Both the book and film versions of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas have been popular in classroom settings, both for English Language Arts classes and Social Studies classes. However, many Holocaust scholars find this source material problematic for an array of reasons, making recommendations for alternatives—in this case, film alternatives—important.
Some of the noted reasons for replacing The Boy in the Striped Pajamas in student learning about the Holocaust include the representation of the German population as uninformed and unaware of the atrocities taking place under the Nazi party during World War II. Another critique is the lack of authenticity and the number of inaccuracies in this fictional account.
Notably, at Auschwitz, which the camp in the book and film seems to resemble, children were sent immediately to the gas chamber. Additionally, the film lacks important representation regarding Jewish resistance at concentration camps. Most students know that the film offers a fictional representation, but it is often viewed as historical fiction underscoring the idea that what is represented in the film is truthful and authentic. Yet, in many ways, this source material falls short. Thus, it is important to offer film alternatives for educators that represent the Holocaust more authentically.
This list of alternatives to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas also includes links to educational resources created for each of these films when possible.
Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) PG
In 1944, upper-class boy Julien Quentin and his brother François travel to a Catholic boarding school in the countryside after vacations. Julien is a leader and a good student and when the new student Jean Bonnet arrives at the school, they have friction in their relationship. However, Julien learns to respect Jean and discovers that he is Jewish and the priests are hiding him from the Nazis. They become best friends and Julien keeps the secret. When the priest Jean discovers that the servant Joseph is stealing supplies from the school to sell in the black market, he fires the youth. Sooner the Gestapo arrives at the school to investigate the students and the priests that run and work in the boarding school.
Resources for Middle School learners studying French are available through Share My Lesson: https://sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/au-revoir-les-enfants-wwii-resources-178266.
Big Sonia (2016)
Teenage Sonia Warshawski was living in Poland when the German army invaded. Her father and brother were shot, and her sister disappeared; she and her mother became slave laborers and were finally deported to a death camp. Now in her nineties, Sonia is a vibrant woman who speaks to students and prison inmates about her story of unimaginable suffering, but also of hope, resilience, and of a refusal to hate.
This film pairs well with Night by Elie Wiesel. Journeys in Film has a free curriculum guide available for this powerful documentary: https://journeysinfilm.org/product/big-sonia/.
The Book Thief (2013) (PG-13)
While subjected to the horrors of World War II Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. In the basement of her home, a Jewish refugee is being protected by her adoptive parents.
The Book Thief is a great alternative for educators seeking to pair a book and film together for learning opportunities. Teach With Movies and Into Film both have resources available: https://teachwithmovies.org/the-book-thief/ and https://www.intofilm.org/resources/307.
Denial (PG-13) 2016
When university professor Deborah E. Lipstadt includes World War II historian David Irving in a book about Holocaust deniers, Irving accuses her of libel and sparks a legal battle for historical truth. With the burden of proof placed on the accused, Lipstadt and her legal team fight to prove the essential truth that the Holocaust occurred. Based on the book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier.
USC's Shoah Foundation's iWitness site features an educational resource for teaching this film: https://iwitness.usc.edu/sites/denial.
Life is Beautiful (1997) PG-13
In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish bookkeeper named Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting and marrying a lovely woman from a nearby city. Guido and his wife have a son and live happily together until the occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to hold his family together and help his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a game and that the grand prize for winning is a tank.
Read Write Think offers a resource on using Life Is Beautiful to teach the Holocaust with complimentary texts: https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/life-beautiful-teaching-holocaust.
Shoah (NR) 1985
Claude Lanzmann directed this 9 ½-hour documentary of the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage. He interviews survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis (whom he had to film secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio). His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of the Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive and well in many people who still live in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere.
Schindler's List
This multi-Academy Award Winning Film tells the story of Oskar Schindler, who sought his fortune in the aftermath of the German invasion of Poland. He joined the Nazi party and took over a confiscated enamelware plant in occupied Krakow, making a quick fortune on the labor of his unpaid Jewish prisoners. Yet, as the Holocaust descended over Europe, Schindler risked everything to protect and rescue more than 1,100 Jews sheltered in his factory.
Journeys in Film created a free curriculum guide for this film, which includes a lesson on Antisemitism: https://journeysinfilm.org/product/schindlers-list/.
Terezín: Refuge in Music (NR) 2013
Daniel Hope has devoted the last 15 years to the intensive study and preservation of music by composers who were murdered by the Nazis. Many of them were imprisoned in the Terezín (Theresienstadt) concentration camp. Daniel Hope helped to produce this documentary film and shares this music with the world in concert tours, lectures, and seminars. This music also appears on the prize-winning Deutsche Grammophon CD with Anne Sofie von Otter.