The Pianist

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The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.

As with most autobiographies I did find certain omissions. For example, I still cannot understand how in the “umschlagplatz” (the rail station where Jews were gathered prior to embarkation to the death camps) the author became separated from his family. Who called out his name and physically grabbed him away from his family? This was a key turning point in his life. L'esperienza vissuta dal pianista e compositore Szpilman dal '39 al '45 è molto toccante; non altrettanto prevedibile era di trovarla raccontata in modo così notevolmente pacato ed equilibrato, ancor più se si considera che questo racconto autobiografico è stato scritto a caldo nel '45. Lccn 99036033 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL9378422M Openlibrary_edition This memoir is simply one of the best ever written on the Warsaw Ghetto, and has a significant educational, historical, and literary value that the world should never forget. Szpilman, a Jewish classical pianist, played the last of his live music from Warsaw before Polish Radio went off the air in September 1939 as the Nazis invaded Poland. In a tone that is at once dispassionate and immediate, Szpilman relates the terrible horrors of life inside the ghetto.At one of the ugliest (if not the ugliest) points in human history, when man felt certain that God had turned his face away, Szpilman's story represents a counterpoint of a man who seemed to have the intervention of the Divine at every corner. His story is unbelievable to the point of seeming fictional, and yet it's true. Piotr Kuhiwczak (2011): "What we call today 'Szpilman's' book is not, however, a simple case of one author and his creation. The Polish original was the fruit of collaboration between Szpilman and his friend Jerzy Waldorff, an eminent music critic. Waldorff edited the manuscript and wrote an introduction in which he said: 'At some point my friend suggested that I put his war memoir on paper', which implies that Waldorff's role might have been larger than just editing a previously written text." [5] I must be sincere, i have read this book many years ago, well before the famous related movie came out ( that i found marvellous and intimate and very faithful to the book). Szpilman only stayed in his first hiding place for a few days before he moved on. While hiding in the city, he had to move many times from flat to flat. Each time he would be provided with food by friends involved in the Polish resistance who, with one or two exceptions, came irregularly but as often as they were able. These months were long and boring for Szpilman; he passed his time by learning to cook elaborate meals silently and out of virtually nothing, by reading, and by teaching himself English. During the entire period he lived in fear of capture by the Germans. If he were ever discovered and unable to escape, Szpilman planned to commit suicide so that he would be unable to compromise any of his helpers under questioning. During the months spent in hiding, he came extremely close to suicide on several occasions.

Dažniausiai knygose holokausto tema vaizduojama per išgyvenimus koncentracijos stovyklose. O , "Pianistas" nušviečia gyvenimą Varšuvoje nuo pat pirmųjų dienų, kai pradėjo sklisti naujienos apie artėjantį karą, geto kūrimo, iki visiško miesto sunaikinimo. Knygoje galima pajausti kaip keitės atmosfera Varšuvoje diena po dienos, kokios nuotaikos tvyrojo, kaip žmonės prisitaikė prie vis sunkėjančių sąlygų. Pasakojimo tone nėra jokio dramatizmo, juk tai buvo kasdienis žmonių gyvenimas. Tas ramus pasakojimas tik sustiprina tą nejaukią ir košmarišką atmosferą. Skaitant knygą reikėtų atidėti visus prozos gražumo vertinimus. In 1933, after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany, Szpilman returned to Warsaw, where he worked as a pianist for Polish Radio. [7] During the invasion of Poland in September 1939, German bombs destroyed the power station that kept Polish Radio running. Szpilman played the station's last pre-war live recording (a Chopin recital) on 23 September 1939, the day it went off the air. [8] Further information: The Pianist (2002 film) and List of accolades received by The Pianist Adrien Brody (left), who played Szpilman, with Roman Polanski at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival urn:oclc:877649300 Republisher_date 20120820224728 Republisher_operator [email protected] Scandate 20120820175508 Scanner scribe6.shenzhen.archive.org Scanningcenter shenzhen SourceI decided to read it again with my 14 years old daughter due to her homework asked by her teacher for italian literature. For the date, "Polish Radio – Studio 1 named after Pianist Szpilman", Radio Poland, 25 September 2011. Wilm Hosenfeld’s criticism of the Nazis is blatant. That he dares to express such negative views in writing, albeit in a personal diary, does surprise me. Did these diary entries actually exist? In any case, we are told so.

The deportations began on 22 July 1942. Buildings, randomly selected from all areas of the ghetto, were surrounded by German officers leading troops of Jewish police. The inhabitants were called out and the buildings searched, then everyone was loaded into wagons and taken to the Umschlagplatz (assembly area) in Stawki Street next to the Warszawa Gdańska station. From there, they were loaded onto trains. Notices posted around the city said that all Jews fit to work were going to the East to work in German factories. They would each be allowed 20 kilograms of luggage, jewelry, and provisions for two days. Only Jewish officials from the Judenräte or other social institutions were exempt from resettlement. He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.Władysław Szpilman (1999). The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45, trans. Anthea Bell. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.

in French) Władysław Szpilman (2000). Le Pianiste: L'extraordinaire destin d'un musicien juif dans le ghetto de Varsovie, 1939-1945, trans. Bernard Cohen. Paris: Robert Laffont. ISBN 978-2221092569 The subtitle is all the synopsis anyone needs: The Extraordinary True Story of One man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945. From then on, Szpilman decided to stay hidden on the roof, coming down only at dusk to search for food. He was soon forced to change his plans. Lying on the roof one day, he suddenly heard a burst of gunfire; two Germans were standing on the roof shooting at him. Szpilman slithered through the trapdoor onto the stairway, and down into the expanse of burnt-out buildings. in German) Władysław Szpilman (2002). Der Pianist: Mein wunderbares Überleben, trans. Karin Wolff. Berlin: Ullstein Taschenbuch. ISBN 9783548363516 OCLC 970539010(all editions)The house at 223 Niepodległości Avenue, Warsaw, in which Szpilman was hiding when he met Wilm Hosenfeld