Swing Kids Essay

657 Words3 Pages
The film, Swing Kids, shows the lives of a group of teenagers who are forced to deal with the chapter of Hitler’s regime. The two main characters, Peter and Thomas, are forced to join the HJ, or Hitler Youth Group. Due to this forced action, the lives of these two boys are drastically changed forever. Thus leads to the fact that a government has a very large role in any society, especially in Germany during the late 1930’s/ early 1940’s. Peter and Thomas were originally carefree, very close friends who loved to go out to clubs and swing dance during their free time. During this time period, however, swing music was banned by the higher powers of Germany. The German government was so concerned about the types of music that its citizens were listening to, especially the children, because the government felt that it would corrupt the kids. Many swing musicians were Jewish and African American and the government wanted to pit its youth against anyone who wasn’t part of the “perfect race.” One day, Peter and Thomas decided to pull a prank to steal a woman’s radio. The boys were caught in the process of taking the radio and the events thereafter led to both of them joining the Hitler Youth Group. Over time, the personalities of the two boys become greatly altered. At first, they remained the same, calling themselves, “Hitler Youth by day, Swing Kids by night.” After a bit of time, Peter and Thomas began to drift apart as each of them developed different ideas. Thomas began to concur with the ideas of the Nazis, resorting to violence one many occasions and agreeing with things such as Anti-Semitism, etc. Peter, on the other hand remains true to himself an doesn’t abandon his friends or beliefs for the ways of the Nazis. The friends continue to grow apart until they can no longer stand each other. Peter decided to go to a swing club one night and it ended it being
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