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Home , The Holocaust in Poland, The Pianist (memoir)

ACTIVITY ONE Facing Catastrophe oman Polanski’s is the story of b.When the Jewish policeman, Itzak Heller, offers Wladyslaw Szpilman, an acclaimed pianist 1933 Szpilman and his brother jobs with the police Rand a Polish Jew, who lived through the force so they can afford to feed their family, ’s Nazi Party comes to power in Germany. Holocaust in , where a population of close Henryk mocks and reviles him, while Szpilman The Nazis declare a national to 500,000 Jews was all but eliminated, leaving answers that he already has a job playing piano boycott of Jewish businesses only about 20 survivors. at a cafe in the Ghetto. on April 1 and expel Jews from all official posts and The Holocaust is the term now used to describe cultural enterprises (music, ’s systematic campaign to destroy film, journalism, etc.). the Jews of Europe – an official policy, enacted 1935 into law and carried out by civil and military deprive authorities, that began with persecution and c.When Szpilman learns that his brother has been Jews of German citizenship ended in the extermination of 6 million men, taken for deportation to a forced labor camp, he and forbid marriage or any women, and children. The Holocaust’s victims begs Itzak Heller for help, but when Henryk learns sexual relations between came from almost every European nation, but the what he has done, he accuses Szpilman of Jews and non-Jews. killing was concentrated in , which was groveling to the hated Nazi collaborator and warns 1938 home to more than one-third of Europe’s Jews him not to interfere in other people’s business. (Nov 9): Nazi- before the war. By the war’s end, 90 percent of organized of anti-Jewish Polish Jews – some 3 million people – had been riots. In the following months, Nazis close Jewish destroyed by a combination of hunger, disease, newspapers, expel Jewish enslavement, terror, and mass murder. children from public schools, The timelines provided on these activity sheets ban Jews from museums, II. Crisis Situations will help you track the events of the Holocaust parks, and theaters, and Few of us ever confront prejudice as vicious as transfer Jewish property to dramatized in THE PIANIST. The film itself, however, non-Jewish owners. focuses on the experience of living through those that which fueled the Holocaust, but we can find ourselves in situations that challenge our belief in 1939 incomprehensible times — the fear, hope, horror, social equality and seem to require a response. Aug – Nazis sign a non- and confusion that marked Szpilman’s days aggression pact with Soviet during his five-year struggle to survive. Through Consider the situations described below. Discuss in Russia. THE PIANIST, we can share this experience, and class how you would respond to each situation and Sept 1 – Nazi and Soviet discover the lessons it holds for us today. what impact you think your actions might have. marks Then imagine how a person with Szpilman’s the beginning of World temperament might respond to each situation and War II. I. An Instinct for Survival how the situation might play out. Sept 21 – Nazis draft a step- How did Szpilman survive? From the first moments At a party, one of your friends is jeered for being by-step plan for the a. of THE PIANIST, when he attempts to keep playing gay. destruction of Polish Jews. for Warsaw’s radio listeners in the midst of a Nazi Nov – Nazis concentrate Jews air raid, we see that Szpilman has an unusual b.You are invited to join a prestigious fraternity that from towns across Poland has never admitted an Asian-American student. in the large cities. capacity to withstand the shock of catastrophe. And You see a Hispanic friend arguing with a group of Dec – Polish Jews ordered to in the months that follow, as catastrophes mount c. wear a , and Warsaw’s Jews are eventually confined in a African-American students who say she is sitting prohibited use of public walled Ghetto, this survivor’s instinct repeatedly at their table in the lunchroom. transportation, parks, and sets him apart. Use the episodes described here to d.While you’re watching news from the Middle sidewalks, and required to explore Szpilman’s reactions to the destructive East, you hear a friend say that the world would provide two years of forced forces gathering around him by comparing his be a safer place if all Muslims were eliminated. labor. behavior in these situations with that of his 1940 sympathetic non-Jewish friend Dorota on the one Apr – Nazis invade Denmark hand, and his cynical brother Henryk on the other. and Norway. What guides Szpilman’s response in these May – Nazis invade moments of crisis? Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. a.When Szpilman finds that Jews are forbidden in Aug – Nazis attack Great the restaurant where he planned to take Dorota Britain. for a date, he apologizes for the inconvenience. Oct – Warsaw’s Jews forced She denounces the Nazis’ anti-Jewish laws and into a Ghetto, eventually suggests that they confront the restaurant walled in with bricks, which manager. houses nearly 500,000 in an area of approximately 200 city blocks. Hunger, disease, and Nazi raids begin killing thousands each week. © 2003 Focus Features. Created by LearningWorks. ACTIVITY TWO Resisting Hate

