The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 by Wladyslaw Szpilman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
Book Review: For Those Who Think That They Are Brave This May Test Them
Summary: 5 Stars
A lot is said and written about the Warsaw ghetto and the awful life of Jews in Warsaw during WWII. Usually the picture is impersonal. Terrible things are happening to Jews as a race but, what is happening to individuals?Few people have endured wartime terror personally and look at the happenings of wartime Warsaw from a historical point of view with little feeling of what terrible things happened to individuals.
Wladyslav Szpilman gives the reader greater understanding of the despicable experiences of war through his graphic descriptions of his own life in hiding from the German occupiers. It is only because of his own self discipline that he survives.
Unusually a contribution to his survival is made by a German officer who is uncharacteristically humane and this, too, adds to the incredibility of the tale.
We are lucky to have such examples of bravery and humanity to give us hope that in similar circumstances we would have had the courage of a Szpilman or the mercy and sympathy of the German.
This episode in Warsaw serves, once again, to illustrate how wastefully stupid man is to let his nature turn so sour when, in the end, there will be survivors and there will be heros and the efforts to snub out man's better instincts will fail. That Wladyslav Spilman goes on to a distiguished musical career is the fitting rebuttal to all the hate that Hitler spread so uselessly and fortunately, fruitlessly.
If you are curious about how you might deal with supreme adversity you might read this book and consider whether you are of he same mettle.
It would be interesting to see how film makers would deal with this story.
Book Review: An utterly incredible, sensitive survival autobiography
Summary: 5 Stars
The work is remarkable in many ways. I will remark upon the story's simultaneous, many different interwoven stories on several levels. First of all it is precious history. A tale of utter horror, but not depressing or abhorent in its presentation. The author is a bright young artist; warm and family-loving. He is a first hand observer of the most brutal physical and mental horrors perpetrated by the germans. In a world of killing and killed, he is ingenuously trusting and pacifist; yet he survives as not one in ten thousand did, over six years. He is befriending and befriended; never naive but never dehumanized, either. And the mysterious officer who saves the pianist, is himself subsequently and ironically destroyed psychologically and physically by experiences similar to those borne by the pianist. It is a story of hope and love. All the more remarkable for being both true, and for being written immediately after "liberation", uncoloured by reflection or attempted insights.Book Review: unforgettable
Summary: 5 Stars
New to us, but first published in 1946 and therefore the real goods as immediately remembered. An astonishing piece of literature and history, written in the most matter-of-fact voice imaginable. And take note that Szpilman never once uses the word "Nazi," behind which most contemporary accounts of 1939-1945 hide the nationality of the murderers.With notes from the diary of Capt. Wilm Hosenfeld, another remarkable man, and the "one human being in German uniform" that Szpilman encountered in nearly six years of horror in Warsaw.
Book Review: SAD BUT NECESSARY READING
Summary: 5 Stars
For the student of the Holocaust this eye-witness account, orginally written in 1945, is sad but necessary reading.Book Review: An almost indescribably powerful work of art.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Pianist is Szpilman's personal account of the incremental loss of his home, his family and his will to live in German-occupied Warsaw. From 1939 to 1945, the Jewish population in Warsaw fell from 500,000 to less than 50,000. During these years, German soldiers and Ukrainian thugs-for-hire taunted, tortured, mutilated and murdered an innocent and defenseless people. Initially Szpilman's status as a celebrity kept him alive but ultimately it was his raw survival instinct that was the key to his endurance.The power of this work stems from Szpilman's personal yet detached manner of telling his story. It seems a nearly impossible task to describe in words the kind of horrific events that took place during this time. Humanity must always be aware of the evil that lurks within our nature. We must never forget the horrors we are capable of perpetrating, observing, tolerating and permitting. This book should be required reading for every citizen of the modern world. The world must never forget the Holocaust.