Figure 1.--The boy in "Life is Beautiful" wears a peaked cap and romper suit with strap shoes. HBC is not surechow common such outfits were in 1940s Italy.

The aclaimed Italian filmbegins as a light, fluffy comedy. Sudently it becomes the wrencing, deeply moving tale of a irrevent father's love for his wife and son, inprissoned in a NAZI concentration camp. The plot centers around the father's attempt to disguise the horrors of the Holocaust from his son. When the boy asks why a store posts a sign forbidding entrance by Jews and dogs, Guido laughs it off, suggesting they post a sign on their own shop, restricting entrance to "Visigoths." Some reviewrs write, "Laughing in the face of adversity is the best way to triumph over it." Personally I think the film rather trivializes the Holocaust. It ceratinly was a beautifully made movie. The costuming appears very accurate. My problem with the film is the premise, that the evil could be hid from the children. First children are not that stupid. Second, it reduces the enormity of the crimes involved. Small children in the camps were in fact kept with the mothers and along with the elderly were the first to be murdered. The boy wears a romper suit and matching peaked cap with strap shoes and white ankle socks. I'm not sure how common such outfits were in 1940s Italy. We know they were popular in France at the time, but we have less information on Italy. Directed by Roberto Benigni. The cast included: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, and Giustino Durano. The boy, Giosué Orefice is played by Giorgio Cantarini.

Filmology

The aclaimed Italian filmbegins as a light, fluffy comedy. Sudently it becomes the wrencing, deeply moving tale of Guido, a irrevent father's love, for his wife and 4-year old son, inprissoned in a NAZI concentration camp. Directed by Roberto Benigni. The cast included: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, and Giustino Durano. The boy, Giosué Orefice is played by Giorgio Cantarini.

Plot

The plot centers around the father's attempt to disguise the horrors of the Holocaust from his son. When the boy asks why a store posts a sign forbidding entrance by Jews and dogs, Guido laughs it off, suggesting they post a sign on their own shop, restricting entrance to "Visigoths." Once in the camp, Guido does encourage his son to lay low, recognizing that the old and young who can nt work are deported to the death camps. Guido attemots to desguise from the boy what is happening.

Costuming

It ceratinly was a beautifully made movie. The costuming appears very accurateThe boy wears a romper suit and matching peaked cap with strap shoes and white ankle socks. I'm not sure how common such outfits were in 1940s Italy. We know they were popular in France at the time, but we have less information on Italy.

Assessment

Some reviewrs write, "Laughing in the face of adversity is the best way to triumph over it." Personally I think the film rather trivializes the Holocaust. My problem with the film is the premise, that the evil could be hid from the children. First children are not that stupid. Second, it reduces the enormity of the crimes involved. Small children in the camps were in fact kept with the mothers and along with the elderly were the first to be murdered. The depiction of the Italian camp is also unrealistic. The camp depicted shows that the Jews were made to work and that food was sacrce, but it is claen, no one seems to be suffering from starvation and sickness abd the guards seem more like Hogan's Heros bufoons than the vicious guards that ran these camps.

Children in the Holocaust

Jewish children were the most vulnerable of all and died in the greatest proportion. They were the most vulnerable and had no economic value which the NAZIs could exploit. Even more importantly, they also were the seed for the future of the Jewish people. The NAZIs also saw them as a force for future retribution if they were not killed. The NAZIs are estimated to have murdered over a million Jewish children. One can not forget the images of the starving Jewish children on the Warsaw Ghetto whose parents had been killed. A great body of literature exists on the Holocaust including the experiences of the children. some of the children were killed by SS Einsatzgruppen in mass executions with their parents in Poland and on a larger scale in the Soviet Union. Most were forced into gettoes where those without parents often starved. Then they were deported and died in the various NAZI transit, labor, or death camps. Some Jewish children managed to survive the Holocaust by hiding, emmigrating (often without their family), or concealing the fact that they were Jewish. When asked after the War why they killed the chilldren, a ranking SS officer told his interviewers that was a stupid question. Of course it was a question from an American that had not yet full come to terms with the evil of the Holocaust. The children were not a messy consequence of killing the adults, Killing the children was the haeart and soul of the NAZI effort to destroy the Jewish people. And the NAZIs were terrifyingly effective. It is estimated that about 90 percent of the Jewish children in the occupied were killed by the NAZIs. Survival was not random. Survival depeneded on who you were, where you were from, gender, age, health, appearance and other factors.

The Holocaust in Italy

Mussolini was not strongly committed to anti-semitism. Mussolini only imposed the first anti-Jewish regulations in 1938, after prompting from Hitler. Italy had a relatively small Jewish popularion of only about 45,000 people. The Italian people and Catholic clergy, however, managed to hide most of their Jews fron the NAZIs and Fascists. Italian Jews were thus spared the full force of the Holocaust and many managed to survive. The worst time came after Mussolinin was deposed and Italy surrenderedc to the Allies. The Germans quickly disarmed the Italian Army and occupied the country. They used the opportunity to begin rounding up and transporting Jews to the death camps. The Germans only managed to deport and kill about 15 percent of Italy's Jews, the lowest ratio in among occupied countries. This is especially surprising given the fact that Italy was an Axis partner. The lack of commitment on the aprt of Mussolini to genocide and the realtively short paeriod of German occupation are factors in the survival of Italian Jews. Considerable controvery surrounds the role of Pope Pious XII. Despite considerable anti-semitism among Catholic clerics, the clergy played a major role in saving Italian Jews. Ilalian priests, nuns, and monks hid Jews in monasteries, convents, schools, and churches. Jewish families were sheltered and fed at great risk to the individuals involved. One historain describes "massive support" on the part of the clergy often without orders from their superiors for the rescue effort.

Created: January 9, 2001
Last updated: April 9, 2003