THE HOLOCAUST n ’s THE PIANIST, when the b.Szpilman’s father collects the family’s last pennies Nazis begin emptying the , 1941 to buy a piece of candy, which he carefully divides Iherding Jews to the railyard for into six pieces so they all can have a share. June – Nazis break non- aggression pact and invade deportation to the death camp at Treblinka, one of Soviet Russia. Killing the old men speaking with Szpilman’s father asks: squads, called Why don’t we attack the Nazis? There’s half a , follow the advance, executing Jews in million of us here, we could break out of the all areas that come under Ghetto. At least we could die honorably, not as c.On his way to the rail car, Szpilman is pulled out Nazi control. By the end of a stain on the face of history. of line by the Jewish policeman, Itzak Heller, who October, 250,000 have tells him, “I’ve saved your life! Go!” With one last been murdered. Coming nearly three years after the Nazis had anguished look back at his family, Szpilman Oct – Nazis construct death seized control of Warsaw, and on the brink of reluctantly slips away. camps in Poland at annihilation, the old man’s question may seem too Auschwitz, Chelmno, late, but in fact it is a question that still haunts Belzec, Sobibor, Majdanek, historians of the Holocaust today. Why didn’t more and Treblinka for the mass Jews fight back? Why did so many seemingly execution of Jews, Gypsies, comply with every Nazi demand, even marching and other “undesirables.” dutifully to their own destruction? Dec – Japanese attack on II. Taking Action Pearl Harbor draws U.S. Warsaw was also the site of the most effective into the war. I. Passive Heroism attempt by Jews to strike back at the forces of the 1942 Holocaust, the , in which a Jan – One answer to these questions comes from the few hundred Jewish fighters, armed mainly with launches the Nazi’s “Final Warsaw Ghetto itself, in the writings of Emanuel pistols and homemade grenades, defended the Solution to the Jewish Ringelblum, who chronicled events there until he Ghetto against Nazi tanks and artillery for nearly a Question” – a secret plan was himself executed in 1944: to systematically extermi- month. nate all European Jews. In no place did Jews resist the slaughter. They In THE PIANIST, Szpilman takes an active part in Nazis begin transporting went passively to death...so that the remnants of smuggling arms for this planned uprising, but he Jews from all occupied the people would be left to live, because every territories to the death does not take part in the fighting itself. Instead, Jew knew that lifting a hand against a German having glimpsed an old acquaintance on one of his camps in Poland. would endanger his brothers from a different July – Warsaw’s Jews are work assignments outside the Ghetto, he sought town or maybe from a different country....Not shelter with non-Jewish friends and escaped into transported by cattle car to to act, not to lift a hand against Germans, the Treblinka death camp. hiding. When the uprising occurs, Szpilman can only By September more than has...become the quiet, passive heroism of the watch from his hiding place as the Nazis shell the 300,000 are gassed. Only common Jew. Ghetto to rubble and execute his former comrades. those considered still fit for Another, related answer is provided by Elie Wiesel, a “I should have stayed there and fought with them,” forced labor or able to find survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. “In those a safe hiding place avoid Szpilman says, but then, considering the outcome, extermination. times,” he has said, “one climbed to the summit of asks, “What good did it do?” 1943 humanity simply by remaining human.” Resisting How would you answer this question? What is the hate, resisting the impulse to attack, was to resist Apr – Warsaw Ghetto good of armed resistance if it ends in failure? Share Uprising begins when Nazis the inhuman forces of the Holocaust itself and your opinions in a class discussion, then compare arrive to deport the Jews preserve the bonds of human nature – hope and the good you see in the uprising with the good still living there. Jewish compassion – that unified the Jewish community. Szpilman achieved through his escape. To what fighters hold out against Consider in this light the actions of Szpilman and shelling and fire bombs extent could his decision to leave the Ghetto be until late May, when all but his family on that terrible day when they were herd- regarded as an act of resistance too? a handful are finally ed to the railyard for deportation to Treblinka. To captured and executed. In what extent could each of the episodes described September, the Ghetto is here be regarded as an act of resistance? demolished. Similar uprising occur in other a.Szpilman’s siblings, who had been selected to Polish Ghettos and even in remain in the Ghetto, rejoin the family, saying some death camps, but all they could not bear to be separated, a decision such armed resistance is Szpilman calls “stupid.” quickly crushed and followed by severe reprisals.

