Movie Review: the Zoo Keeper's Wife

This is a movie that makes you think.  I really enjoyed it.  I am totally engrossed with movies about nazi atrocities, and the Holocaust.  In this case the movie deals with the Warsaw ghetto.  Antonina (Jessica Chastain) and Jan Zabinski (Johan Elderbergh) run the Warsaw Zoo.  The zoo was bombed with the initial Nazi incursion into Warsaw.  More were killed by both sides as the animals were dangerous, and many had escaped.  Some were rescued and returned to their pens.
After the Nazi take over, Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl) (of the Berlin Zoo) takes many animals for safe keeping to Berlin.  However he returns.  He has a thing for Antonina.  Being a Nazi he controls them in a way.
The Zabinskis see what is happening to their friends in the ghetto.  They at first bring a friend to stay in their cellar.  However they become more involved, bringing many to their home, using a garbage collection.  they need the scraps for feeding pigs, to feed the Nazis.  Something they can do with the zoo pens.  However it also acts as cover for the escape of many Jews from the ghetto.
The would eventually help hundreds, and lose only two who were murdered.
Jan eventually joins the Polish resistance.  He is shot, and Antonina has no idea what has come of him.  In this atmosphere, the Russians are coming and the Nazis are about to fall.  Lutz discovers the operation, and also controls the family.  With that power over the family, it is amazing they escape unscathed.
Disclaimer: this film is rated PG 13.  It does have war violence against people and animals.  It also has brief nudity.

Movie Review: ****^The Secrets of War (2013)

This movie was made in the Netherlands, and it is presented in Dutch with English subtitles.  Even so, it does a great job of telling its story.  I found the story very disturbing.  This is a WWII era story, where a community in the Netherlands is torn apart by the Nazi occupation, and the evacuation of the Jewish population to concentration camps.  This is mostly kept from the children of the community.  However, the community is dividing.  Some children join the Nazi Youth, and other families wouldn't have their children in this program.  Of course the mayor's son is part.  He plays a role in having some community members arrested for harboring a jew.  Tuur (Maas Bronkhuyzen) and Lambert (Joes Brauers), the mayor's younger son with a club foot, are best friends.  They do many things together, including exploring a cave, where they find English comic books.  Father warns him not to snoop.  However he does, and discovers his own father is part of the resistance.  A new girl comes to town, Maartje (Pippa Allen) and only tells Tuur that she is Jewish and in hiding.  When Lambert becomes jealous of his friend, having a new friend, he goes to the home and discovers a hidden pig.  He inadvertently mentions this to his own father, the mayor, and then everything goes wrong.  However, there is still some hope for the friendship, as Lambert can help his friend and his family one last time before they flee the country.

Movie Review: ***^The Book Thief (2013)

In Nazi Germany Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) is uprooted from her mother, when she is taken to concentration camp for being a Communist.  She is taken to a family to live as an adoptive child.  Her new mother (Emily Watson) is a bit strict, but her father (Geoffrey Rush), who survived WWII is a pleasant fellow.  She makes a friend of the neighbor boy, Rudy (Nico Leirsch) who wants to kiss her, and wants to be fast like Jesse Owens (who was not a popular character in Nazi Germany.)  Into the new life of Liesel with her new parents, comes a Jewish refugee, Max (Ben Schnetzer.)  Ben comes asking for help, and Papa is obligated as his father saved his life during the war.  Max is ill, and spends most of his time in bed.  This is not good for his health, but he can't go out or move around for fear of detection.  The move him to the basement, where he can move around.  He also enjoys hearing Liesel's descriptions of the weather, and helping with her books--they don't have many.  Max gets worse and goes into a coma.  Liesel reads all the books to him; and when she runs out she starts borrowing more from the Burgermeister.  (He of course doesn't know as she crawls through his window to get them.   She reads and reads, and writes new words on her chalkboard.  When she came, she could read very little, now she is a very good reader. 
Rudy is scheduled to go to a special training camp, and Papa in conscripted.  He is wounded and comes home.  This movie ends much different than I had supposed.  I guess the fact that death was the narrator should have been a clue, and bombs falling all the time.  Its just they always made their way to the bomb shelter.
This book is not so much on the Nazis burning books, but more about the will to live and to go on.  Sometimes, life wins out, even when all around us in falling to pieces.

Book Review: Number the Stars

This book is written by Lois Lowry and is a Newberry Book.  I picked this book up because I was looking for something to read on the train.  I like short books.  I also like young adult literature and this fit the bill.  However after getting into this book, it became totally drawn in by the story.  Turns out this is historical fiction, which I also like. 
This is the story of a girl, Annemarie and her best friend, Ellen.  It takes place in Denmark, during the Nazi occupation of WWII.  Ellen and her family are Jewish.  When it is announced, with a couple days notice, that all of the Jews in Denmark are going to be relocated, these two families jump into action.  Ellen stays with Rosemarie, pretending to be her deceased sister, while Ellen’s parents are taken elsewhere to hide. 
This is the story of individuals who cared enough for each other to say “no” to the Nazis when they tried to expel the Jews.  It is also a story about a people who followed the same suit.  It tells a story I had never heard before, but is a true story.  It is also a story about bravery, and having to approach danger, even when you’re scared.
I recommend this book highly.