The Boy in Striped Pajamas

Director Mark Herman’s 2002 film adaptation of John Boyne’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas portrays the events of the Holocaust in a whole new perspective. Through the eyes of both the eight-year-old son of a concentration camp commander, and Jewish camp prisoner of the same age, the simple truths of atrocity are brought to light in the most simple, yet haunting fashion. Viewpoint and perception play an unparalleled role in the film’s ability to raise questions, provoke thought, and introduce the themes present in a myriad of Holocaust related films in a way that viewers of all ages could understand.



The film really plays up the concept of guilt in relation to the Holocaust. It over simplifies the Holocaust in a way that forces one to think about the grandiose spectrum of complex aspects and events that made it a reality. In forces one to recognize the truths of the events. Like we have learned in class, it is crucial to contemplate the idea of guilt, awareness, and rationalization in regard to the Holocaust and realize that not only was mass extermination at hand, but individual loss of life. The film does this in an interesting way because the loss of life that is most significant in the film is that of an 8 year old German boy. The hellaciousness of the camps is only realized by Bruno's father when it is his own son's life at stake. In this way, the film forces the audience to contemplate the situation by putting them in the shoes of Bruno's family.



The film is interesting because each main character has a differing opinion on the Holocaust. In charge of Auschwitz, Bruno's father feels as though is job is important -- he is deeply instilled in Nazi ideology and practice. Bruno's grandmother, on the other hand, is outwardly against the ways of the Nazi party. His mother is apprehensive. We do not know whether or not she is against the Nazi practices as a whole, but get the feeling that she is in the way that she does not want her children to know about it and is somewhat sympathetic towards the Jewish prisoner who works in their family kitchen. Bruno's older sister plays the part of a typical German youth -- brainwashed with the ideology and the prime target for the Hitler Youth program. She eats up the propaganda and views her father as a good man and the Jews as "the enemy." Bruno is naive in the story. He does not know what is going on. He thinks his father is a good man, but he also thinks that his Jewish friend Schmuel seems good -- how could he be an enemy?



Though the film ends shortly after Shmuel and Bruno are killed in the gas chambers, the audience is left to contemplate the concept of guilt and blame. Who should be blamed for Bruno's death? If the gas chambers never existed, then none of this would have happened. It is a really interesting way to present the topic and is unlike any other Holocaust representation I have ever seen.