Post by sporklemotion on Jul 25, 2014 12:14:55 GMT -5
@helenabonhamcarter: The book, to me, is the WWII version of First World Problems. Nazi officer's son (his father is running Auschwitz, I think?) is jealous of the freedom and fun that the concentration camp inmates on the other side of the fence enjoy. He has to wear shoes and eat yucky food and is stuck inside while they get to frolic in the winter fun unencumbered by things like baths or nutrition. And he would visit the inmate kid and then bitch about being hungry because he missed second breakfast or whatever, and the kid would be like, that must be tough. I get that we were supposed to see the limits of his perspective and that he was an unreliable narrator, but I just couldn't empathize and I really, really,hated the kid's ignorance and whining. It bordered on trivialization to me-- look how tough we all had it, and it wasn't great for anyone.
Plus, the narrator was like the dumbest kid ever. Totally unaware of what was going on around him. I think he was supposed to be nine, but acted more like six at times. I am not saying that a child of a Nazi officer would fully understand, but my guess is that he would have some idea that the people in the camp were not there for funsies. And not to stereotype, but I would guess that most children of high-ranking Nazi officials would have been subjected to Hitler-Youth type propagandizing.
I have blocked out some details, so I've taken some liberties here, but that is the gist.
Never saw the movie of the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but I have serious hate for the book. So much rage.
Do tell!
I feel like that whole movie was the Nicholas Sparks equivalent of that line from Jake Brigance's closing argument in A Time to Kill. "Now imagine she was white."
I sort of agree with sporklemotion - it's so very simple. Actually as I remember the little boy in the book was like 9 and now that I have kids, he acted very young, like 4 or 5 and clueless. It's just written as a coming of understanding novel with a kid and it has a sad ending, but SOOOO very different than actual accounts that it's more geared toward tweens than serious readers.
But it was a quick read and I read it on vacation once, so I think that is why I remembered it.
The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal works on figuring out forgiveness after the Holocaust. Very quick read.
I lurked the other thread but hadn't read it recently, and didn't have much to contribute, but am interested in seeing/reading some of the things mentioned in this bread.
This is a great book, and it really made me think. There are different editions that have a range of responses to the story and whether the protagonist should do what he is asked to do.
The movie The Last Days is really powerful-- it is a set of interviews with five Hungarian survivors, and it includes lots of footage. I rarely cry during movies, but there is an interview with a WWII vet, and tow of the survivors who make me cry every time.
Not directly about the Holocaust, but the book Everything is Illuminated explores Jewish identity (and absence) in modern Eastern Europe in a couple of ways. The narrator tries to find the village of his ancestors, but the borders and designations have changed. As someone whose family is from that area, it really affected me.
Never saw the movie of the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but I have serious hate for the book. So much rage.
why?
i haven't read the book so i have no idea where this is going.
The book, to me, is the WWII version of First World Problems. Nazi officer's son (his father is running Auschwitz, I think?) is jealous of the freedom and fun that the concentration camp inmates on the other side of the fence enjoy. He has to wear shoes and eat yucky food and is stuck inside while they get to frolic in the winter fun unencumbered by things like baths or nutrition. And he would visit the inmate kid and then bitch about being hungry because he missed second breakfast or whatever, and the kid would be like, that must be tough. I get that we were supposed to see the limits of his perspective and that he was an unreliable narrator, but I just couldn't empathize and I really, really,hated the kid's ignorance and whining. It bordered on trivialization to me-- look how tough we all had it, and it wasn't great for anyone.
Plus, the narrator was like the dumbest kid ever. Totally unaware of what was going on around him. I think he was supposed to be nine, but acted more like six at times. I am not saying that a child of a Nazi officer would fully understand, but my guess is that he would have some idea that the people in the camp were not there for funsies. And not to stereotype, but I would guess that most children of high-ranking Nazi officials would have been subjected to Hitler-Youth type propagandizing.
I have blocked out some details, so I've taken some liberties here, but that is the gist.
