The boy in the striped pajamas

I am a part of a group called Senior Reading Raccoons SRR on Facebook. It is a group of people who live and love books, buy and read and review and discuss books. Suggestions are asked for, criticism is taken in stride. There are authors who have published their books, there are newbies like me who want to read every day, at least for half and hour and there are people who finish 80-100 books a year. I heard about the book on this forum. 'The boy in the striped pajamas'. It definitely piqued my interest and I googled for it. Saw two boys on the cover. They were separated by a fence.

After adding the book to my ever increasing to be read books, I had completed forgotten about it and suddenly yesterday while surfing Netflix, I happened to catch a glimpse of the movie and decided to watch it. And boy, it didn't disappoint me at all. I was moved to tears for sure.

A German family shifts next to a concentration camp where Jews are held captive. The father of that family is an army officer and he is given the charge of 'eradicating' the filthy Jews and bring the lost glory of Germany back. Initially, it is very boring for the small boy in the family and he does not understand the dirty politics and yearns to play with someone. He spots the camp far off and assumes that farmers stay there and they 'look' little different and wear pajamas. Little does he know that it is a dress code of the Jew prisoners waiting to be executed.

He somehow finds a way to that camp and comes across a boy of his age whom he befriends and starts talking and interacting. Both the boys are oblivious of the precarious situation they are in and they try to play with each other and see each other almost every day.

The boy's mother realizes that her husband is involved in killing the Jews in the gas chambers and she is not able to handle it. She fights with him and demands to go away from the camp for the sake of her children to which the father reluctantly agrees. Now that the little boy has found a friend in the other side of the fence, he doesn't want to leave. But he has no choice and he goes to say goodbye to his friend not before agreeing to find the father of that boy in the camp who has gone missing since yesterday. He enters the camp with his friend wearing the striped pajamas and thus becomes one of them.

His parents realize that he is missing and they rush to the camp to look for him. But alas, the two small boys and the other men scheduled to die that day are taken to the gas chamber by deceit and are exhumed there. The parents let out a huge cry, but it is too late. The father unwillingly and unknowingly also sacrifices his son for the country.

The closing scene is most powerful where the doors are banged from inside to get released, but after some time the noise ceases and only the striped dresses of the prisoners are shown.

The direction is superb and so is the acting of two small boys. Such innocence and brilliance. The carefree and playful nature of kids is depicted very nicely against the backdrop of the political turmoil. They are not aware what exactly is going on and they do not want to be a part of it either, but sadly they are also sucked into the holocaust and their blooming lives are brought to abrupt end, thanks to the hate craze that had gripped the country during second world war.

Hatred blinds reason and innocent lives are lost in the process. The common man always suffers and I am very certain that there were quite a few Germans that time who didn't approve of what happened, but they had no choice. Policies and political pressure was such that they had to play along.

I actually should have read the book first and then watched the movie. Movies are generally loose adaptations and may not be as good as books. But the subject is such a beauty that I am sure the director has done justice to the book. I will definitely read the book and decide for myself, which one I like better!