This weekend I watched a film I've been intending to watch for ages. "The boy in striped pyjamas". I've decided to blog about it as it had a real impact on me because of an incredible human being I got the opportunity to meet a couple of months ago, during my work experience at Tonight for ITV. This man...
Polish Jack, is in his 80's, and the only Holocaust survivor of his family. I was fortunate to meet him and hear his tales from the camp he was held in during the second world war. Along with Neil and Chris from ITV, we took Jack and his glamourous wife Rhonda to their favourite cafe for lunch. This was all in aid of research for a programme being made about the Jewish community in North Manchester.
I was genuinely brought to tears when Jack himself wept as he recalled the moment his mother, father and brother were separated from him to be taken to the gas chambers, and sadly have their lives torn from them.
The film shows the holocaust from an innocent child's perspective. Simple imagery of Bruno, 8 years old, questioning the black clouds of smoke bellowing over his Nazi mansion, choked me. The naivety of the two children who befriend through the barbed wire of a concentration camp really puts the sinisterness of what the Holocaust involved into perspective.
The film made me think back to the inspiring words that Jack spoke to me about his life now. Even after such a traumatic experience, Jack fled to England and managed to become a millionaire from making luggage. BUT, even though Jack now has a luxurious home in a wealthy part of Manchester, this means nothing to him. He could not stop praising his beautiful wife and two children. He spoke about British people and their drive for success and wealth and said, "I love British people, of course they saved people like me. But because they have not seen or felt the things that I have then they do not understand. Money is nothing. I have my beautiful family, and this makes me the richest man on the planet".
SO... if you haven't watched it already or even if you have, get down to Blockbuster, order it online, or download it, because this is definitely a film you have to see before you die...
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