Category Archives: Holocaust

by

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) or An unusual look at the Holocaust

The movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is based on a novel by John Boyne.

The movie tells the story of Bruno, an eight year old boy, whose father is a high ranking Nazi officer newly appointed to be in charge of a concentration camp.

The family leaves Berlin (shot in Budapest, by the way) for a place somewhere in the country, near a concentration camp. The story is purely seen through the eyes of the little boy which creates some very uneasy moments.

I believe that the major theme of this movie is knowing and knowledge. We do know what happened during the third Reich. We know what Endlösung – The Final Solution – means. We know about concentration camps and extermination camps. Watching this movie with all this background information makes for a lot of discomforting moments. All the signs, the chimneys and the smoke, the people in the striped pyjamas… We know what to make of them. Bruno does not. And neither does his mother as it would seem.

The crucial moment is when Bruno meets the boy behind the barbed wire, the boy in the striped pyjamas, Shmuel. An impossible friendship begins. Bruno understands after a while that this boy is a Jew; at the same time he is taught by a fanatic private tutor that Jews are vermin.

Boyne says in an interview that he wanted to tell a different story, add something new to a topic that has been taken up so many times. He is very successful. One thing is for sure, no one who watches The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is going to forget it easily. The whole way it is told plus the more than atrocious end is by far too unusual to be forgotten.

I am sure it is one of the best movies to teach children the Holocaust.

To be honest, I am still a bit speechless. The whole film and especially the ending are like being kicked in the gut. I am quite awed by the little actors. Asa Butterfield, who plays Bruno, is amazing. This little kid has a way of talking with his eyes that is rarely found in grown up actors. To cut a long story short: Watch it!

See also Children in War Movies: A List

by

The Truce aka La tregua (1997) or Primo Levi´s Odyssey from Auschwitz back home

The late Italian writer Primo Levi was one of 650 Italian Jews who were deported to Auschwitz. He was one of only five to survive.

All of his life he suffered of survivor´s guilt and feelings of shame remembering how much they were degraded. In 1987 he very probably committed suicide. I say probably since it was not 100% established but everything points to it.

He wrote two famous books about the Holocaust.  If this is a man aka Se questo è un uomo about his time in Auschwitz and  The Truce aka La tregua about his odyssey back home from Auschwitz to Italy.

Francesco Rosi’s movie The truce aka La tregua is based on the second of those books.

Did you ever wonder what happened to the prisoners of Auschwitz after they had been freed by the Red Army? Being free was one thing but getting back home another one altogether.

Levi´s odyssey brought him first farther away from his home country Italy, to Minsk.  You could not just board a train at leisure. The railway lines had mostly been destroyd. And what about food without money in countries whose populations were starving? It takes Primo months until he gets back.  He finally arrives after stressful moments of a long and complicated journey, mishaps, dangers but also of  joy and rediscovering the beauty of life.

I knew John Turturro from his movies with the Coen brothers where he plays mostly a comical character. This is a very different role but it felt as if it had been created for him. He plays this sad, pensive and gentle intellectual in a very endearing manner.

The last scene shows Primo writing. That’s what he will do from now on, that and working as a chemist. And he will leave two of the most accurate and painful accounts of Auschwitz and the journey home that we have.

People who read the book La tregua criticize the movie relentlessly but I think we should also see it as a homage to a man who had the courage to testify but never really got over the fact to have been one of a very few to survive.

I liked this movie, I really did, probably thanks to Turturro´s soulful acting.

During the last scene of the movie, when we see Primo Levi writing, we hear a voice in the off reading his poem If  This is a Man aka Se questo è un uomo.

Please, take a few minutes and read it.

Voi che vivete sicuri You who live safe
Nelle vostre tiepide case In your warm houses,
voi che trovate tornando a sera You who find warm food
Il cibo caldo e visi amici And friendly faces when you return home.
Considerate se questo è un uomo Consider if this is a man
Che lavora nel fango Who works in mud,
Che non conosce pace Who knows no peace,
Che lotta per mezzo pane Who fights for a crust of bread,
Che muore per un sì o per un no. Who dies by a yes or a no.
Considerate se questa è una donna Consider if this is a woman
Senza capelli e senza nome Without hair, without name,
Senza più forza di ricordare Without the strength to remember,
Vuoti gli occhi e freddo il grembo Empty are her eyes, cold her womb,
Come una rana d’inverno. Like a frog in winter.
Meditate che questo è stato Never forget that this has happened.
Vi comando queste parole. Remember these words.
Scolpitele nel vostro cuore Engrave them in your hearts,
Stando in casa andando per via When at home or in the street,
Coricandovi alzandovi When lying down, when getting up.
Ripetetele ai vostri figli. Repeat them to your children.
O vi si sfaccia la casa Or may your houses be destroyed,
La malattia vi impedisca May illness strike you down,
I vostri nati torcano il viso da voi May your offspring turn their faces from you.
by

Holocaust Movie Quotes Film Quiz 6

Today´s quiz is an addition to the post of yesterday about Triumph of the Spirit. The quotes below are all taken from Holocaust movies.

