A couple of weeks ago I was over at
my grandma’s house when everyone decided that we should watch a movie on
Netflix. Sitting in a room full of females from just about every age group
(with the exception of myself of course) you would expect that some sort of
chick flick or animated movie involving a princess would be chosen. Surprisingly
enough, however, the movie, “The Boy with the Striped Pajamas”, won by a popular
vote. As the night went by and the movie progressed, people began to either go
to sleep or go back home, until only myself, my sister Rebecca, my little
cousin Madison who we have nicknamed “Monkey”, and my girlfriend Monique were
the only ones left watching the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie, I would highly
recommend it, and if you want the ending to be a surprise I suggest you stop
reading this until you have seen it.
The story, in short, is about a
German boy, Bruno, living during the time of the Holocaust who befriends a
Jewish boy, Shmuel, who lives behind the gates of a concentration camp near his
house. Bruno, who is too young to understand what’s going on, mistakes Shmuel’s
prison attire for pajamas and is under the false impression that the
concentration camps are harmless. As the story progresses Bruno secretly visits
the boy on a regular basis and brings him food. One day Bruno and Shmuel concoct
a plan to dig a hole under the fence separating them in an attempt to help Shmuel find his father. The boys end up succeeding in their plan and Bruno is
given a pair of the “pajamas” to wear so that he will blend in after he
squeezes under the fence. As the boys begin their search for the father in one
of the housing units, the boys, along with all of the other prisoners, are
ordered to march to an unknown area. As the march continues on and the
prisoners are pushed into a metal chamber, it becomes sadly obvious to anyone
familiar with the atrocities of the Holocaust what is about to happen. The
chamber doors are closed behind the prisoners, they are ordered to remove their
clothes, and a poisonous gas canister is dropped into the room. After the
canister is dropped the screen goes black, followed by a shot of the chamber
door slowly zooming out.
The Holocaust, as horrible and
thought provoking as it is, was not the only thing that caught my attention
while watching this movie. As the final shot of the chamber door drug on and
the somber music played in the background, a squeaky voice penetrated the
silence with the most unexpected question: “When are they coming out?” While everyone else in the room was dealing
with the fact that a room full of men, women and children were senselessly
slaughtered (both in the story and in countless instances during the actual
Holocaust), Monkey was puzzled as to why the prisoners weren’t coming out of
the room. In her mind (based on what I gathered from the question she raised)
the thought that someone would kill a room full of people, and children at
that, was completely foreign. Maybe it
was due to the fact that I have been taught about the Holocaust since my youth
or maybe it was just because I’ve seen so much depravity in my 20 short years
on this planet, but the ending wasn’t that surprising to me. It was definitely tragic, but not surprising. Monkey,
on the other hand, after being told the fate of the people in the chamber, was
completely perplexed.
What causes us to lose this
innocent perspective of the world? What causes us to cease to be surprised by
such evils as not only the Holocaust but murders, sexual assaults, or school shootings
that have seemingly happened every time we turn on the news? I guess the
obvious answer from a Biblical perspective would be the fall, but that seems to
only answer the question of why the world is the way it is. The question of why
our response to these things is often a half surprised, “I can’t believe
someone did that”, still remains. Maybe
after seeing so much evil, for so long, people become jaded. I’m not sure what
the answer is for certain but maybe you have an idea. If so post it below, I’d
be interested to read it.
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