The Boy in the Stripped Pajama's

Retell:

                  In the movie, The Boy in the Stripped Pajama’s, an innocent boy named Bruno is faced with difficult choices that help him open his eyes to the truth. The movie begins in the 1940’s, during World War 2, and is vitally based off the treatment of Jew’s, as seen through the eyes of a Wehrmacht soldiers kid.

                   In the time of Prewar Germany a soldier, Ralf, and his family are sent to command a concentration camp. There Bruno, who is constantly referred to as an “adventurer”, wonders to a concentration camp, which is first referred to as a farm, and comes face to face with a Jew named Shmuel, the boy in the stripped pajamas.  After having constant encounters in which Bruno learns more about the treatment of Jews, they begin to form a new friendship, which Bruno later discovers is a sin in Germany. The constant encounters not only make Bruno more aware but start to make him question his father’s intentions, which are later relieved when Bruno secretly watches a propaganda film.

                Near the end, Shumel explains to Bruno that his father has been “missing”, which causes Bruno to get worried, and brings him to the conclusion of helping Shumel find his dad. The next day, the same day Bruno is scheduled to leave, he enters the concentration camp disguised as a Jew in hopes of finding Shumels “missing dad”, who is actually dead. During the endeavor Shumel and Bruno are pushed into a gas chamber in which they are scheduled to be exterminated. Meanwhile, the members of the family are worried sick and are going mad in search for their now corrupted child, Bruno. By the time they realize Bruno has been gassed, Bruno and all the other Jews are dead.   

Relate:

               The movie, the boy in the striped pajama’s, relates to the event that took place in Rwanda. The story behind Rwanda started the same time the Great War began. The country was facing privation due to the increasing social economic and political pressures. This began to tear the already split nation because the Hutu, an ethnic group, began to accuse the other group Tutsi of causing problems in the nation. Later, in April, President Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed. This event triggered riots in the country, for the Hutu group blamed the Tutsi group of being rebellious and murdering the president. Soon after the Tutsi’s were blamed, genocide began; the Hutu’s began to execute the Tutsi population in mass amount.

               This relates to the movie because in both scenarios’ mass murder of a certain ethnic group is taking place.  In the movie Jews are being gassed for they are to blame for the hardship of the country, which is exactly why the Tutsi population is being slaughtered. Thus, this is why the movie makes me think of the treatment the Rwanda Tutsi’s went through.

  

Reflect:

                After watching the film I felt the feelings of anger, that made me question humanity. Human nature is a term used when describing what all humans are supposedly meant to be like, common traits that distinguish a human from other species. As kids, we were told that a human is an angel, and that no one is out to harm another being. If humans were as “human” as we define them, then why would someone think mass murder is the solution (not only Hitler but others like Mussolini).

                Not only that, but the movie opened my eyes to child soldiers. Bruno, even if he was not a child soldier, he saw a lot of things at a young age that inevitably would have resulted in a terrible guilt filled life. Also, Shumel, who was a young boy, faced unbearable damage that could never be unseen. This movie brought me to the conclusion of how innocent and precious young minds are, and how certain events can change them drastically. The environment a child is raised in is crucial when defining his/her character. For example, an environment like a concentration camp would cause a child’s emotions to be envious and revengeful; they would hate a race, for that race murdered their family. Overall, the movie impacted me because it helped me realize the importance of child innocence, and how early exposure could corrupt the young mind.