< The Boy in the Striped Pajamas >

Do you know the movie, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’? If we hear the title only, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,’ the movie seems to give us lively images. In fact, however, it is a sad story. The movie deals with the friendship between Jewish boy and German boy. The heroes of this movie with a background of World War II, are a German boy named Bruno, and a Jewish boy named Shmuel.


As Bruno's father becomes a manager of a concentration camp, Bruno moves away from where he used to live. Bruno moves to the countryside, where he learns from tutor instead of going to school. This causes him to feel sick and tired of it, and he persists in going to concentration camp where his mother tells him never to go. At the concentration camp, he happens to meet Shmuel through the barbed-wire fences. Innocent Bruno mistakes Shmuel‘s prison uniform for pajama. Looking at the number of prison uniform, Bruno asked, 'What kind of game are you playing?' Shmuel answers, looking worn out, 'This is neither a joke nor a game.' From that day on, Bruno keep on visiting Shmuel. They make friends with each other through barbed-wire fences.

Meanwhile, a party is held in Bruno's house and Shmuel happen to come to work in there. When Bruno comes across Shmuel in the kitchen, he gives cookies to Shmuel. While Shmuel is eating cookies, he is caught by a Nazi captain. Then Bruno tells a lie to the captain that he did not give cookies to Shmuel. Shmuel is taken away on the spot by the captain. Feeling sorry for that matter, Bruno goes to visit him. Then Shmuel suggests that Bruno join him to search for his lost father. Bruno, feeling sorry for cookie affair, accepts and crosses the barbed-wire fences into the concentration camp by digging in the ground. Wearing the blue pajama like Shmuel's, Bruno searches for Shmuel's father with him. In the meantime, the crowd of adults is taken somewhere, and there Bruno and Shmuel also face the inevitable death among them.

Watching this movie, it occurred to me how heartbroken Bruno's parents had been after losing his lovely son. While posting, I thought as follows: I wish Jews could remember the Holocaust during the World War II and they could quit killing Palestinians after repenting what they are doing to Palestinians now. I hope this war will put an end as soon as possible.