secondly, i watched the boy in the striped pajamas this afternoon. it is so sad..no matter how many books or movies i read or see on WWII, the tragedy never fails to move me, or to make me think about how privileged i am not to have ever been persecuted for, well, anything. the story gives an interesting (and awfully sad) view of auschwitz from the perspective of an eight-year-old boy and his family. his father is a nazi commander general who lives with his wife, the little boy, and his daughter, in berlin. they move to the countryside, which displeases bruno (the little boy), and he soon finds that he can see a concentration camp and its prisoners from his window. apparently, he doesn't know what goes on at the camp (he thinks the prisoners are farmers, and the camp is a farm). in this way, the story is extremely tragic (the story itself as well as the events are very very tragic indeed), showing the ignorance of the commander's family. the awful secret of what the nazis were doing to the jews in the camp was kept from the family, and the commander (as well as the daughter's and bruno's tutor) teaches them that what he is doing is for the best of the country, leading everyone to a better world. it really shows the awfulness of the holocaust, but not in a usual way. i've never seen or read anything quite like this movie. it is definitely worth watching, and i'd love to read the book now, though it seems like the movie stayed pretty true to the book. also! if you are itching to read a really good book on the holocaust, read night by elie wiesel. it isn't too graphic (that i remember? i haven't read it in a few years) and gives a horrifying, well written look into elie's life at auschwitz, when he was about 15. this man (and his book) is such an inspiration to me, he's unbelievably wonderful. (not to mention the cutest old jew you ever did see! [and this is coming from a girl who is in love with every jew she sees!])
and onto a much more shallow, happier subject: i also cut my hair this week. it's insanely short, and of course i have no pictures yet. but i am really enjoying it, it's nice not to have to wash my hair at all ever again (i kid i kid, i have washed it every single day. i am that much of a clean freak). anyway, i think (hope?) it looks good.
also, i'm sure everyone knows now that i have been diagnosed with acquired pediatric hypothyroidism?? yeah. it's such a relief to know that i'm not a hypochondriac. but i haven't gotten any medz yet, so i'm dying until i get those. haha. i'm so tired. (but now i feel guilty for complaining about that because i just saw a holocaust movie and everyone was way more tired/starved than i could even ever think about being. arrrrrg.)
so, as a conclusion to this weird post filled with weird things, i really hope that, in maybe 40 years, when the holocaust will be an extremely old topic, when none of its survivors will be living, when everyone will turn their attention to more important things, someone will be there to urge people to remember the stories, remember the tragedy, and face what was so so incredibly awful and heart-wrenching. when elie's manuscript that he had written, un di velt hot geshivgn (and the world remained silent), was rejected by publishers, they said it was too morbid, and that no one would want to hear the stories. as stupid as that sounds (to me), it could happen again. in time, people forget, and they don't want to hear morbid details and, well, the plain truth. i hope that people years from now will listen to the stories of persecuted jews long ago, and apply it to the present. it is important to hear these stories, and make sure it never happens again (ahem, darfur), even though there are plenty of evil people in this world, and there will continue to be plenty of evil people.
