So I’ve challenged myself to read as many books from the “disturbing books iceberg” as possible. Why? Because why not?
Anyway, this one is the first.
A poignant read about the Holocaust, from the point of view of a child.
I won’t lie, it took me a hot minute to figure out what “Fury” and “Out With” meant. (Füeher and Auschwitz)
I’ve already seen the movie, so the ending wasn’t as much of a gut punch as it should have been.
Still, I enjoyed this book. It’s short. It can be brutal. My complaint is that I wish Bruno and Shmuel had met earlier, it takes them half the novel to first meet.
Is it disturbing? Anything based around the Holocaust is gonna be disturbing. The ending is heartbreaking. Bruno’s childlike innocence prevents us from fully comprehending every atrocity, but it’s fairly easy to fill in the gaps.
What did you think of this book? Were you disturbed?
EDIT: Wow, I didn’t realize how much this book has been denounced. Oof. I’m just going through a list.
by RaiEnSui
14 Comments
It’s an awful, poorly researched book book by a hack writer who literally put a BOTW recipe in a realistic novel once cause he just took the first google hit for how to make red dye.
This essay is a very basic take on it: https://hcn.org.uk/blog/the-problem-with-the-boy-in-the-striped-pyjamas/
It makes the tragedy of its story the death of a boy who wasn’t “supposed” to be there, and focuses on the pain of a Nazi officer who was in charge of a death camp and only cares when it’s his own family affected. As if that’s more sympathetic than all of the actual people targeted.
Here is a tweet by the Auschwitz Museum telling people this book should be avoided by anyone attempting to learn about the Holocaust:
https://twitter.com/AuschwitzMuseum/status/1487017362675093506?t=EBwe0-EfNeV84RhFtT2iew&s=19
Here is a thread on it by Askhistorians: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/8chp52vXKp
The long and short of it is that it completely distorts what the Holocaust was about by removing and decentralising the experiences of the actual victims of the Holocaust, but also by a premise that is completely illogical (how could a German boy living in Berlin possibly not know who the fuhrer is, how could he have missed miles of big glaring keep out signs, etc etc) and in doing so cheapens the real tragedy of the Holocaust.
I recommend reading Night by Elie Wiesel or Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl for a much more genuine take on the Holocaust(both were actual survivors). Be warned that these are absolutely not easy reads, but they are, imo, far more poignant and powerful than the Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
It was denounced by the Aushwitz Museum for basically being Holocaust revisionism, that should basically tell you everything you need to know. It wasn’t a secret, you don’t just live down the street from a concentration camp and not know.
I couldn’t finish it. It pulled me out of it too much that this German child wouldn’t know what these German words meant. Insulting to my intelligence as a reader.
It is a stupid book and a stupid movie. What’s the takeaway? Are we supposed to feel sorry for the poor little nazi boy and just forget about the ritualized murder of millions. Yes it was a disturbing book to read but mostly because of the author’s terrible writing style, but also his use of six million jews as a prop. He tries to write like a child but it just comes off as an adult trying to write as a child in pretty much the same way that men write women, badly.
Oh boy, right into the wasps nest.
I guess nobody should read that book.
Read *Night* by Elie Wiesel, a real survivor who was actually imprisoned at Auschwitz. No sugary drivel here, just a short, hard brutal look from the inside of the Holocaust, by someone who lived it.
It sucks that Boyne wrote this book this way. The Heart’s Invisible Furies is a brilliant book about a gay man, a topic the author knows about and cares to be accurate about.
Primo Levi If this is a man is a good book about the Holocaust.
Corrie Ten Boom the Hiding Place shows Ravensbruck, the women’s concentration camp, and the experience of people who tried to hide and protect Jews.
I will Bear Witness Diaries of Klemperer is an account of Jewish life in Dresden, throughout the Nazi period. He somehow avoided the camps and he wrote about everything he experienced, saw, read, heard.
I love how you get downvoted for reading a book that happens to be on a list you didn’t create by a community that claims to be “a safe, supportive environment”.
As a Jew, hate that book.
wtf is the disturbing books iceberg?
Bad book. Consider in order of difficulty: Number the Stars, Diary of Anne Frank, Night, Man’s Search for Meaning.
Everything has already been said about this atrocious book, so I’m just gonna recommend a few more reads on the Holocaust/Shoa, written for a younger audience:
-Maus
-The Light in Hidden Places
-The Librarian of Auschwitz
-The Twins of Auschwitz