THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
JULIE POWER
A suggestion that children dress up as the character from the novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, set in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, has been slammed as offensive, ignorant, tasteless and hurtful.
The suggestion was made in a blog post list of 23 easy Book Week costumes inspired by favourite books, which appeared on the website Children’s Book Daily.
Dvir Abramovich, the chairman of the Anti Defamation Commission, which fights anti-Semitism, said it was an “offensive and ill-judged suggestion”.
It was a wake-up call that served as a reminder that Australia urgently needed mandatory education about the Holocaust, he said.
“Did they pause to think about how deeply inappropriate and bizarre it would be for school children to show up at a party dressed in this way?” he asked in a statement.
The author of the blog post, Bron Maxabella, who writes as Maxabella Loves, suggested: “One for older primary kids to honour, all you need are a pair of striped pyjamas.”
She said it was “so wonderful” that the book, by Irish author John Boyne, was on the best loved list of children’s book.
Following complaints, the article was quickly removed from the website.
Maxabella apologised, saying on Facebook: “I am feeling like absolute shit right now, and deserve to for being so insensitive when I should have known better.”
Megan Daley, who runs the website, wrote: “We have deleted the post with sincere apologies to all of you.”
An energetic debate ensued on the site’s Facebook page.
One commenter said she wished the post hadn’t been removed because the role of children’s literature was to spark conversation and work through difficult terrain with “tact and grace”.
“It’s a pity that original offending language has been removed as well as the post, as now our complaints seem to be coming out of the blue.
“Jewish parents everywhere are having difficult conversations at the moment, as Nazi symbols appear on the streets and anti-Semitic sentiments infiltrate political discourse.
“One of the roles of children’s literature is to spark conversation, to work through difficult terrain with tact and grace. I’d love to feel that Children’s Books Daily could host some of this discussion, rather than shying away from it when there’s pushback from the community,” the commenter Jessica Friedmann wrote.
Dr Abramovich said it was clear there was “much work to do in ensuring that everyone understands the enormity of the Holocaust, not only to the Jewish community, but to all the victims, the survivors and to those Australian soldiers who fought to defeat the Third Reich”.
“What’s next, party costumes based on Nazi books?” he asked.
About 1.5 million children were murdered in the Holocaust and this bizarre inclusion was tasteless, hurtful and offensive, he said.
“It’s mind boggling to think that anyone would think it’s appropriate to suggest that parents dress up their children for school or a party in concentration camp pyjama stripes. Did they at any point consider the pain and anguish their proposal would cause to those survivors who lost children in the ‘Final Solution’?
“Did they pause to think about how deeply inappropriate and bizarre it would be for schoolchildren to show up at a party dressed in this way? This is another example why we urgently need mandatory Holocaust education in Australia.”
Maxabella is not the first person to suggest that parents might find this an easy costume for Book Week – other websites have suggested it during past Book Weeks.
“And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?” —The Boy in the Striped Pajamas pic.twitter.com/g1CRiibvhK
— eNotes (@eNotes) August 22, 2017
Book Week, run by Children’s Book Council of Australia, runs until Saturday.
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