Movie Review: 'The Boy in Striped Pajamas'

Movie Summary

Set in Berlin during the 1940s, ‘The Boy in Striped Pajamas’ explores the complex, yet considerably simple, concepts surrounding morality and goodness through the eyes of an eight-year-old German child, Bruno. Son to the Nazi commandant of the German concentration camps, the young boy moves to the countryside from Berlin with his family. Confined within his new house with no friends and little means of entertainment, Bruno, having the spirit of an explorer, finds his new life rather dull, unexciting, and lonely.

Through the window of his room, Bruno gets a glimpse of one of the concentration camps, which he dubs to be a farm - a strange farm where people wear pajamas all the time. His first encounter with one of those farmers happens to be with Pavel, the helping hand, from the camp, at his house. Dressed in shabby, dirty pajamas with oversized shoes, Pavel looks frail and in ill-health. In their first and only conversation together, Bruno finds that Pavel previously practiced as a medical doctor - a feat the young boy finds strange and amusing for who would want to become a 'potato peeler' over a doctor.

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During the initial half itself, it becomes clear that Bruno lacks knowledge regarding the concentration camps, the by-product of the socio-political unrest happening in his country. The general unwillingness of those around him to give straight answers to Bruno's questions about the camp portrays their desire to preserve the young boy's innocence. It hints at their belief in the fundamental wrongness of the camp or that of the situation within it.

Shielded from the gruesome reality happening outside his house, Bruno finds himself a window to escape into the woods for exploration. In his expedition, Bruno reaches the camp's border, where he meets an eight-year-old boy, Shmuel. Like Bruno, Shmuel is unaware of the grave situation that led him and others there. Soon, the two boys befriend each other. Bruno brings food for Shmuel, and they spend time playing and talking to each other from opposite sides of the electrified fences. However, Bruno soon learns about his new friend's Jewish heritage, making him uncomfortable.

Shortly after that visit, Bruno asks his tutor whether 'nice' Jews existed, hoping for positive affirmation regarding his friend. But Bruno's tutor strongly asserts that the Jews are evil, dangerous, and the enemy. The eight-year-old struggles to navigate the contrasting notion of Jews presented by his tutor and of which he experienced himself. Not wanting to lose his only friend, Bruno resumes his visits to the camp border.

In one of these visits, Shmuel shares his concern about the unknown whereabouts of his father in the camp. Knowing about the demise of his friend's other family members, Bruno decides to help Shmuel find his only family left. Furthermore, Bruno and his family, aside from his father, had decided to move someplace else, increasing the urgency to help his friend. Shmuel borrows an extra pair of pajamas, and Bruno digs under the fence to crossover to the other side.

The atmosphere inside the camp contrasted to that shown on the televisions. Bruno felt uneasy seeing the unlively campsite without the cafes and restaurants he believed existed there. Despite voicing his reluctance, Bruno pushed himself to help his friend. In the search for Shmuel's father, the young boys, along with others, get rounded up and are led to a chamber. Realizing that their son is missing, Bruno's parents search in desperation and come across his discarded clothes outside the campsite. The movie climaxes with the father's late realization and the demise of both Bruno and Shmuel inside the gas chamber used to murder Jews.

Historical Background

Following the death of the German president in 1934, Hitler, appointed as the Chancellor of Germany, received unchecked legislative power (USHMM, 2020). The Nazi government institutionalized discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, politics, and sexual orientation (Kibler, 2019). These 'asocial' groups suffered from incarceration, forced labor, medicinal experimentation, and genocide (Kibler, 2019).

Anti-Semitic laws enforced in 1935 legalized the dissolution of Jewish citizenship and civil rights for German Jews (Evans, 2003). The weighted restrictions prevented the Jews from seeking or retaining employment, using public facilities, and exercising fundamental human rights (Hegg, 2013). Via purposeful overexertion, starvation, provision of abject living quality, and usage of mass gas chambers, the Nazis systematically exterminated Jews in their camps (Hegg, 2013). During the Holocaust (1933 - 1945), over six million Jews succumbed to this systematic genocide of the Nazi government (Buchholz, 2021). Likewise, accounting for those displaced due to the Holocaust's atrocities, the number of casualties reaches an estimated 11 to 17 million (USHMM, 2013).

