Something I have always been passionate about is the holocaust. One story in particular that captured my attention was the film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008) based on the novel of the same title by John Boyne. The movie is based on two boys named Bruno and Shmuel. Bruno is the son of a Nazi commandant and Shmuel is the son of a Jewish inmate in a concentration camp. Having moved to a new house in the country Bruno looks out his bedroom window to notice farmers in the distance. He goes and asks his mother why the farmers are wearing pyjamas. She comes up with some type of excuse but is mortified at her husband for making the camps so close to their house that Bruno and his sister can see the inmates.
Intrigued by these pyjama wearing farmers Bruno sneaks through his backyard shed and makes his way to the camps barbed wire fence. The fence is where he meets his new friend Shmuel. Bruno and Shmuel form a friendship were they play games and Bruno brings Shmuel food. Bruno always wishes he could go inside the fence and play. Bruno asks Shmuel why he is wearing the pyjamas; Shmuel says he is Jewish so he has to. Being at such a young age I do not think either of the boys had such a grasp on what it means to be Jewish. Bruno really only knows about being Jewish from his tutor who feeds Bruno’s mind with S.S. propaganda. Bruno witnesses his servant Pavel being murdered by an S.S. solider, it is after this that Bruno starts to understand what is really going on. Bruno wants to be inside the fence so Shmuel brings him some extra clothes and together they dig a hole that will allow Bruno to crawl through. They start looking for Shmuel's father who does not appear to be around anywhere and they are ushered into a gas chamber. Having realized that Bruno is nowhere to be found his parents conclude that he must have gone into the camp and before they have a chance to open the chamber doors Bruno is dead.
Although this movie is fiction it demonstrates that at a young age children do not learn to hate like adults do. Children just want friends they do not care what colour or ethnical group someone is from. The genocide that happened to millions of Jewish people throughout Europe in World War II did not just happen over night; it was a build up waiting to happen. Robert Miles discusses in his article Racism (1989) the dialectical process whereby biological characteristics are signified in a way to define and construct differentiated social collectivities (75-76). Hitler distinguished the Jewish population by biological characteristics to use against them. In these biological characteristics society as a whole knew how to avoid anyone Jewish or anyone that may look Jewish based on these characteristics. Obviously Bruno did not know about these characteristics or Shmuel did not possess these because obviously not every Jewish person in the world looks the same.
Although this movie is fiction it demonstrates that at a young age children do not learn to hate like adults do. Children just want friends they do not care what colour or ethnical group someone is from. The genocide that happened to millions of Jewish people throughout Europe in World War II did not just happen over night; it was a build up waiting to happen. Robert Miles discusses in his article Racism (1989) the dialectical process whereby biological characteristics are signified in a way to define and construct differentiated social collectivities (75-76). Hitler distinguished the Jewish population by biological characteristics to use against them. In these biological characteristics society as a whole knew how to avoid anyone Jewish or anyone that may look Jewish based on these characteristics. Obviously Bruno did not know about these characteristics or Shmuel did not possess these because obviously not every Jewish person in the world looks the same.
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