Two Little Boys Holding Hands Symbolize Salvation

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2010)

Perhaps a friend or boss or significant other tells you a lie, betrays your confidence, physically abuses you. To escape from your disillusionment with humanity, you wish to see an inspirational movie. How about an adventure where there's a hero determined to avenge the exploited like yourself?
This is the subject matter of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. In Nazi occupied Europe, eight year old Bruno, son of a death camp commander, meets a boy, Shmuel, and becomes his friend. Bruno discovers he's Jewish and betrays him. Overwhelmed by guilt, Bruno attempts to help his friend but winds up with him in a gas chamber, the two little boys holding hands as they die.
Whew! The incredulity disturbs many, for despite millennia of recorded human indignity, there is something incomprehensibly evil about the Holocaust. In contrast, there is something incomprehensibly good about this film. I watched the DVD during Christmas, the holiday commemorating the birthday of a Jew who died trying to save the world for Gentiles. Inversely Christlike, Bruno is a Gentile who dies trying to save the world for Jews.
Critics complain that Bruno's story is pure fiction. Nevertheless, real life heroes do exist. Miep Gies tried to save Anne Frank. Miep and Anne live on in our consciousness. Though their sacrifice hasn't significantly improved the world, neither did Christ's sacrifice.
Perhaps, then, your disillusionment with humanity will be alleviated as you envision two little boys holding hands symbolize salvation.