Media played a substantive role in consolidating the power of the Nazis. Shortly after Hitler ascended to power, the Nazi Party created the Propaganda Ministry. Through the Reich Press Chamber, the Propaganda Ministry gained control over the Reich Association of the German Press. Through this, the Nazi Party banned the employment of Jews and those married to Jews in press and journalism (USHMM, n.d.-b). Furthermore, the ministry exercised content control through detailed guidelines on what is and is not acceptable. It oversaw the radio, film, newsreels, theater, and music, further promoting and consolidating the Nazi ideology (USHMM, n.d.-b). They imposed censorship, banned certain books from school curricula, and instead introduced new textbooks promoting obedience to state authority, militarism, racism, and antisemitism, and taught love towards Hitler (USHMM, n.d.-a). Media, hence, became an integral tool in indoctrinating people on notions of racial supremacy and racial purity of the Aryans and the biological inferiority of non-Aryan races.

Present-Day Context

After the Holocaust, the international community pledged against genocides and mass murders. The relatively strengthened international and national laws on crimes and the increased connectivity of the international community have ensured that atrocities similar to the Holocaust do not happen in the present world. However, despite enhanced socio-political accountability and transparency, such atrocities, to an extent, continue to occur presently.

China's Xinjiang province houses a substantial population of Uyghur and Kazakh Muslims. Previously, 20 million of these Muslims lived in Xinjiang, but since the enforcement of 'vocational training' and 're-education' camps, China claims the current residence of these Muslims as only 12.2 million (McDermott, 2021). In 2017, evidence showed 380 detention centers established across the province (Graham-Harrison, 2020). These centers are often near industrial parks, highlighting the direct pipeline between arbitrary detention and forced labor (Graham-Harrison, 2020). The ethnic minorities, upon forced admission into the camps, are subjected to systematic torture, brainwashing, humiliation, and extermination (McDermott, 2021). Furthermore, the state's media control and censorship hinder informing the prevalence of such atrocities happening within the country.

The genocide in Germany and that happening in China presently share commonalities - establishment of concentration camps in the guise of work camps; forced labor, abuse, and extermination of a specific population; heavily state-controlled media apparatus. Despite significant strides made to affirm human rights for all, crimes against humanity continue to exist.

Although the concentration camps in China directly draw inferences with the German genocide on a concerningly large scale, atrocities in the name of culture, religion, politics, and sexual orientation continue to occur globally on a relatively smaller scale. Movies like ‘The Boy in Striped Pajamas’ show a glimpse of the sufferings of the victims of human rights atrocities. Although they do not paint the complete picture, they provide a platform where people unfamiliar with the gravity of the situation learn to understand and empathize. The visual representation of human rights atrocities informs viewers about the extreme fundamental wrongs and injustices happening around them. Without such movies, the voices against the Muslim concentration camps in China would not have risen; that the outroars against human rights atrocities due to socio-political tension, regressive legal policies, and intentional infliction of violence by any institution would be feeble.

Conclusion

‘The Boy in Striped Pajamas’ explores the horrors of the Holocaust from the innocent viewpoint of an eight-year-old German boy. By raising uninformed questions about the concentration camps, the movie compels us to ponder upon the 'why's and ‘how’ of the occurrence of human rights atrocities, often making the viewers feel uncomfortable. Although based on the events of the Holocaust, which happened almost a century ago, the movie is still prevalent today. It makes the viewers question the notions surrounding morality and human goodness. Although supposed to be simple, these concepts have formed a grey area around which the present world human rights atrocities - whether in violent or non-violent forms - revolve around. Such movies inform viewers about the horrors that existed, continue to exist, and might exist in the future. With this knowledge, viewers learn to become more empathetic towards others, prompting them to stand up against injustices, irrespective of whether it affects them or not. Hence, media, once used for indoctrination by the Nazi state, serves as an educational tool - a tool used for the benefit of the people rather than that of the state; a tool that aware and affirms people's rights and freedoms and empowers them to take a stand against atrocities.

References

1. Evans, R. J. (2003). The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin Press.
2. Graham-Harrison, E. (2020, September 24). China Has Built 380 Internment Camps in Xinjiang, Study Finds. The Guardian.
3. Hegg, A. S. (2013). Crossing the Line: A Discussion of Motives within The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Research Papers.
4. Herman, M. (Director). (2008). The Boy in Striped Pajamas [Film]. Miramax; BBC Films; HeyDay Films.
5. Kibler, T. (2019, October 1). The Nuremberg Trials and Their Profound Impact on International Law. HeinOnline Blog. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
6. McDermott, G. (2021, October 15). Concentration Camps Are Back: This Time in China. WORLD.
7. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2013). Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database.
8. USHMM. (2020). The Nazi Party. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
9. USHMM. (n.d.-a). Indoctrinating Youth. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
10. USHMM. (n.d.-b). Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 9, 2022.