The Boy in the Striped Pijamas, John Boyne

...is a must read! I was waiting for it since a week (last Saturday, before watching the Duchess I saw the trailer of the film based on the novel by John Boyne). It's a next generation of 'Little Prince'!
It has been ages since I read a book in one go completely loosing the sense of reality - and I was about to go to bed early tonight, right...Bruno's story is.. o, damn it, I really do not know where to start, I even took a long hot bath to put this post together, and it's already falling apart - I will not tell you the story - media is shouting about it anyway, but it doesn't matter if you know or not - if you don't you will enjoy it just as much as a person who does, simply because it's WELL WRITTEN! Every single stop, every ending of a chapter, the rythm of the book, peoples gestures, silences and hidden tears (does anyone actually cry?), all the warnings and sence of obligation - to the country, family, but mainly to yourself! All the grown up questions and childish naivity! All the 200 pages of brilliant piece of literature!:)

Now we can see it on the screens.(with a great deal of Hungarian actors, btw)...
The story itself is (film trailer here) about boundaries, respect and friendship, but it also is a well written piece on Auschwitz and hitlerism (the every-day hitlerism)...about blindness and open hearts, about people trapped in the wrong times and places.
I think the ending is a perfect solution for a book writen for US/UK/Irish readers - I think it might be percieved diferently in Eastern Europe - but I think we all actually do need those endings.
I was 9 years old when I visited Auschwitz camp museum. My father lied that I was 11 (the minimum admission age for children) knowing me very well, and wisely. There is no age that can prepare you for the reality of that place. There is no book, or film that can actually show you what it meant to be a Jew living in there...I remember that th emost shocking issue for me was the fact mentioned in the induction film - that twins, children were speared from going straight to the gas chamber simply for the sake of medical experiments - 1. was it really any better? 2. if yes, if they survived, how does it feel to be alive simply because you were born as a twin? so randomly saved...that was the point where the 'big lie' lost on its 'logic' to me. At the age of 9.
(Bruno is 9, his friend too. Maybe that is why I felt so close to the actions and emotions of those characters.)
I also remember every block, every wall, I could draw the plan of the place. I went back two times, to see if I can learn more, but I think I have learned enough as a 9 year old girl: this is not meant to happen and cannot be allowed, but yes, we do tent to behave like animals...(one thing Hitler WAS right about).

At the age of 30 I experienced myself the low of the lowest behaviours in my own house and I know how easy it is to miss the point, to forget the ethics, to let others brake the rules of humanity - and how easy it is to resist, to protect yourself and to recover.

I see it all in this well written story!

I definitely will pass this book on to every single soul I know! And I will encourage everyone to go and see the film (John Boyne is writing about its London première on his blog).

(On a way from the film - The Dutchess - last weekend I heard a couple talking about something similiar. The guy was telling his friend a real story of a child - victim of Auschwitz, who was saved by a Polish servant girl who fed the boy every day with an apple. When the boy grew up and went back to - I think - US - he had a blind date arranged with...the very same woman! Proposed to her the same evening! - I really would like to believe it's truth)

Hitler and the like...

Just opened my gmail inbox after few minutes of struggling with my new modem (yes, ladies and gentlemen, Sylwia finally has her own access to the web) and found two comments to moderate. Tell you what - I do not usually have comments here, and due to my work, I know it's not such a bad thing...

Anyway, here is what I have found under my post on Polish Women's Day:
'Hitler didn't finish his job with the Polish, now they are invading Britain'
(Published)
If it were not to the other comment referring to me being a crap photographer, I would have thought it is a random racist abuse...but since it refers to two obviously strong features of my life, I feel a breeze of a known attitude. One I had to live with for a while.

Actually, let me put things into perspective - I have re-located from Hungary to the UK - country I never wanted to live in - for the sake of improving my marriage with a British citizen. I still cannot talk about it openly, but all I can say is that this person has done me a lot of damage - emotional, financial and spiritual - and I was completely victimized. It was my clear choice to move here for him and leave all my friends, artistic plans and lovely city of Budapest, so I will not accept this type of silly generalizations!

Sadly, I am an activist, and believe the lack of tolerance should not be tolerated, so here is to the anonymous coward again - comments are published for others to see and experience the abuse as such! I will not accept the fact people judge me on the basis of my origin, not my passion, so if you have nothing to add, find yourself another field for dropping shit - obviously result of some low self-esteem and lack of basic knowledge - any idiot would know Hitler was aiming to get rid of Jews, not Poles! Some of the Poles were of Jewish origin, yes, but let's not simplify, please!

Myself I have been to Auschwitz at the age of 10, and remember every single brick of it. I have seen German youth crying their hearts out in front of the Wall of Death! I have visited it two more times to finally understand what was happening there, but I could not. I did after reading Merle's 'Death is My Trade'.  I still do not accept it though. And I think about the current issues too, about the town that still cannot develop due to the weight of the burden and simple fact that no one wants to invest in the local industry, just in memories! Go on, take a tour around the museum and see if change your little mind to more complicated ideas!

Actually, I am happy to see someone who doesn't like Poles in the UK and finds me a shity photographer still reads the blog and leaves comments (both left almost the same second, which proves that they were made by one person). Also, the style of the comment(s) kind of responds to the main idea behind the blog - to bring out to the open everything I hate about the human kind. So here it is! Let's see if I get more...

Blogged with the Flock Browser