“How much longer and how often do we need to talk about World War 2? Shall we stuck there and never move on?”
On a sunny day, barbeque at a friend’s garden, this topic occurred.
Of course we should move on for history can not be undone no matter how sorry we felt about it. But we definitely need to talk about the history until we learned from the history. Have we learned from history? The similar things are still happening now, only at different places.
When the actual thing is too blunt and cruel, let books and movies help. For this post, the book I mean is The boy in the striped pajamas – a Holocaust fiction by Irish novelist John Boyne. This book is in my to read list, but I watched the movie before I read the book.
Bruno is a son of a German soldier during world war 2. Despites the tension between German and Jew at that period, Bruno has a new Jewish friend called Schmuel. When Bruno grows up, he wants to become an explorer. Anyway, as an eight years old boy, he need to learn school subject. In one history class, his teacher Herr Liszt told Bruno that the Jew is his enemy.
Bruno: There is such thing as a nice Jew, though, isn’t there?
Herr Liszt: I think, Bruno, if you ever found a nice Jew, you would be the best explorer in the world.
Herr Liszt’s intent was sarcasm, but Bruno was very happy. Because he found a nice Jew – Schmuel and achieved his ambition to be the best explorer in the world! How wonderful!
Actually, the same sentence can be applied to different situations. For example, one nice German soldier during the German occupation of the Channel Islands ( from 30 June 1940 until liberation on 9 May 1945).
