"The Pianist" by Władysław Szpilman

“And now I was lonelier, I supposed, than anyone else in the world. Even Defoe's creation, Robinson Crusoe, the prototype of the ideal solitary, could hope to meet another human being. Crusoe cheered himself by thinking that such a thing could happen any day, and it kept him going. But if any of the people now around me came near I would need to run for it and hide in mortal terror. I had to be alone, entirely alone, if I wanted to live.”
-Władysław Szpilman, The Pianist

I've studied The Holocaust every year in history class since middle school. I even studied it a little in my college history courses. I've read and watched The Diary of Anne Frank. I've seen documentaries about it. It's one of those things that just seems like history. It pains me to learn about it because of how brutal and horrible it was and how many people were murdered. But like so many other things, it just seems like an event in history, and that's it. Because I was never truly affected by it, it doesn't sink in.

Now, don't get me wrong: I believe that it happened. The Holocaust, in fact, was a real occurrence. I'm not one of those people that somehow deny that it ever happened. Oh no, I know of its harsh reality. Reading The Pianist gave me an inside view to what happened during that time. Similar to Zeitoun, The Pianist told the journey of a survivor; however, this book was written by the survivor, not an outside source.

Władysław Szpilman told his story of what he personally went through during The Holocaust. When I started the book, I expected to read about a Jew that had been captured and put into a concentration camp. I expected to read about the different torturous things that he suffered. This book is actually about a Jew that was constantly in hiding and on the run. There were many encounters that just mentioning that he played the piano saved his life. Incredible.

At first he was with his family. Eventually his family was taken to a concentration camp, but Szpilman escaped. Over time he hid in numerous places. Some people graciously let him in, but after a while, no one would take him, so he had to hide anywhere he could find. At times he would almost starve to death, but he always found food just in time.

His story is devastating, but I learned so much. The things he witnessed and survived: unfathomable. There is also a movie! More people know about the movie, and here I am, being such a bookworm, I didn't even know about the movie until I started reading the book.

 

The ending is what I really didn't expect. I would have never expected him to have been saved the way he was. Maybe in a fiction book, but not in reality. I would tell you, but I don't want to spoil it for you!

Overall, it was not the best book to just sit down and read. The writing did not just keep pulling me to reading it, but that is simply because I'm a fiction fan, and this was factual. It was still a good read, and very informative. Upon finishing the book, I'm extremely glad that I read it.

Find out how Władysław Szpilman survived the Holocaust in The Pianist.

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