the boy in the striped pyjamas

[workshy]

my yr5 DD watched this in school the other day

school sent home a permission slip explaining that it was a 12 but was related to a topic they had been covering in school

I know about the film and chatted to DD about it and was confident she would be ok so I gave my permission -obviously lots of parents had absolutely no idea what the film was like and many DCs were upset by it

is it really a film they should be showing to 9&10 year olds?

The Holocaust refers to entire event and all victims, the Shoah is the term used specifically for the Jewish persecution and victims.

It is relevant to the history topic of WW2 yellowtip which is why the book is used

I agree that primary age is too young. I have read the book and seen the film and I would say it was more appropriate to age 12-13. I wouldn't show it to a 9 year old. I wouldn't even want to be teaching this topic to 9 year olds. It is possible to teach them about the second world war without covering the holocaust at this stage.

Sure mrz, but it is the story of a Polish boy caught up in the Warsaw Uprising and uses that as a background to a story of relationships and survival rather than discussing death, let alone the mass deaths of the Holocaust. It doesn't deal with attitudes towards the Jewish people at all, or even with the German barbarity during the Uprising - nothing of that nature at all. It's pretty anodyne. It's used by schools because of that rather than to teach a true picture of the Uprising. It's a soft approach to History which some Poles might dislike but there isn't the same imperative to speak the whole truth about the Uprising as there is to speak the whole truth about the Holocaust.

and Good Night Mr Tom (which was also mentioned earlier by another poster) is the story of a child evacuated from London during the blitz ... and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and The Diary of Anne Frank ....the point being Yellowtip posters offered alternative books that could be used in school for WW2 topic with Y5 not other books about the holocaust

I think the point is rather that it's of singular importance that the Holocaust isn't broached at primary level in the same way that the wartime experiences of evacuees can be, or to a lesser extent the Warsaw Uprising, because partial explanations of the Holocaust are inappropriate and possibly insulting to the victims in a way the fictionalisation of other events isn't. And to explain it meaningfully would be far too disturbing for those of primary school age.

Anne Frank stops short of the camps.

Thank you for telling me that Yellowtip

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15978037

Some accounts did survive the camps mrz. The point is merely that reading Anne Frank doesn't inevitably require sanitization of truth, because it dealt with Anne's life in hiding, not in the camp.

To put it in perspective, the Imperial War Museum won't even allow under 14/15 year olds into its Holocaust Exhibition. And isn't the whole Holocaust atrocity something handled at secondary school rather than primary school these days?

When he was 10 (Year 5) DS not only watched the Ann Frank Story but he also read, with parental supervision, the Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. Even though his Mummy had already explained that things didn't work out well for the Frank Family (with the exception of Otto), DS just couldn't believe, even when the SS turned up in their hideaway, that Ann and the rest of the people weren't going to survive. Similarly, he read TBITSP to the end in the naive way in which it was written....so even though the writing was on the wall for Bruno and his friend, he read it literally and did not truly understand what had happened to them.

Think that when we were growing up, WW2 was still quite up there in people's minds and similarly the Holocaust. But in some ways, this generation of children, although more savvy in some ways than we were, are rather protected from the Holocaust. Certainly if my son is anything to go by, it is totally beyond their comprehension...

We watched the film only last year and even then it was almost unbearable to watch it to the end :-(

Yellowtip are you trying to educate me

As mentioned previously, if you do want to introduce younger children to the Holocaust, Morris Gleitzman's 'Once', 'Then' and 'Now' is much more age appropriate that TBITSP.

mrz no, not especially .

Out of interest though, are you a primary school teacher or a History teacher at secondary school? If the latter, I'm sure you get the point about the value of truth.

Actually gazzalw it's 11 years

Imperial War Museum Event Listings

The Holocaust Exhibition London event is a permanent exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. Admission is free. Children under 11 are not permitted.

I'm a primary teacher with a humanities degree

Is that a History degree? Genuinely interested, that's all.

I studied History and English

I'm not a historian I'm a teacher

Gazzalw, "To put it in perspective, the Imperial War Museum won't even allow under 14/15 year olds into its Holocaust Exhibition. And isn't the whole Holocaust atrocity something handled at secondary school rather than primary school these days?"

Sadly the age limit is not strictly enforced as DD and my Goddaughter managed to go in and see it aged 10/11.

Also, DD read (twice) and watched the Anne Frank story aged 9. She did understand that they died, and similarly Bruno's fate after watching and reading TBITSP. Both DC have always been avidly interested in the social history of the WW's. She has just been studying the Holocaust in school - Y8 and has a good grasp of what happened.

I think learning a bit of age-appropriate information at a time can be helpful - children build up their understanding as they get older. It happens in all subject areas. Obviously this is a very upsetting and contentious area and needs to be dealt with sensitively, and is a tricky area for Primary schools to teach

Just seen your post Mrz, re the age-limit.

I guess though that having studied History at degree level you'll see why some subject areas present particular difficulty when it comes to only half telling the truth.

Despite its mission, Auschwitz recommends that children under 14 do not make a visit.