GERM 1171 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Władysław Szpilman, Frédéric Chopin, Roger Ebert
19 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
400,000 jews lived in warsaw before pushed into ghetto. Less than 200 survived and end of wwii. Act of jewish resistance in poland during wwii. Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander then ordered burning of ghetto, block by block. 13,000 jews died (burnt alive or suffocated) Story of polish jew, a classical musician who survived the holocaust through stoicism and good luck. Not a thriller = pianist"s witness to what he saw and what happened to him. Star of polish radio and cafe society in 1930s and a member of warsaw"s assimilated jewish middle class. Best work mr. polanski has done in many years . Non documentary movies about jewish life and death under the nazis that can be called definitive. A tour de force of claustrophobia and surreal desperation. 1st person - we don"t know anything he doesn"t. Looking through window,, drops can, hands on piano, bomb noise.
