Swing Heil :)

Hallo an alle! Wie geht es Ihnen heute? Nein, ich spreche kein Deutsch. Ich bin gerade mit Google Translate.

Translation:
Hello to all! How are you today? No, I do not speak German. I am currently using Google Translate.

Haha. In case you are wondering why I decided to start this post off in German, and you haven't got it from the title of the post (although I doubt many will), let me tell you;

So these past weeks in my English class we have been reading this book called Night by Elie Wiesel. If you haven't read it, it takes place during the Holocaust from the point of view of a young Jewish boy. Its a true story and very informational and touching. It really shows how things actually were during that time... horrible. :( But it is a very good book.

After we finished reading that, our teacher had us watch a movie during the same period of time but from a German boys point of view. The movie is called Swing Kids and it is AMAZING in my opinion.
Here's a few summaries (source):
~1.     The story of a close-knit group of young kids in Nazi Germany who listen to banned swing music from the US. Soon dancing and fun leads to more difficult choices as the Nazis begin tightening the grip on Germany. Each member of the group is forced to face some tough choices about right, wrong, and survival.
~2.      Kids all over the world and all through time want to rebel. Peter Muller (Robert Sean Leonard) and Thomas Berger (Christian Bale) are two such young men whose rebellion against the conformity of Nazi Germany took the form of a love of American swing music, British fashion, and Harlem slang. But when an innocent prank forces Peter into the Hitler Youth, their friendship and their loyalties are put to the test against the seductive power of Nazism.
~3.     In Nazi Germany, the youth of the nation were pressed into joining the pro-Nazi Youth Leauge called the "Hiterjugend", or Hitler Youth. A group of rebel teenagers, however, chose to defy Nazi directives and grew their hair long and listened to American music while calling themselves the "Swing Kids." This is the story of one group of Swing Kids and how Nazi rule and persuasion tore them apart and set them against each other.


I really really REALLY liked this movie. The music and dancing in it was phenomenal also! It looked like so much fun. Whats also kind of ironic is that in gym class this week we learned how to swing dance which was SUPER fun! I loved it soooo much! :D I've been saying that in a past life I'm pretty sure I was a Swing Kid. :)

How many of you have seen this movie, read this book, or learned to swing dance? What did you think of them? Let me know! I love hearing from you! Oh and don't forget to check out my last post or two if you haven't already! :D

~McKenna