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The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
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The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945

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The memoir that inspired Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning film, which won the Cannes Film Festival's most prestigious prize—the Palme d'Or.

Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times

On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside—so loudly that he couldn't hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air.

Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 2, 2000
ISBN9781466837621
The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
Author

Wladyslaw Szpilman

Wladyslaw Szpilman was born in 1911. He studied the piano at the Warsaw Conservatory and at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. From 1945 to 1963, he was Director of Music at Polish Radio, and he also pursued a career as a concert pianist and composer for many years. He died in Warsaw in 2000. The film version of his memoir, The Pianist, was the winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The triumph of the human spirit, the strength of the human soul to find its way out of the darkness, the injustice, the never-ending nightmare, the ordeal of living in a world where absolute fear and beastly behaviour dictate everyone’s life.

    This is the life of a man, an artist, who experienced persecution, confinement, famine, disease. A man whose strength and faith defeated monsters. A pianist whose talent touched the heart of the enemy, except this enemy was different from the others, a kind soul among the vilest of people. Wladyslaw Szpilman lost his family, his work, his dream of playing a music that becomes the exaltation of the soul. He lived like a caged animal for six years, because of a madman’s idea of a perfect world. And he survived. His writing communicates his soul without melodramatic sentences or shocking details. His works flow like a perfectly performed Nocturne….

    Rating and reviewing lose every meaning and importance when we refer to books such as this. I wish we were in a position to say that we need to look back and vow to ourselves that the nightmare will never be awakened again. I wish we could claim such a thing and actually believe that it won’t be a void wish...But there is always someone, there is always a ‘’chosen’’ leader that turns the world into a toy to pass the time…

