ACTIVITY ONE Facing Catastrophe THE HOLOCAUST oman Polanski’s THE PIANIST 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, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party comes to power in Germany. Holocaust in Warsaw, 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, Nazi Germany’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 Nuremberg Laws 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 Poland, 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. Kristallnacht (Nov 9): Nazi- before the war. By the war’s end, 90 percent of organized night 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. invasion of Poland 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 Star of David, 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 Roman Polanski’s THE PIANIST, when the b.Szpilman’s father collects the family’s last pennies Nazis begin emptying the Warsaw Ghetto, 1941 to buy a piece of candy, which he carefully divides Iherding Jews to the Umschlagplatz 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 Einsatzgruppen, 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 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in which a Jan – Wannsee Conference 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.