Ariella

I went to watch this movie without knowing how sad it was. This is a quiet and devastating movie showing the children's view on the Holocaust.

Bruno, a Nazi officer's son, moved to a house in the middle of nowhere as his dad was promoted to be the officer in charge of a concentration camp. He could see the people in the concentration camp and thought that they were farmers wearing pyjamas. He was so bored in the isolation and managed to find a way out near the "Farm" and befriend with a Jewish boy in the striped pyjamas, Shmuel.

Their servant, who used to be a medical doctor, accidentally revealed his status to Bruno when the latter fell. I laughed when Bruno thought that the servant was too lazy to be a doctor. He was so naive!

This nice doctor disappeared....as you could tell what happened to him but Bruno did not. Shmuel came to their house to be an assistant servant before a party. Bruno gave him some cakes but another officer noticed it. Bruno was so scared of him and claimed that Shmuel stole them. At that point of time, I thought Shmuel would be dead. But he did not...he was wounded....I was so glad initially but realised something even more horrible would happen.

The story turned sour when Bruno's mother realised what her husband's real job is: to kill people and burn them away. Their marriage became hollow although they tried to look good in front of their children. Bruno was doubtful about his dad until he saw the fake movie his dad produced in order to please the Red Cross people that he was helping out the Jewish. He was so proud of his dad, although you can tell the dad was struggling to hide it from his own son.

Bruno's mum insisted on bring the children away from the horrible concentration camp. However, Bruno, who had always thought it was a game to be in the "Farm," decided to go into the "Farm" himself!

Well, I am not going to tell you the end.....

This movie was released during the Jewish New Year. It reminded me of my trip to the Czech Republic. I would love to go to Berlin and Poland to see more concentration camps. People in Taiwan may have thought that Japanese had killed more people. In fact, Germans did kill more and were willing to learn from their mistake.

Have a happy Jewish New Year.

Further reading: [Czech] Terezín/Theresienstadt/特瑞辛集中營, [Czech]Josefov/Jewish Quarter/猶太區, 【荷蘭遊記】阿姆斯特丹