towards those Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust and are still suffering from racism and discrimination around the world. Bruno always wanted to know why Jews were treated so harshly by Germany even though his father and hired teacher advocated the Nazi propaganda which he was never able to understand. The Nazi propaganda was used to literally brainwash the people’s minds. Another issue was that Bruno was a mere child and at that small age he could not understand why some people hated each other and similarly he just could not hate Shmuel or the caretaker of his residence despite both of them being Jews. I think that the meaning of this story was that we should treat everyone equally and never judge a person by what they believe. The two boys had such strong friendship that no propaganda or race differences could stand among their friendship even though it was heartbreaking to see them die in the end.

Relate

The movie relates to the Holocaust after the end of WW2 under the power of Nazi Germany. It shows how the Jews were tortured and discriminated in the concentration camps and how the life was miserable for the Jews during that period. Despite of the race and religion differences Bruno and Shmuel’s friendship was so stronger that they never cared what the society thought about them and their friendship broke the shackles of the society. It showed the point of view from an innocent child’s eyes and that a child never discriminates or considers others as enemies but as a friend. The author wanted to show the viewers the horror of the Nazi death camp through an innocent child’s eyes so that we could stop discrimination other Jewish people in the world and learn from the past’s mistakes.