Re-writing history: Original takes on Nazi Germany

Screenshot from the film 'The Pianist' — Adrien Brody in Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning film ‘The Pianist’.

There was a part of me that didn’t want to read The Book Thief.

Though rave reviews abounded, I couldn’t face the thought of wading through another novel set in Nazi Germany.

Over the years I must have cried half my weight in tears over films and books like Schindler’s List, The Pianist and The Reader.

The subject matter guaranteed I would end up a snivelling mess at the end, and besides, how could this book have anything original left to say?

Surely the story had already been written and re-written in every conceivable way?

I was right about one thing: I did end up a snivelling mess.

Yellow badge Star of David called "Judenstern". Part of the exhibition in the Jewish Museum Westphalia, Dorsten, Germany. The wording is the German word for Jew (Jude), written in mock-Hebrew script. From Wikipedia page. — The yellow badge which Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust.

Thankfully, I was wrong about the rest. The premise may not have been new, but Zusak’s story was entirely original.

This puzzled me, until I realised it wasn’t the exception; it was the rule.

There are hundreds of works about the Holocaust – of fact and of fiction – and the best of them display events in a new light, creating an entirely different story. A smattering of examples will illustrate:

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (novel, 2006; film, 2008): This story tells of the unlikely friendship between the son of a Nazi officer and a Jewish child on the other side of a concentration camp fence. The concept of a child protagonist is not new, but this story is original because of the boy’s utter ignorance (and innocence) of the suffering he is witnessing.
The Book Thief (novel, 2005): Uses a young girl’s love of words to symbolise Hitler’s propaganda, and uses words in the story in original and creative ways to show the power of words. Tells the story from the viewpoint of Death – not a sinister, eager Death, but a Death full of sadness at the suffering he saw during WWII.
The Reader (novel, 1995; film, 2008): Tells the story of a former Auschwitz guard convicted of war crimes, from the point of view of a man who had a love affair with her during his boyhood. Original for the more personal, human perspective it gives on perpetrators of war crimes during the Holocaust.
La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful) (film, 1997): The funny, tragic story of an Italian Jewish clown and his deep love for his family, which leads him to convince his young son that the concentration camp they’ve been taken to is a big game. Original for the dramatic irony with which the audience sees the father’s clowning, as he struggles to keep life “beautiful” for his son.
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (diary, 1947; play, 1955; film, 1959):Another child protagonist, but this is original because it was written by a real girl, in hiding during the Nazi occupation of her home in the Netherlands.

This scene from La Vita è Bella gets me every time, for its originality and its poignancy (spoiler alert – don’t watch if you want to see the film):