Nope, that sounds about right. By that time, this kid would have been surprised to find those kids were normal people just like him. It would have been instilled him from an early age, not just as the child of a high ranking SS officer but as a German child that Jews were vermin who couldn't be trusted and must be kept separate from everyone else due to their insidious, trickster natures.
I sort of agree with sporklemotion - it's so very simple. Actually as I remember the little boy in the book was like 9 and now that I have kids, he acted very young, like 4 or 5 and clueless. It's just written as a coming of understanding novel with a kid and it has a sad ending, but SOOOO very different than actual accounts that it's more geared toward tweens than serious readers.
But it was a quick read and I read it on vacation once, so I think that is why I remembered it.
I think my son's 6th grade class showed him this movie as some kind of commentary on the Holocaust experience. I was fucking RAGEY! My son was confused as hell too. Even he knew it was bullshit. But he's seen the majority of the Holocaust movies.
I was 10-ish when it first aired and still remember parts of it. It was very very good.
I do! I was younger (maybe six or seven, based on imdb), but my parents wanted me to understand the Holocaust, so I watched parts of it-- I don't think they let me watch the worst parts, but knowing them, they may have (they were not big on sanitizing my childhood). It totally freaked me out, but I learned a lot. I have no idea if it was accurate at all, but the parts that stuck with me, like the yellow stars, probably were.
The missing Elie Weisel book is Day. He wrote Day, Dawn and Night, among many others. Some fiction, some non-fiction.
Swing Kids is an excellent movie. It's from the perspective of German teenagers. Christian Bale and Robert Sean Leonard (Dr Wilson from House) are the lead characters.
Books I suggest (all non-fiction). The Nazi Officer's Wife Jewish woman who hid as the wife of a Nazi officer during the war The Lost A Jewish university professor (Bard College in NYC, I believe) who travels through Europe trying to piece together the fate of his uncle, aunt and cousins who were killed in the holocaust. The Seamstress Romanian Jewish woman (Seren Tuvel) who is expelled from school, finds work in Bucharest as a seamstress and then is ultimately thrown into the depths of the holocaust and ended up in the concentration camps. The story was written by Seren herself. Auschwitz About the inner workings of Auschwitz. Told by a Jewish doctor who was assigned to be Mengele's personal assistant and perform scientific experiements on his fellow inmates. Justice at Dachau Story of the liberation of Dachau and the war crimes trials that were held there. Nuremburg tried the Nazi elite, Dachau tried the Nazi officers and soldiers who actually committed the crimes. Children in the Holocaust and WWII This one is a collection of entries from found diaries and papers. Obviously it takes some strength to get through it. Not all of the children were alive at the end of the war. Oskar Schindler This is a very large book, but it is excellent. It corrects the liberties that Hollywood took with Schindler's List (which were few) and filled in all of the gaps. The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Sisters This one is from a completely different angle. It's the story of 6 British sisters who were alive during WWII. Their actions during the war splintered their family 6 different ways. Unity was a close friend of Hitler, and was rumored to be sexually involved with him. Jessica was staunchly Communist and eloped with her cousin who was also Churchill's nephew. Deborah married into the Britist nobility (she's the current Duchess of Devonshire, unless she passed recently, I haven't heard). Diana married a noted British facist and spent time in prison. Nancy was a socialite and present for most of the prominent social events of the time. Pamela was just a quiet farm girl and mostly just kept to herself. Letters Between Six Sisters Basically a continuation of the above. Read The Sisters first. This book does absolutely nothing to introduce you to the characters. You're just dumped into their correspondence with the assumption that you know who each sister is and their background.
I have a ton more, but those are the ones that jump out at me right now. My books are all at home.
The missing Elie Weisel book is Day. He wrote Day, Dawn and Night, among many others. Some fiction, some non-fiction.
Swing Kids is an excellent movie. It's from the perspective of German teenagers. Christian Bale and Robert Sean Leonard (Dr Wilson from House) are the lead characters.