The following movies are hidden behind the quotes: La vita è bella aka Life is beautiful, Schindler´s List, Sophie´s Choice, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Pianist,  Triumph of the Spirit, and Holocaust. Do you recognize the quotes? The solutions are just above the respective movie.

Movie 1

“I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don’t know. If I’d just… I could have got more.”
“Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.”
“If I’d made more money… I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I’d just… ”
“There will be generations because of what you did.”
“I didn’t do enough!”
“You did so much.”
[… looks at his car]
“This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people.”
[removing Nazi pin from lapel]
“This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this.”
[sobbing]
“I could have gotten one more person… and I didn’t! And I… I didn’t!”

Movie 2

It’s an official decree, no Jews allowed in the parks.
“What, are you joking?”
“No, I’m not. I would suggest we sit down on a bench, but that’s also an official decree, no Jews allowed on benches.”
“This is absurd.”
“So, we should just stand here and talk, I don’t think we’re not allowed to do that.”

Movie 3

“Listen, I’m only going to say this once. For those who can hear me tell the rest. First come the SS, our lord and masters. Then comes our block health manager, Kyr. Then come the assistants, Otto and me. Then come the rats. Then come the lice… and then come you.”

Movie 4

“There is no hope! Karl is in prison and Rudi ran away! Never a word from him! And Papa, in Poland, where it’s like they came after him! Mama, you’re acting as if this is a play. Writing letters. Talking about Papa’s patients.”
“It does no harm.”
“You always had that notion that you were someone special, so fine, so educated! The Nazis would never hurt you or your children! And look! Look what’s happened to us!”
[sobs hysterically]
“Anna, your mother can’t be blamed.”
“New Year’s Eve! And who knows if any one of us will be alive for the next New Year!”

Movie 5

“No Jews or Dogs Allowed.” Why do all the shops say, “No Jews Allowed”?
“Oh, that. “Not Allowed” signs are the latest trend! The other day, I was in a shop with my friend the kangaroo, but their sign said, “No Kangaroos Allowed,” and I said to my friend, “Well, what can I do? They don’t allow kangaroos.”
“Why doesn’t our shop have a “Not Allowed” sign?”
“Well, tomorrow, we’ll put one up. We won’t let in anything we don’t like. What don’t you like?”
“Spiders.”
“Good. I don’t like Visigoths. Tomorrow, we’ll get sign: “No Spiders or Visigoths Allowed.”

Movie 6

“You’re so beautiful. I’d like to get you in bed. Are you a polack? You! Are you also one of those filthy communists?”
[walks away]
“I am a pole! I was born in Cracow! I am not a Jew. Neither are my children! They’re not Jews. They are racially pure. I am a Christian. I am a devout Christian.”
[the officer comes back]
“You are not a communist? You are a believer.”
“Yes sir, I believe in Christ.”
“You believe in Christ the redeemer?”
“Yes.”
[looks at the children] “Did He not say… “Suffer the children, come unto me?” ”
[…remains silent]
“You may keep one of your children.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You may keep one of your children. The other must go away.”
“You mean, I have to choose?”
“You are a Polack, not a Yid. That gives you a privilidge, a choice.”
“I can’t choose. I can’t choose!”
“Be quiet.”
“I can’t choose!”
“Make a choice. Or I’ll send both of them over there. Make a choice.”
“Don’t make me choose! I can’t!”
“Shut up! Enough! I’ll send them both over there! I told you to shut up! Make a choice!”
“I can’t choose! Please! I can’t choose!”
[to an officer] “Take BOTH children away!”

Movie 7

“I know it’s terrible trying to have any faith when people are doing such horrible… But you know what I sometimes think? I think the world may be going through a phase, the way I was with mother. It’ll pass. Maybe not hundreds of years, but someday. – I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart.”

If you liked this quiz, don´t miss some of the others:

Vietnam Movie Quotes 3

Film Pictures Quiz