    Szpilman’s ordeal and survival was depicted to perfection in the 2002 film by the great Roman Polanski, starring the impeccable Adrien Brody. They both won the Academy Awards in their respective categories.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman was a Polish Jew who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. As more and more Jews were transported from Warsaw's Ghetto to extermination camps, it was inevitable that Szpilman's family would be among them. At the last moment he was pulled from the train that took the rest of his family to their deaths. He spent the rest of the war in Warsaw and was perhaps the only Jew left in his sector of Warsaw at the end of the war. His survival came at a great cost. It was through this book that I discovered that Janusz Korczak, the champion of Warsaw's orphans who is a central figure in The Book of Aron, was a real person and not a fictional character. Most of the Holocaust memoirs I've read were written decades after the events, when their authors had some emotional distance from what must surely have been the most painful period of their lives. Szpilman's memoir was written shortly after the end of the war, when his emotions were still raw. As a result, it's much more intense than most of the other memoirs I've read. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor as bombs e plodded around him. His whole family is eventually killed,but he somehow manages to survive.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    How do you review a memoir of the Holocaust? I've been looking for a way to start this review for 30 minutes and I am still not sure what a review should be. Szpilman's story of his survival in Warsaw during WWII is heartbreaking and almost understated. It is almost as if he believe it was nothing special - that it just happened. And yet, he never got sent to a camp as most of the Warsaw Jews (partially due to luck, partially because of his own ingenuity), he did not get shot as a lot of the ones that somehow were left in the city, he never ended up in a prison or worse. But not because he sold out to the Germans - he lived in the Ghetto and refused to enter the police, he lived in hiding despite people cheating and people dying around him. And at the end, it was a German officer that made sure that he was clothed and fed enough to survive until the city was liberated. The Warsaw Ghetto is one of the best known horror stories of the war - together with the camps and the gas chambers. But in most memoirs I had read, people end up out of Warsaw to survive. Szpilman never leaves the city - he hides and survives fire and cold; he even survives when his name is selected to be sent with one of the cattle carts that moved people out from the Ghetto. He lost his whole family and more than once he was ready to die - just to find a reason to live again. The fall and liberation of Warsaw are bracketed by two renditions of Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor - the last thing to run on the radio before the broadcasting location was shelled; 6 years later, Szpilman is performing the same on the newly restarted Polish radio. The story is written immediately after the war and one expects it to be bitter or disillusioned. But it is not - Szpilman sound almost detached from the horrors and the unspeakable tragedy he is describing. And somewhere in that story, there is also a German that saves him when everyone else had left. The book contains not only the memoir of the Polish musician but also parts of the diary of that German, Wilm Hosenfeld, - showing that not everyone in Germany was part of the machine - even when they were part of the army. One of the tragedies of the times is that he was killed despite him helping more than one Jew - not in the war but in the Soviet POW camps after that, partially because they did not believe him.It is a story of healing and acceptance. A way to exorcise the demons so the life can continue. Or a way to say everything that is in a man heart so space can be made for new and better memories. Whatever the reason, it is one of the memoirs that should be read. The fact that the German officer had to be changed to an Austrian so it can be published in the new Poland after the war shows clearly that the war taught humanity nothing. The fact that it was pulled out soon after publishing and never republished until the times changed due to the Ukrainian and Baltic helpers of Germany being shown clearly is unfortunate and direct result of the split of the continent after the end of the war. (the afterword of that edition is more informative than usual). The war that should have united everyone ended up with the world split worse than ever. And humanity is still healing. But that is a different story. And not part of this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was an amazing book. I found it to be even better than the movie, which was pretty good in itself. Aren't all books better than the movie? The book tended to go farther than the movie on certain concepts, which I greatly appreciated. In addition, my edition came with excerpts from the Nazi officer who helped him. His journal was very insightful. The commentary at the end of the book offered the most information. What a great story of survival in such a dark time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Truth, bravery, determination, survival. Heroism in the face of evil.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The subtitle is all the synopsis anyone needs: The Extraordinary True Story of One man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945.Szpilman was a pianist who performed on Polish radio. He was, in fact, playing Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, live on the radio on Sept 23, 1939, when shells exploded outside the station. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw that day; a German bomb hit the station, and Polish radio went off the air. Ultimately, the Nazi’s plan for extermination of the Jews would take all of his family, but Szpilman would manage – by luck, courage, tenacity, and the kindness of others – to stay hidden and survive. The most unlikely person to help him was a German officer who came across him in the ruins of a building scrounging for food. He wrote his story shortly after the war was over, but it was suppressed for decades, finally being published in 1999, and even then, not in Poland. The edition I had included entries from the diary of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, the German officer who saved Szpilman towards the end of the war. Szpilman’s story is told in a very straightforward manner. He recounts the ever-increasing restrictions imposed by the government on Jews, the forbearance and belief that “this is bound to pass” among his family and others in the community, the terror and horror of witnessing (or being subject to) random acts of violence and death. And yet, there is a certain cool detachment. Almost as if he were witnessing someone else’s story rather than reliving those experiences himself. In the forward, his son Andrzej supposes that his father wrote the memoir “… for himself rather than humanity in general. It enabled him to work through his shattering wartime experiences and free his mind and emotions to continue with his life.”I found it engaging and gripping. Even though I knew he survived, I simply could not stop reading. The extraordinary memoir was adapted to film in 2002, starring Adrien Brody (who won the Oscar for his performance) and directed by Roman Polanski (Oscar for Best Director).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant. Moving. A must read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the first book I've read that made me want to cry. Even though I had seen the film and of course the title gives it away that he survives.
    I liked that there had been an appendix added to the book that told you more about the German officer that helped numerous people escape from the Nazis not just Szpilman.
    For me one of the most heartbreaking parts is a sentence at the end of the third chapter 'There was a special section devoted to the Jews: they were guaranteed all their rights, the inviolability of their property, and that their lives would be absolutely secure.'
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was an amazing book. I found it to be even better than the movie, which was pretty good in itself. Aren't all books better than the movie? The book tended to go farther than the movie on certain concepts, which I greatly appreciated. In addition, my edition came with excerpts from the Nazi officer who helped him. His journal was very insightful. The commentary at the end of the book offered the most information. What a great story of survival in such a dark time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was heart breaking and remarkable.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an astonishing autobiographical account of a Polish Jew's survival in Warsaw during World War II. Szpilman, a pianist, shares his chilling tale using a calm and haunting style of writing, and the reader cannot help but be moved and inspired. While most Holocaust memoirs revolve around concentration camps, this one is unique in that it shares of his experiences in and around the Warsaw ghetto. His survival over those years was truly miraculous; he avoided death at the Nazis' hand many times, all of which are shared in his memoir. This is a poignant story of endurance, faith, and hope, and should be required reading for anyone interested in Shoah literature.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Every story of Holocaust survival is a miracle. Szpilmanâs story is a most amazing telling of the conditions under which his career was interrupted, his family and friends perished, his beloved city was demolished, and his life and health threatened. He survives against almost all odds during the Nazi occupation of Poland and the methodical annihilation of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. Despite losing two sisters to the Nazis, he never relinquishes his love of his country nor his devotion to his career as a composer and pianist. In a time of despicable treatment between human beings, there appear a few individuals who shine forth with kindness to Szpilman. It is their involvement and concern that is instrumental in keeping Szpilman alive through the end of the war. This is an astonishing story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The protagonist's emotional detachment due to trauma serves to make this narrative all the more compelling. Worthy not only for its potentially didactic use, it's an amazing look into the inner and outer life of a man struggling against forces that almost seem to not acknowledge his existence. The afterword makes the story all the more interesting.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The protagonist's emotional detachment due to trauma serves to make this narrative all the more compelling. Worthy not only for its potentially didactic use, it's an amazing look into the inner and outer life of a man struggling against forces that almost seem to not acknowledge his existence. The afterword makes the story all the more interesting.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An account of WWII that leaves you breathless and truly believing in miracles.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Szpilman wrote an amazingly matter-of-fact book. The movie was true to the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In his book The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, Wladyslaw Szpilman writes, "A number of people escaped with their lives during the war because of the cowardice of the Germans, who liked to show courage only when they felt they greatly outnumbered their enemies." Truly and luckily, Szpilman is one among the number. From almost a million Jews population in the city of Warsaw, through "resettlement", human-hunting, and unreasonable decrees; the Germans trimmed the Jewish descent to its bone of merely twenty-five thousand in just 5 years. It is the very cowardice of the Germans, and more importantly the undying will of living that makes Szpilman's survival possible. I'm not in a position to judge the manner of which this book was written, simply because it was Mr. Szpilman's real life story and to whom I shall pay my highest tribute and regard.The prose is written in a very calm voice which somewhat surprises me at the beginning. Later I realize that no sooner had the war ended and the Germans surrendered than Mr. Szpilman wrote this account fresh from memory. It seems to be that Mr. Szpilman was emotionally detached during the writing as he probably had not come back to his senses after the inferno. That also explained why he could accurately recall and date the incidents accordingly. The book itself is emotionally difficult to read and at some points I have to put it down, close my eyes and meditate for a minute. Few of the incidents still capture my mind and bother me after I finish reading: Mr. Szpilman's parting from his family as his parents, brother and sisters were taken away to concentration camp; the clearing of a Jewish orphanage founded by his friend Janusz who stayed his children on their final journey, the Germans (fabricated) video-clipping of Jewish men and women shower naked in public bathhouse to show how immoral and despicable the Jews were; and Mr. Szpilman's fugitive life after his escape from the Germans. Mr. Szpilman attempted suicide but the will for survival overcame the idea. His life took a dramatic turn when Captain Hosenfeld found him in the ruined city of Warsaw and spared his life. Though he never found the man, as Mr. Szpilman reminisced, Hosenfeld was the angel without whom, Mr. Szpilman, a Polish Jew, would probably not have survived at all. During his hiding days, Mr. Szpilman meditated on the music pieces and arduously maintained the hope of playing piano for the Poles again. Mr. Szpilman's account is a stunning tale of endurance, faith, and hope.

