Swing Kids

Swing Kids

1. Hamburg, Germany. 1939.

The main character, a young, German man named Peter Muller, was very traumatized by what the Nazi's and Gestapo (the terrorist political police of the Nazi regime founded by Hermann Gцring, whose purpose was to persecute all political opponents of the Nazi regime) did to his father. Over the course of the movie, Peter went through a change; he saw his father in a new light, and realized what really mattered in the world around him. Peter's father was a violinist and professor at the university. He spoke out against the expulsion of the Jewish professors and the entire Nazi movement. Because of this, one night, in the middle of dinner, he was taken away by the Gestapo. He was brought back home four months later, a completely different man. Before, he was lively, brave, and strong; however, after they brought him back he was a weak man, and would not ever pick up his violin again. He died shortly after he returned home. That was six years before the present setting in the movie.

His son Peter was naпve about what his father had worked for; but what he did know was that in the time his father was away the Nazis did something to break his father down.

Peter and his friend Thomas, who was from a well-to-do family, decided one afternoon to "lift" a radio that one of the Nazis had taken from a "traitor" and had given to a "lady-friend." Peter was unable to escape the police, and as a result was told the only way to avoid punishment was to join the HJ (Hitler Jugend or Hitler's Youth, which prepared young boys for further advancement within the National Socialist party). Being a good friend, Thomas joined also; he said "We can't let them split us apart." However, over the course of their training, Thomas went through a change. He began to believe the Nazi propaganda about German superiority, and how everyone else "doesn't belong."

Peter, on the other hand, did not know what to believe; he was in conflict with himself on what is right or wrong. He was torn between what he was told to believe by the Nazis and what his father and good friend, Arvid, knew. Arvid, a musician and a cripple, saw the ignorance and audacity of the Nazi's beliefs. He was outcast because of his extreme beliefs. Arvid and Peter's father saw the Nazis as murderers, and they both believed that by not raising a voice in protest against the Nazis, that they (and everyone else in that society) would be aiding in what the Nazis were doing. Arvid said, "We are murdering Pols...gypsies, and Jews...You can't think that just because you aren't doing it you aren't a part of it...." Unfortunately, their beliefs lead to their deaths. Arvid killed himself because he no longer wanted to be a part of it, he did not want to be a murderer.

Before Arvid's death, Peter was extremely torn between the Nazi regime and the beliefs of his father and friend. He questioned his father's actions and his father's character, he thought his father was weak. He was left unsure about what to think about Arvid. Arvid's death began to make things clearer for him. He began to realize the terrible things that the Nazis were doing. Peter is one day given an assignment to deliver three boxes to three families, the contents of which he had no knowledge. As he was walking away from the second house, he heard the screams of the woman he had just given one of the packages. He then took the third box and opened it, to find inside the message "VerrÐ'tor" (traitor) and the box filled with ashes. Mixed in with those ashes he found a man's wedding ring, and discovered he had delivered to those women their husband's ashes.

This incident, for him, is the final straw. He then went to see an old friend of his father's, who showed him a letter that Peter's father had written to her husband, in which Peter's father talked about how the Nazis were murdering fellow human beings and also about his son, Peter. He said that, because of Peter, he knew what he was doing had to be done. That was when Peter realized that his father was a brave and strong man, and that all of what he was doing was meaningless (participating in the HJ, etc.) Peter no longer cared about what happened to him.

A change was also seen in Thomas. Like Arvid, Thomas was an extremist. He began as a die-hard, live to party, swing kid then changed into a die-hard, "we are superior", Nazi. Thomas was the rebellious type, because of the way his father treated him. He wanted to rebel against, and get back at his father because his father thought of him as a misfit that would not amount to anything. His father hated Hitler and the Nazis and always spoke out against them, although only while in the comfort of his own home. As time passed and Thomas was exposed to more and more of the Nazi propaganda he began to believe it. He reported his father (they were required to report to their superiors anything someone did or said that was against the regime or Hitler), which more than likely meant death or torture for his father. He said also, "Arvid was a cripple...He didn't belong," after Arvid's death. Thomas had turned into a Nazi.

2.

A subculture is a part of society that has different ways of doing things that stray from the dominant or mainstream culture. It can sometimes be described as a stereotype. Its members have little commitment to the category. A subculture is different from the dominant culture, but is not necessarily seen as bad, and is generally seen as "okay" with the rest of the dominant culture. It's members still function as a part of the dominant culture, but they have a few unique differences in the way they do things or in their beliefs. The term subculture basically means a culture within a culture.

Whereas, a counterculture goes completely against the dominant culture. Its members reject the ways of the mainstream culture, and are usually outcast by the mainstream members of society. The term counterculture basically means going against the (dominant) culture.

At that time in Germany, the dominant culture followed Hitler and the Reichstag. It could have meant death if one spoke out against Hitler. A majority of people felt that Hitler had done many good things for their country. He created new jobs and began to bring the country out of the depression it had fallen into.

A swing kid was very much against the Nazi movement, they refused to join the Hitler Jugend, and they saw the Nazi's as cowards. The boys grew their hair long and dressed in the "swingin'-est"

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