The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman

"The Pianist" by Wladyslaw Szpilman. This book is published by Picador USA in 2000 and has 224 pages.

Wladyslaw Szpilman Worked as a Pianist on radio in Warsaw, Poland. This story is of the time when Hitler's Germany invaded Poland, the days of brutality and holocaust.

Occupying German forces forced the Jews, including the author to stay in ghetto, within Warsaw, for almost two years but his memory of the time is like a flash as if it happened in a single day. He can not identify the incidents date wise or in chronological order. Hence this section of the book is in the form of memoir but not written chronologically.

The story shows how the rights of Jews were first infringed, then restricted. How all the Jews were confined to a Ghetto within Warsaw - Poland. How Jews were sent to labor camps. How they were left to die. They took days to remove corpses that were left on pavements wrapped in paper (Their precious cloths taken off). Half a million people lived in ghetto that was for a hundred thousand.

Author lost all his loved ones. His father, mother, brother Henryk, sisters Regina & Halina were killed in has chamber. He did not even see their corpses. A number of his friends and acquaintances were brutally murdered.

Author lived under Nazi rule in Ghetto for about two years. Then he managed to escape from ghetto and lived in Warsaw in hiding for another four years. He was helped by non Jew Polish friends, other kind hearted Poles and even a German officer called Captain Wilm Hosenfeld. He came within a whisker of death a number of times and survived miraculously every time. It's a heart wrenching description.

Atrocities of German Gestapo: Shooting, labor camp, gas chamber, asking people to run and then chasing them in vehicle and shooting them down, throwing men from balconies to ground, killing for not saluting, for not getting out of the way and even for no reason at all. It is a story of horrendous killings and senseless waste of life. It shows naked picture of inhumane behavior of Nazi's.

The Jews lived in an atmosphere of constant fear and terror. Not knowing if they will be alive the next day and having seen the deaths of their near and dear ones. A huge uncertainty hung over them and they did not know whether to consider themselves lucky for being alive or unlucky for not having escaped suffering through death.

This memoire was written by the author. His daughter found it and published it. Although author was at the receiving end of gross injustice, his narration is unusually factual and dry. There is no emotion of revenge or hate. It appears as if he reached the limit of his sufferings. After the war was over he went on to compose a number of tunes for the radio and movies.

This book also contains extracts from diary of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld. This adds depth to the book. Length of this book is ideal. Longer and it would have been an overdose, shorter and it would have been curtailed.

A good book. If you have a strong heart, read it.