Book preview

The Pianist - Wladyslaw Szpilman

1 ∼ The Hour of the Children and the Mad

I began my wartime career as a pianist in the Café Nowoczesna, which was in Nowolipki Street in the very heart of the Warsaw ghetto. By the time the gates of the ghetto closed in November 1940, my family had sold everything we could sell long ago, even our most precious household possession, the piano. Life, although so unimportant, had none the less forced me to overcome my apathy and seek some way of earning a living, and I had found one, thank God. The work left me little time for brooding, and my awareness that the whole family depended on what I could earn gradually helped me to overcome my previous state of hopelessness and despair.

My working day began in the afternoon. To get to the café I had to make my way through a labyrinth of narrow alleys leading far into the ghetto, or for a change, if I felt like watching the exciting activities of the smugglers, I could skirt the wall instead.

The afternoon was best for smuggling. The police, exhausted by a morning spent lining their own pockets, were less alert then, busy counting up their profits. Restless figures appeared in the windows and doorways of the blocks of flats along the wall and then ducked into hiding again, waiting impatiently for the rattle of a cart or the clatter of an approaching tram. At intervals the noise on the other side of the wall would grow louder, and as a horse-drawn cart trotted past the agreed signal, a whistle, would be heard, and bags and packets flew over the wall. The people lying in wait would run out of the doorways, hastily snatch up the loot, retreat indoors again, and a deceptive silence, full of expectation, nervousness and secret whispering would fall over the street once more, for minutes on end. On days when the police went about their daily work more energetically you would hear the echo of shots mingling with the sound of cartwheels, and hand grenades would come over the wall instead of bags, exploding with a loud report and making the plaster crumble from the buildings.

The ghetto walls did not come right down to the road all along its length. At certain intervals there were long openings at ground level through which water flowed from the Aryan parts of the road into gutters beside the Jewish pavements. Children used these openings for smuggling. You could see small black figures hurrying towards them from all sides on little matchstick legs, their frightened eyes glancing surreptitiously to left and right. Then small black paws hauled consignments of goods through the openings – consignments that were often larger than the smugglers themselves.

Once the smuggled goods were through the children would sling them over their shoulders, stooping and staggering under the burden, veins standing out blue at their temples with the effort, mouths wide open and gasping painfully for air, as they scurried off in all directions like scared little rats.

Their work was just as risky and entailed the same danger to life and limb as that of the adult smugglers. One day when I was walking along beside the wall I saw a childish smuggling operation that seemed to have reached a successful conclusion. The Jewish child still on the far side of the wall only needed to follow his goods back through the opening. His skinny little figure was already partly in view when he suddenly began screaming, and at the same time I heard the hoarse bellowing of a German on the other side of the wall. I ran to the child to help him squeeze through as quickly as possible, but in defiance of our efforts his hips stuck in the drain. I pulled at his little arms with all my might, while his screams became increasingly desperate, and I could hear the heavy blows struck by the policeman on the other side of the wall. When I finally managed to pull the child through, he died. His spine had been shattered.

In fact the ghetto did not depend on smuggling to feed itself. Most of the sacks and packages smuggled over the wall contained donations from Poles for the very poorest of the Jews. The real, regular smuggling trade was run by such magnates as Kon and Heller; it was an easier operation, and quite safe. Bribed police guards simply turned a blind eye at agreed times, and then whole columns of carts would drive through the ghetto gate right under their noses and with their tacit agreement, carrying food, expensive liquor, the most luxurious of delicacies, tobacco straight from Greece, French fancy goods and

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