The fact that a Nazi helped him live is too unbelievable to be fiction after all that Szpilman had witnessed and endured - it must be true, and this story is. The Pianist is a remarkable story that will be every bit as powerful hundreds of years from now. The Washington Post calls this book "historically indispensable," and that is right on the mark. The book sits along side Anne Frank's tome as required Holocaust reading. Wladyslaw Szpilman was a Polish Jew born in Warsaw. He had three siblings and two loving parents. He was a talented musician growing up. He studied in Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and then attended the prestigious Academy of Arts in Berlin before Hitler was in power. He then worked at a polish radio performing Jazz and classical music. But in 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland and developed a new general government which established a ghetto in Warsaw, specifically for Jews. Life for Władysław turned into a daily torture. Hunger and illness sweeped every corner of the streets in the ghetto. Senseless hate by the Nazis and unjustified murder led Szpilman to escape rather than await his death. However, survival behind the walls of the Warsaw ghetto proves to be as difficult as a rapid death. This first-hand account of the Jewish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, gave me a fantastic and important detailed insight regarding Warsaw, its people and the events leading up to the Warsaw Rising of 1944.

The Pianist by Written immediately after the war by survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman. This book was suppressed for decades. The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and tells the story of the horrendous events that took place in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and the Jewish ghetto. 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] 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.One thing strikes me; Szpilman’s emotional register seems to include no desire for revenge. We once had a conversation in Warsaw; he had toured the world as a pianist and was now sitting, exhausted, at his old grand piano, which needed tuning. He made an almost childish remark, half ironically but half in deadly earnest. “When I was young man I studied in music for two years in Berlin. I just can’t make Germans out…they were so extremely musical!”

Planavau ją skaityti anglų kalba antrą kartą, bet labai buvo smalsu palyginti vertimus. O ir kita kalba skaitant vis tiek yra kitokia patirtis. Vertime niekas nekliuvo, išskyrūs labai stipriai rekomenduoju praleisti Įžangos skyrių ir perskaityti jį tik pabaigus knygą, nes ten į kelis lapus sudėta visa knyga vos ne žodis į žodį, tai nesigadinkite skaitymo proceso. Important de menționat este tonul cărții, acesta fiind unul echilibrat, moderat. Autorul povestește fără patimă experiențele trăite, total lipsit de ură și fără să acuze pe nimeni, lucru greu de imaginat ținând cont de ororile petrecute. Cu atât mai valoros este volumul de față ce conține fotografii de familie și fragmente din jurnalul căpitanului Hosenfeld, cel care l-a ajutat pe Szpilman în final să scape. Saul Friedlander (2008). Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945: The Years of Extermination, New York: Harper Perennial, 38.a b c d Piotr Kuhiwczak (2011). "Mediating Trauma: How Do We Read the Holocaust Memoirs?", in Jan Parker, Timothy Mathews (eds.), Tradition, Translation, Trauma: The Classic and the Modern. New York: Oxford University Press, 287–288. a b c Melissa U. D. Goldsmith, Paige A. Willson, Anthony J. Fonseca (2016). The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield (218–221, 229–230), 230. The house at 223 Niepodległości Avenue, Warsaw, in which Szpilman was hiding when he met Wilm Hosenfeld Mariusz Urbanek (2008). Waldorff. Ostatni baron Peerelu. Warszawa, 156. ISBN 8324400826, cited in Lichtblau 2013, 220.