Books I suggest (all non-fiction). The Nazi Officer's Wife Jewish woman who hid as the wife of a Nazi officer during the war The Lost A Jewish university professor (Bard College in NYC, I believe) who travels through Europe trying to piece together the fate of his uncle, aunt and cousins who were killed in the holocaust. The Seamstress Romanian Jewish woman (Seren Tuvel) who is expelled from school, finds work in Bucharest as a seamstress and then is ultimately thrown into the depths of the holocaust and ended up in the concentration camps. The story was written by Seren herself. Auschwitz About the inner workings of Auschwitz. Told by a Jewish doctor who was assigned to be Mengele's personal assistant and perform scientific experiements on his fellow inmates. Justice at Dachau Story of the liberation of Dachau and the war crimes trials that were held there. Nuremburg tried the Nazi elite, Dachau tried the Nazi officers and soldiers who actually committed the crimes. Children in the Holocaust and WWII This one is a collection of entries from found diaries and papers. Obviously it takes some strength to get through it. Not all of the children were alive at the end of the war. Oskar Schindler This is a very large book, but it is excellent. It corrects the liberties that Hollywood took with Schindler's List (which were few) and filled in all of the gaps. The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Sisters This one is from a completely different angle. It's the story of 6 British sisters who were alive during WWII. Their actions during the war splintered their family 6 different ways. Unity was a close friend of Hitler, and was rumored to be sexually involved with him. Jessica was staunchly Communist and eloped with her cousin who was also Churchill's nephew. Deborah married into the Britist nobility (she's the current Duchess of Devonshire, unless she passed recently, I haven't heard). Diana married a noted British facist and spent time in prison. Nancy was a socialite and present for most of the prominent social events of the time. Pamela was just a quiet farm girl and mostly just kept to herself. Letters Between Six Sisters Basically a continuation of the above. Read The Sisters first. This book does absolutely nothing to introduce you to the characters. You're just dumped into their correspondence with the assumption that you know who each sister is and their background.
I have a ton more, but those are the ones that jump out at me right now. My books are all at home.
I just wanted to say that Dawn is one of my favorite books ever. It is so deep and so haunted. It is also an interesting lesson in Palestine pre-Israel. Wiesel has a newer one that I can't wait to read called Hostage.
Speaking of Schindler's List though, there is a documentary on Netflix by Amon Goeth's daughter that's uhm, interesting but confusing. I had too many conflicting emotions to watch the whole thing.
Post by librarygirl on Jul 30, 2014 9:27:07 GMT -5
I mostly post on the travel board but this post interested me with all of the book and film recommendations, many of which I plan to check out.
I also highly recommend The Last Days, wonderful documentary about the Hungarian Jews (chronicles 5 survivors specifically). On that same note, a great Y/A read is Upon the Head of the Goat by Aranka Siegal. She was also a Hungarian Jew, it takes place in the time leading up to when Hitler and the Nazis decided to turn their attention to Hungary and its Jewish population.
One I read as a child (not sure if it's still in print though) is The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender. Takes place in one of the Polish ghettos.
Another good documentary is Into the Arms of Strangers-Stories of the Kindertransport. Tells about the children who escaped Nazi Germany/Austria/Czech and were sent to the UK. They survived but many of their family members did not.
For anyone who found Sarah's Key (well, the movie) interesting, I highly recommend the French film La Rafle (The Roundup). It's all about the time leading up to the events of the Vel d'Hiv and the subsequent deportation of the Paris Jews. I loved Sarah's Key but La Rafle is that much more powerful. Another good French film is Lucie Aubrac, she was one of France's leading resistance fighters. It's from the late 90s I think.
One final film recommendation-I just watched the Polish film In Darkness which is the true story of a group of 10 Polish Jews that survived the Holocaust living in sewers. It was nominated for an Oscar a few years back.
And two books I was assigned in grad school for a children's lit class were Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti (similar to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but she is more attune to the plight and suffering of the Jewish people even though she is a child herself) and The Search by Eric Heuvel and Ruud van der Rol which is a graphic novel takes place in present time as well as during WWII in Holland.