© 2003 Focus Features. Created by LearningWorks. ACTIVITY THREE Life in Hiding

THE HOLOCAUST hough cut off from his old life when he entered d.From his window, Szpilman watches as Polish 1944 the Warsaw Ghetto, Szpilman was still resistance fighters launch their attack against Jan – Soviets force a Nazi Tsurrounded by his family, and even when he the Nazis, forcing them to retreat, then sees the retreat at Leningrad (now lost them, he found comrades in the resistance. Nazis regroup and retake the neighborhood, St. Petersburg) and begin Once he escapes the Ghetto, however, Szpilman is advancing on Nazi territory. gunning down the resistance fighters and leaving almost totally alone. To survive now he must their bodies in the street. May – Nazi’s begin deporting somehow endure the fear and suffering on his own. Hungarian Jews to Poland’s death camps, the last national group slated for destruction. I. The Search for Meaning June – D-Day invasion at During his more than two years in hiding, Szpilman e.When the Nazis shell his hiding place, Szpilman Normandy; U.S. and British passes the days waiting for one of his protectors to barely escapes to a nearby abandoned hospital forces prepare to advance bring him food, careful not to make any noise that on Nazi territory. by hiding among the dead bodies still strewn on would betray his presence. When a protector is late the street. July – Soviet troops liberate in coming, he starves rather than risk going out into Majdanek death camp. the street. What did Szpilman think about over those Aug – : Polish fighters, Jewish and long months of isolation? What gave purpose to his non-Jewish, hoping for existence and sustained his will to survive? support from nearby Soviet To explore these questions, imagine that Szpilman troops, fail to drive Nazis kept a diary during his life in hiding. For each of the II. The Courage to Care from Warsaw when the episodes described below, write a diary entry that Soviets hold their positions. Like Szpilman, many Jews were rescued from the reflects what you think Szpilman felt at the time and Holocaust by the efforts of non-Jews willing to risk 1945 what meaning the episode may have held in his life. Jan – Soviets occupy Warsaw, their own lives in order to save another. These where it is estimated that a.Forced to flee his first hiding place, Szpilman individuals are now honored as the “Righteous only 20 Jews still survive. goes to the emergency address he was given Among the Nations” at , the Holocaust Jan – Forced to retreat from and finds Dorota, the non-Jewish woman with remembrance center in Israel, where the names of Poland, Nazis organize whom he once hoped to develop a relationship, 19,141 rescuers have been inscribed – a reminder death marches to evacuate now married to a member of the anti-Nazi that, whatever the odds, one person can always Jews still held in death and underground. She and her husband agree to find make a difference. work camps. him a new hiding place. Apr – Adolf Hitler commits On the back of this sheet, describe a present-day suicide after issuing a final situation, real or imaginary, where you could be the directive: “Above all I one person who makes a real difference in some- charge the leaders of the one’s life. It might be a situation that involves nation...to merciless having the courage to resist peer pressure and opposition to the universal b.Drawn to the piano in his new hiding place, respect someone victimized by stereotyping. Or it poisoner of all peoples, Szpilman sits and moves his fingers above the could be a situation that requires only the courage international Jewry.” keyboard so as not to make a sound. May – Germany surrenders. to reach out to someone whom most people treat as a non-person or simply ignore. Turn your situation Aug – U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and into a story or news report in which you, or someone Nagasaki. like you, shows the courage to care. Sept – Japan surrenders. c.Placed in the care of an irresponsible protector, Szpilman almost starves to death, but he is rescued when Dorota and her husband come to say good-bye on their way to a safe haven in the country.

