A view of the past

I would like to dedicate this post to my school history teacher, Joshi ma'm. For many people history can be the worst possible subject, what with all the dates and events to be memorized and written down. Infact whenever I say that it is one of my favorite subject, my friends react by saying what's the use of learning about events which are a part of the past now!!!

But as we all know very well, there's a phrase - 'History repeats itself.'

I was glad that I got Joshi ma'm as my teacher as she taught history in such a practical way that I grew to love it forever.. out of the many things I learnt under her the one incident which affected me the most was the black mark on humanity - The Holocaust. To hear that man can be so cruel to kill others like him just because they are of a different religion and have a separate set of beliefs and practices not only turned me into a lifelong hater of Hitler but also made me look up on various incidents related to the horrible events, the history behind those places which proved to be the hell on earth for many.

This interest of mine merged with another interest of mine i.e movies. I, therefore, try to watch as many movies based on Holocaust as possible.

Out of the many I have seen, three stand out in my mind right now - Schindler's list, The Pianist and The Boy in the striped Pyjamas.

Although based on the same basic story each of these three movies show us a different angle of the people involved in it.

Schindler's List : The story about an opportunistic businessman who sees a chance to run his business without spending too much in the form of wages and thus employs a group of Jews. However his intentions of simply getting rich make a u-turn when he views the senseless murders of innocent people at the hands of the SS officers. A story of a man's change of heart and the extent to which he goes to protect those whom he sees everyday. the pain he feels when he hears about the murder of one of his own worker and the subsequent steps he takes to prevent the repetition of such an incident. He uses every possible method- bribery, threats and psychological manipulation. Steven Speilberg's decision to use black and white rather than colour adds a certain strength and punch to the movie and thus prevents it from passing off as just another war movie. The tense scenes as families desperately try to remain together, the casual way in which the nazi soldiers laugh over the burning bodies of Jews sends a chill down your spine, no matter how many times you see it. A story about humanity, how it always exists.

The Pianist: What an amazing performance by Adrien Brody!! The story of a happy Polish family which is torn apart after the German attack on Poland and the subsequent despair faced by a man left all alone. The movie depicts how the Germans degraded and dishonoured the Polish people, snatched away all their rights, forced them to wear the Star of David, denied them the basic demands of food and forced them to live with their hear bowed down...The scene where Szpilman ( the character played by Brody) is separated from his family by an aquaintance in order to save his life and the subsequent blind and tumbling steps he takes, crying out for his loss, looking around at a ghost town is not only chilling but also heartrending. and forces the viewer to imagine what many jews suffered during the senseless murders. The long days and depressed nights he suffered, the continuous fear of being caught, the desperate measures he took to remain alive can not leave you untouched.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: A movie which starts as an innocent story of a young boy who has to adjust as his parents move to a different place ( something which I'm sure all of us have been through), his anxiety about whether he would be able to make new friends and if so how will they react towards him. As the story progresses we find him coming face to face with the prejudices of the adult world as his elders prevent him from interacting with 'the villagers' who are actually Jewish prisoners. The scene showing his interaction with Pavel who works in his home is a mixture of innocence and a subtle touch about the way trained and well educated Jews were made to work as slaves, forced to forget their true identity. The stress put upon Bruno by his tutor to read 'proper' books shows how sometimes young minds are brainwashed. The most beautiful part of the entire movie is however the friendship which develops between Bruno and Shmuel, a bond pure and devoid of any falsification. Their bond further strengthens with slight hiccups in between. However when Shmuel tells Bruno about his father who's missing from the camp, the latter decides to help search for him. The search ends tragically and the movie ends with a shot of a room full of abandoned clothes implying that the boys were gassed to death. A depiction of how the war affected and destroyed many innocent lives.

Although about the past, these stories hold as much importance today as ever before. The importance of being patient and understanding about the differences in customs and practices and respecting each others rights will never grow old. Today we are faced with another wave of extremism which is based on brainwashing of impressionable minds and are thus witness to several senseless attacks which if unchecked can escalate to horrifying consequences. An eye for an eye will always make the whole world blind.