The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

I could not face it.

But last night I watched the Windermere Children and then a documentary about them - fascinating and horrifying in equal measure.

I just caught the end, horrifying that this happened.

It is such a moving film.

What shocks me about it is how it sucks you in, so that at the end you start to think it's unfair that the German boy (I can't remember their names) is gassed alongside the Jewish boy, when of course their lives are equally valuable and their deaths equally tragic.

It really is heartbreaking, and so very well done, as you see the Nazis and their monstrous regime from so many perspectives.

I watched it too. Horrifying and upsetting. That's two nights on the run as last night it was the Windermere Children.

Now I'm watching Darling Lilli with Julie Andrews.

ah didn't know it was on. As so often, the book is much much better than the film.

Yes, it is so tragic. It is clear from very early on in the book, what is going to happen- and yet, right to the end, you hope.

Seeing nationalism, alt right and facism rise again all over the world is so worrying. Seeing so many totally blind to this, even more so. Just as it happened at the time.

I couldn’t watch it again I’m afraid. Two nights on the run must have left you feeling drained. EV.
I don’t think I could watch Shopie’s Choice again either. Having to make such a choice doesn’t bear thinking about. ?

I saw it at the cinema when it was first released. I can remember as it ended that the audience just sat there through the credits. It was very moving and shocking. I have since read the book but couldn’t face watching the film again.

When I saw the film some time ago I didn't know the ending and was completely shocked. There was a documentary about the children of Nazis and that was heartbreaking too. One of them actually lived as a child in a house next to the camp, exactly as in the film, and he eventually managed to visit the house and the camp in an attempt to come to terms with it. The Nazis left their children, grandchildren and even nephews and nieces with a terrible legacy. They were all traumatised by their family connection and unable to lead a normal guilt-free life.

The first time I watched the film I was really disturbed. Then I found out that my 12 year old grandson had been shown it at school and was horrified. I made myself watch it again and though it was still shocking to me I tried to see it from his point of view hoping that he saw it through more innocent eyes and that the message of true friendship was stronger for him than the horrors that we, as adults are all too familiar with.

I should have said 'I was horrified'. He found it sad but it did not have the impact on him that it had on me.

I visited Auschwitz twice - just as horrific second time around...I remember thinking...I must be one of a minority who got to walk in and out of those gates twice. It is a place where everyone should visit if they get the chance, the guides are truly wonderful and give you a real sense of what it was like for so many thousands in the final days of their lives...you’ll never be the same again.

I always feel there’s a moral dilemma here. To me it feels wrong to watch these things, but then I know about them. I was born at the beginning of the war, and I knew Jewish girls at school who had relations who died at Nazi hands. I also had a Dutch friend at university, older than me, who had lived in Amsterdam at the soma time as Anne Frank, though she didn’t know her. She told me the Franks were quite lucky in their hiding place, with much more space than most people had in hiding. My friend’s father worked for the resistance, and a child she had carried messages for them.

I do watch the programmes, but feel I shouldn’t. I don’t need the information, so I must be watching them as a form of entertainment, and surely that’s morally wrong.

I would feel it wrong, for instance, to visit Auschwitz, like watching violent pornography. Surely not a place for sightseeing.

Grandma 70..The reason that Auchwitz still exists is certainly not for sightseeing but for an understanding of what those poor people went through, while you can read about it, being there brings it to horrifying reality..

Grandma70s

I would feel it wrong, for instance, to visit Auschwitz, like watching violent pornography. Surely not a place for sightseeing.

My partner, a history teacher , has the opposite view. He says everyone should go.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXGfngjmwLA
This never fails to make me weep.

Grandma70, my husband and I chose to visit Auschwitz as a Mark of respect and remembrance. I remember so well the sorrow I felt and tears that sprang to my eyes as I viewed the sheer scale of the horror undergone by so many. It will never leave me! I feel that it is important to remember and educate the following generations so that such genocide is never allowed to happen again. The sad thing is that even while I write these words I have to acknowledge that it has (Serbia/Kosovo, Rwanda to name two places).

Lucca - just watched your link - thank you.

No . Couldn’t watch it again! I’ve read the book and seen the film. Too distressing!

Just watched the link ‘Lucca*. What a beautiful, brave story. ?

I can remember as a young teenager reading about the final solution and the atrocities committed. I have never ever forgotten it. It does mean however that because it affected me so very deeply I can’t watch anything like the film mentioned in the OP.

That link told a lovely story. Thankyou.

I started reading the book ages ago, but couldn’t bring myself to read to the end. I couldn’t watch the film.

Very poignant story, I think anything which helps our understanding of events is of value.