issue #每周小书推荐 03
Last time, I recommended Luo Shu's "Giving Birth to a Wife", although the recommendation was still not fluent enough. I believe that week after week of recommendation, you can always reach the level of proficiency [come on]. Without further ado, this week continues to recommend the next little book:
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
By John Byrne (Ireland)
Genre: Fiction
Theme: World War II, concentration camps
Other: There is a film adaptation of the same name ⇲
⇱ Incidentally recommended movie / movie screenshots of the same name
The novel is mainly from the perspective of a child, writing about his experiences when he was 9 years old. His name was Bruno, and he was the son of a Nazi officer.
The family had originally lived in Berlin, and because of the Fuehrer's visit, his father was assigned a new job to go to Auschwitz as a "commander". At the celebratory banquet, Grandpa was proud of his father, while Grandma quarreled with his father.
Subsequently, the Bruno family followed their father to Auschwitz.
It was deserted, with no playmates, only cold soldiers coming in and out of the house, such as Lieutenant Kotler, who frightened and hated him. He missed his home in Berlin.
Through the window on the second floor, Bruno saw in the distance a camp surrounded by barbed wire, and there were many people, people there were wearing striped prison clothes, but he thought it was just striped pajamas.
He envied that there were so many people in that place, thinking that they were living and working there side by side. He watched the soldiers come in and out of his house, and sometimes the soldiers would come to his house, but the people in the striped pajamas never came to his house. Bruno felt strange.
He decided to "go on an expedition": to hide from his family and go to the barbed wire. He walked for a long time along the long barbed wire, which was at the end of the adventure, and he saw a Jewish boy in striped pajamas, sitting alone on the other side of the barbed wire. The boy was named Shimuel, who was born on the same day of the same month of the same year as him, and was also 9 years old.
Almost every day, across the barbed wire, they chatted, he secretly brought Shimuel food, they shared their experiences, and they became friends. Because of this boy, because of this new friend, he no longer hated the deserted place, on the contrary, he was very happy. Of course, as with his expeditions, their friendship was secret.
However, the day before his dad's birthday party, he saw Shimuel show up at his house, and Shimuel was wiping small glasses in the kitchen. He was so happy that, while the adults were gone, he cut three slices of chicken for his friend. However, Lieutenant Kotler appeared in the kitchen.
Confronted by Lieutenant Kotler, Bruno lied, saying that he had never known Shmuel. Shimuel was identified as stealing food.
He had never felt so ashamed, and he had never imagined that he could be so cruel. He wondered how a boy who thought he was a good man could behave so cowardly in front of his friends...
- "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"
The following week, by the barbed wire, he did not wait for Shimuel, who thought he would never be forgiven by Shimuel. On the seventh day, Shimuel, who had many bruises on his face, finally appeared.
He apologized to Shimuel, they shook hands, and they reconciled.
Later, Bruno grew lice in his hair and was shaved by his father. Shimuel was amused by his look.
However, Mom seems to be having a very unpleasant quarrel with Dad because of this. For the sake of his and his sister's growth, Dad decided to let Bruno and his mother and sister go back to Berlin together, but he did not particularly look forward to returning to Berlin.
Before leaving, Bruno and Shmuel said goodbye, in order to express his apologies to Schmuel, but also to fulfill a promise to a friend, Bruno changed into a "striped pajamas", crawled under the pulled up barbed wire, and accompanied Shimuel inside to find his "missing" father - this is the "big adventure" they both share.
Bruno had thought that the camp was inhabited by happy families, cafes and shops, but no, and when he came in, he found only groups of sad, skinny men and shouting soldiers...
They did not find a clue to the disappearance of Shimuel's father...
They were squeezed into the middle of the line...
They would never know that Shimuel's father was gone, nor would they know how many bones had been buried in the many barbed wire nets, nor how crazy the Führer was, they only knew that they were good friends. In an airtight room, Bruno clung to Shmúer's little hand, held on to their friendship like a guard, and went with other innocent people to a world free of war and concentration camps.
They hold hands/movie screenshots
They were born on the same day of the same month of the same year and went to heaven on the same day of the same month of the same year.
It's a sad and sad story.
If Bruno is a very bad child, the end is only evil and good. However, it is sad that children are all good children, and the end is that good and good die together. The murders committed by the Nazis were eventually repaid to their children, and the retribution for this war was as creepy as the war itself.
Shmuel said, "There are no good soldiers at all. ”
Bruno said his father was a good soldier.
It was he and his friends who died in Auschwitz, where his father dutifully ran. It was also his father, his loyal to the country, who, with what he considered faith and justice, was ordered to kill the lives of the Auschwitz concentration camps.
The conquerors committed suicide by drinking bullets, the captives were scaled and wounded, the land paved with corpses could not even be born with grass, who could have imagined that the people who had sworn to give happiness to the people of the country would eventually drag them into hell.
When crazy people destroy goodness and beauty, when demons cast poison, cute children sleep silently, teenagers who grow up under demonic values are in darkness, and those who survive are unfortunately saddled with indelible pain.
It all happened a long, long time ago, and such a story will not be repeated.
It will not be repeated in this day and age.
Peace is not easy, cherish peace
ps: Found myself with my first fan...
Hopefully he/she didn't get the attention out of the blue, and I don't dare ask...
[Shhh] Shhh! Quietly, don't alarm him/her