First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
One of the memorable poems composed in honor of the Holocaust. As the world observes the 60th anniversary of the release of Auschwitz,I thought it to be appropriate to review one of the finest movies related to the Holocaust, The Pianist. I think along with Schindlers List this is one of the best movies related to that topic. But there are differences while Schindlers List dealt with the attempts of one man to save Jews from extermination, The Pianist deals with the struggle for survival of a Jewish man in Warsaw.
The Story
The movie is the real life story of celebrated Polish pianist Wladsylaw Spilzman who recorded his experiences of survival during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Spilzman has a happy family comprising his father( Frank Finlay), mother(Maureen Lipman), his sisters and his brother Henryk. The movie begins with the German occupation of Poland in 1939 and slowly unfolds the horrors of the Nazi regime. Spilzman and his family find their lives getting progressively worse.
The Nazis start off with restrictions forbidding Jews from entering restaurants, walking in the parks, as he tells his girl friend Dorota, who is shocked at the absurdity of the rule. And then Jews are not allowed to keep money in their home beyond a certain amount and what they eat is also decided by the Nazis. But all this is just a prelude to Hitler?s Final Solution, the extermination of the Jews to the last man.
The Jews are then herded into the by now infamous Warsaw Ghetto and then the Nazis start to execute their Master?s orders, as Spilzman says ?Each is trying to be a better Nazi than Hitler?. Families are executed on the flimsiest of grounds, Jews are deported to hard labor, and comes the hour of reckoning, when all the Jewish families are deported in the cattle cars to the death chambers of Auschwitz.
Its during this time that Spilzman is separated from his family with the help of a Polish Jewish inspector, Stern and he is all alone left to fend for himself. The movie know entirely deals with Spilzman?s efforts at survival in a city which is scarred and destroyed beyond belief. The later half of the movie concentrates mostly on Spilzman and his mute witness to the ravages of the war. He is finally helped out by a kindly German officer with a conscience, with food and shelter.
The Movie
The Pianist is a movie that hits you straight with the impact of a sledge hammer blow. I was familiar with the Holocaust having read many books on it, and I had also seen Schindlers List, but nothing prepared me for what is show in this movie. Roman Polanski the director, was himself a concentration camp survivor, and it shows in the movie. What he shows is pure unadulterated reality of the Nazi horrors and there is no attempt to gloss over it. Some of the scenes which reveal the utter brutality of the Nazi goons:
Ø The Nazis march into the house of a Jewish family and orders every one to stand up, one old man is invalid and he cannot stand. So they just take him and throw him to his death casually over the balcony. And then they bring the family out onto the streets, and orders every one to run, and start to shoot them.
Ø Spilzmans father is walking along the street when two Nazi officers stop him and bark at him, why he did not bow to them. He apologizes but the Nazis still beat him up, and they order him to walk in the gutter as Jews are not allowed to walk on pavements.
Ø Jewish men are ordered to stand in a line. The Nazi commandant randomly picks up men from the group and shoots them without any reason or remorse, as if they were just shooting targets. When he comes to the last man in the line, his bullets are over. He coolly picks up another pistol and shoots the man dead.
But for me the most shocking scene in the movie is when an old Jewish lady is carrying her meager ration of food, and is knocked over by another man. Her food falls on to the ground, and a Jewish man so hungry starts to lap up the food, while the lady tearfully fights to get him off. This one scene is enough to highlight the horrors of the Nazi rule. It was not just the concentration camps, the gas chambers, the tortures, it was the fact that they stripped an entire community of their dignity and made them turn into animals.
I was just stunned, when I saw these scenes. What harm did the Jews do, that they had to be treated in this most inhuman manner? How could one man be so cruel to fellow men? If you watch this movie, any romantic notions you have of the Nazis could be sure wiped away. The movie depicts them as what they were, blood thirsty criminals and drunk fully on power. So deep is the hatred you feel for the Nazis, that in the climax, when Auschwitz is liberated by the Russians, and you see the Nazi soldiers huddled as prisoners, you don?t even feel any pity for them.
Other great scenes from this movie include
Ø The scenes at the railway station involving the transportation of Jewish prisoners and Spilzmans separation from his family.
Ø Spilzman?s deseparate fight for survival in bombed out Warsaw.
Ø Spilzman playing an impromptu piano tune for one of the few Nazi officers who had a conscience and who helps him out.
Ø Splizman running through the railway yard weeping after being separated from his family.
The Pianist is not your average Hollywood war flick where the brave hero goes in and finishes off the Nazis. In fact in real life also there were no heroes to protect the Jews. As you watch this movie only one question crosses your mind, why didn?t the world lift a finger to prevent it? The self proclaimed defender of freedom and democracy, US, sat on the sidelines till Pearl Harbour. Another self proclaimed democratic nation Switzerland used its neutrality as an excuse, and sat idly while Hitler?s goons were rampaging through Europe and in fact allowed its banks to store the loot of the Nazis.
As for Russia, it willfully participated in the loot, until Hitler attacked it and then all of a sudden the so called ?Imperalist War ? turned into a people?s war. The Allies keep crowing about how they saved freedom and democracy, but did it take the deaths of millions of people for them to do that. Jews were not the only ones who suffered under Hitler, the French, the Poles, gays, gypsies, Dutch every one and any one, who didn?t measure up to Hitler?s standards was exterminated by the Nazis. Warsaw is the appropriate setting considering that Poland was the country which suffered the maximum being looted by both the Russians and the Nazis.
Warsaw suffered as a result of Hitler?s scorched earth policy, when it was firebombed, as soon as it was known that the Russians were approaching. The city was totally destroyed and the entire later half is set against the ruins of the city.
Continued in Comments, pls dont miss the ending of this
