“This is another movie tie-in, this time for Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" starring Adrian Brody. It is also the autobiography of polish jew Wladyslaw Szpilman and his account of the holocaust in Warsaw, Poland.Szpilman is a radio pianist and has some popularity in Warsaw before the war. His story starts with the German occupation of Poland and how Warsaw changed under them. How jews were first being discrimiated againt with laws and rules and later cooped up in Warsaw ghetto. He discribes the purges and the muder and the carnage that was his everyday life for years, how he by luck survived but saw his family be transported off to certain death.He survives the ghetto, hides in empty flats, almost dies of starvation - and in the end only survives by the hand of a German Officer, Wilm Hosenfeld, who has grown to know that on his watch Germany perpetuated one of the greatest evils in the history of the world.The work is sub-titled "The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-45" and that is exactly what it is. Chance and luck work together to keep this man alive it almost feels like a miracle - A miraculous survival.The narrative is well strung, well written and, maybe because the author wrote it just after the war, full of horrible realism. I cried a couple of times because its so horrible and written without any palliation or clemency. There are pictures of him and his family, and you look this man in the eyes and its almost physically painful to know what horrible sufferings he has gone through and on who's hands.The edition I read also featured excerpts of Wilm Hoselfelds diary, the man who helped Szpilman survive the last weeks and who later died in a Russian prison camp. He writes of how he comes to realize that nothing good can ever come from the evil perpetuated by the Germans and his feeling and thoughts.The accounts of both men are incredibly moving and well-worth a read. For about two weeks I kept thinking of some of the scenes described and I hated my nationality again. But then its important to know these things and to think about them. To be aware and to make sure you can read the signs early should anything like this happen again in an environment where you can do something to help keeping it from happening.Its moving, and good and terrible and maybe not necessarily for the faint of heart.”
“their regular assignments. It is a view of the people in Warsaw, not just the victims and persecutors, and it truly show the day to day life during the war, a crucial view for historians.”
“I discussed this book with my AP histroy class and all of them volunteered to read it in addition to ther”
