Day 3

'The boy in the striped pyjamas', is the topic of my blog post today. It is one of the most touching movies I have watched, although I didn't hear of it winning any major awards at movie festivals. The movie was released in the year 2008 and revolves around the innocent friendship between a Natzi General's small son about 8 years of age and a Jewish kid about the same age and who was a prisoner at a Natzi camp. Natzi camps were the places where the Germans(led by Hitler) held the poor Jewish captives.

Movies like 'Schindler's List' and more recent ones like 'Inglorius Bastards' have all focused on the cruelty of the Natzis in different manners. However, this film is all about the curiosity of a young child (a Natzi General's son) who did not in the least understand what the war in that time was about. Everytime his father had any missions or life threats they had to move houses making him lose his hard-earned friends which affected his small mind very much. Nevertheless, his mother was a mind-tempered and patient person who happened to be aware of the difficult time he was going through.

The movie focuses on how only a part of the Germans population supported the war Hitler was carrying on while the others were too afraid to do anything against it. Even though, the Natzi General's wife was against it and felt how ridiculous and cruel it was to torture innocent people like this, she was  bound with responsibilities she had for her husband to protest against it. Her son makes friends with a small Jewish boy he met at a Natzi camp situated at the backyard of his house, in such an environment. It was too touching to listen to the conversation between the two boys where the General's son couldn't understand why this small Jewish boy was always wearing pyjamas. To him, they were both similar in every way, playful and innocent as all his friends.

An electrical fence sperated the two boys from having further connection than exchanging food and talking. Thus the General's son wanted to have more time with his friend and look around his camp where he had no idea how dangerous it actually was. To the outside world, it was only known that the Jews were having a good time in those camps. Therefore, after borrowing a pyjama kit from his Jewish friend, this small German boy goes inside the Natzi camp. The tragic part is they get mixed up with a crowd of Jews who were being taken to the gas chamber and with no idea whatsoever of where they were going, led to the gas room and were gassed. That scene is an unexpected shock to the viewer where they actually expect the boys to be rescued somehow when the General and his wife find out their little boy was missing and start searching for him everywhere. But they were too late to find him and the pain of the mother is too pathetic to watch. The film depicts the irony of life where a Natzi General's son had to go through the same torture the General was giving the Jewish people. Thus it makes a strong opinion the viewers' mind.