© 2003 Focus Features. Created by LearningWorks. ACTIVITY FOUR Survivors

HOLOCAUST zpilman’s incredible story comes to an end READINGS when he is discovered in his final hiding Roselle Chartock and Jack Splace by a Nazi officer, Captain Wilm Spencer, eds., Can It Hosenfeld, who is scouting the abandoned house Happen Again? Chronicles as a site for his headquarters. Unlike every other of the Holocaust (1995). Nazi Szpilman has encountered, Hosenfeld does Lucy Dawidowicz, The War not shout out demands. “Who are you?” he asks, Against the Jews, 1933- “What’s your work?” When Szpilman finally 1945 (1975). answers that he is a pianist, Hosenfeld leads him Helen Fein, Accounting for to a piano in a nearby room and asks him to play. Victims – and Survivors – of the Though near starvation, dressed in rags, and more Holocaust (1982). than two years out of practice, Szpilman sits at Anne Frank, The Diary of a the piano and performs Chopin’s Ballad No. 1 in Young Girl (1952). G Minor (Op. 23), a work by Poland’s most revered Viktor Frankel, Man’s Search composer that listeners have long interpreted as II. Remembrance for Meaning (1959). an expression of Poland’s unrelenting quest for This scene reminds us that THE PIANIST is itself Martin Gilbert, The freedom. The performance transforms Szpilman, the work of a great artist who, like Wladyslaw Holocaust: A History of the who regains the posture and poise of a great Szpilman, survived . Roman Jews of Europe During the Polanski was barely seven years old when the Nazis Second World War (1985). musician as he plays, and transforms him in Hosenfeld’s eyes. Although he recognizes Szpilman invaded his homeland. Like Szpilman, he lived Claude Lanzmann, Shoah: An through the bombing of Warsaw, then went to the Oral History of the as a Jew, Hosenfeld allows him to continue hiding Cracow Ghetto, where he escaped the death camps Holocaust (1985). in the house and even brings him food. by squeezing through a barbed-wire fence and hiding , Notes through the war years with a non-Jewish family. from the Warsaw Ghetto I. Reflection (1958). Polanski has drawn on his own childhood memories Wladyslaw Szpilman, The What do you imagine Hosenfeld saw in Szpilman of those terrible times, as well as historical archives, Pianist: The Extraordinary that caused him to defy official Nazi policy and to present an authentic picture of the Holocaust in True Story of One Man’s show sympathy for the desperate man before him? Survival in Warsaw, 1939- THE PIANIST – not a documentary but a work of art Even more difficult to imagine, what could Szpilman that brings past experience back to life. 1945 (2000). have seen in Hosenfeld that would allow him to Elie Wiesel, Night (1960). trust his life to a representative of the forces that Read the note from Roman Polanski reprinted here, had sought to destroy him for more than five years? and after you have seen the film, use the back of HOLOCAUST Discuss this episode in class, exploring the part this sheet to write a note or journal entry telling WEB SITES music plays in bringing these two one-time enemies him what you gained by looking through this window United States Holocaust together as survivors of the worst that hate can do, into an unimaginable experience. What moments Memorial Museum brought insight into the human significance of the www.ushmm.org both to those who feel it and to those who suffer its effects. Holocaust? What episodes helped bring you into Facing History and Ourselves www.facing.org the community of those who carry the responsibility Simon Wiesenthal Center to never forget? www.wiesenthal.com Yad Vashem: The Holocaust As soon as I read the first chapter of In addition to my own recollections, I Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Wladyslaw Szpilman’s memoirs, I could rely on the authenticity of Remembrance Authority instantly knew that The Pianist would Szpilman’s account. He wrote it just www.yadvashem.org be the subject of my next film. I knew after the war – perhaps that’s why how to tell it. It was the story I was the story is so strong, so genuine, seeking: in spite of the horror, it is a and so fresh. He describes the reality positive account, full of hope. of this period with surprising – almost cool and scientific – objectivity. There I survived the bombing of Warsaw are decent Poles and evil Poles in his and the Cracow Ghetto, and I wanted book, decent and evil Jews, decent to recreate those childhood visions. A Note from and evil Germans. It was also important for me to stick Roman Polanski as close to the truth as possible and THE PIANIST is a testimony to the I always knew that one day I would avoid Hollywood-style make-believe. I power of music, the will to live, and make a film about this painful have never done, and don’t intend to the courage to stand against evil. chapter in Polish history, but I did not do, anything autobiographical, but in want it to be based on my own life. making THE PIANIST I could use the © 2003 Focus Features. experiences I went through. Created by LearningWorks.