The Pianist
Wladyslaw Szpilman
I am surprised that I've never read this before, seeing as it's both a well-known Holocaust memoir and a popular film. It differs in most Holocaust memoirs in that it was written in 1945, right after Mr. Szpilman was liberated in Warsaw by the Soviet Army. It is also unusual in that the author was never in a camp, but managed to escape from the Warsaw ghetto in its final throes, just before its famous uprising, which he witnessed. Today when we were discussing the book in history, several of my classmates said they found a sense of rage in the book. I have to disagree. I think that the author knows he is lucky to be alive and is giving more of a play-by-play description. Of course he is angry, but he does not seek to kill all Germans, something I would expect a feeling of rage to provoke.
Regardless, the memoir is very moving and covers a somewhat unfamiliar aspect of the Holocaust. Szpilman was priveliged and lived in the better part of the ghetto (but of course, all is relative), always able to eat and always with a job. His luck is unbelievable. He isn't instinctively geared to survival and only gains this ability after being forced to. Strangely, too, he is unusually concerned with his hands, and apparently likes to attempt suicide. I think, though, that this illustrates an interesting point about the Holocaust: sometimes, those who survived were almost the least-equipped, while many able-bodied and resourceful souls were doomed to tragedy as soon as they left the train in Treblinka. This book is an interesting perspective on the Holocaust, a survival story different from any I've read.
Grade: A
Wladyslaw Szpilman
I am surprised that I've never read this before, seeing as it's both a well-known Holocaust memoir and a popular film. It differs in most Holocaust memoirs in that it was written in 1945, right after Mr. Szpilman was liberated in Warsaw by the Soviet Army. It is also unusual in that the author was never in a camp, but managed to escape from the Warsaw ghetto in its final throes, just before its famous uprising, which he witnessed. Today when we were discussing the book in history, several of my classmates said they found a sense of rage in the book. I have to disagree. I think that the author knows he is lucky to be alive and is giving more of a play-by-play description. Of course he is angry, but he does not seek to kill all Germans, something I would expect a feeling of rage to provoke.
Regardless, the memoir is very moving and covers a somewhat unfamiliar aspect of the Holocaust. Szpilman was priveliged and lived in the better part of the ghetto (but of course, all is relative), always able to eat and always with a job. His luck is unbelievable. He isn't instinctively geared to survival and only gains this ability after being forced to. Strangely, too, he is unusually concerned with his hands, and apparently likes to attempt suicide. I think, though, that this illustrates an interesting point about the Holocaust: sometimes, those who survived were almost the least-equipped, while many able-bodied and resourceful souls were doomed to tragedy as soon as they left the train in Treblinka. This book is an interesting perspective on the Holocaust, a survival story different from any I've read.
Grade: A
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