Wladek's Portrayal Of The Holocaust In The Pianist

625 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How do we remember the Holocaust through films

The film “ The Pianist” directed by Roman Polanski can be deemed somewhat useful to a historian studying the period of time during the Holocaust and the pernicious impact it had on the city of Warsaw and its civilians. The film's portrayal of the Holocaust is highly accurate depicting the horrors and trauma during that time through the eyes of Wladyslaw “Wladek” Szpilman and his experiences. Although the film presents a few historical inaccuracies and fictionalizations the film is highly accurate, as it is solely based on the memoir of Wladyslaw Szpilman. This is evident in the quote “ I heard the hoarse bellowing of the German on the other side of the wall. I ran to the child to help him squeeze through as quickly as possible, but in defiance of our efforts, his hips stuck in the drain” (Szpilman, W., and Hosenfeld, W. (2008). The Pianist. Pp. 12, Toronto: McArthur & Company.) This quote was depicted during the middle of the film. This depiction strengthens the film’s reliability as it is based on the factual account of an experience encountered by Wladek …show more content…

Due to its level of reliability, the film is deemed as an extremely useful as the portrayal of the characters is accurately showing that there is good and bad in every person, for example, the Nazis who helped Wladek hide displaying that he does not have an extremely hostile attitude towards Wladek as the Nazi are generally portrayed to have.

Due to the film, being a chronological factual recount of the life of Wladek during WWII Poland the film is not biased in any way or exhibits a negative attitude to either of these characters and who they represent therefore strengthening its usefulness. Additionally, the level of usefulness is strengthened to a greater extent as the clothes worn by the Polish and Jewish people it gives the audience insight into what Warsaw, Poland and its civilians were like

Show More
Related

  • Jan T. Gross Neighbors Chapter Summary

    927 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jan T. Gross introduces a topic that concentrates on the violent acts of the Catholic Polish to the Jewish population of Poland during World War II. Researched documentation uncovered by Gross is spread throughout the whole book which is used to support the main purpose of this novel. The principal argument of Neighbors is about the murdering of Jews located in a small town, called Jedwabne, in eastern Poland. During this time, Poland was under German occupation. With an understanding of the that are occurring during this era, readers would assume that the Nazis committed these atrocious murders. Unfortunately, that is not the case in this book. The local

    Read More

  • Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account Summary

    2059 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli tells the story of his time in Auschwitz. Dr. Nyiszli is a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp located in Poland. His story provides the world with a description of horrors that had taken place in camp in 1944. Separated from his wife and daughter, Dr. Nyiszli volunteered to work under the supervision of the head doctor in the concentration camp, Josef Mengele. It was under Dr. Mengele’s supervision that Dr. Nyiszli was exposed to the extermination of innocent people and other atrocities committed by the SS. Struggling for his own survival, Dr. Nyiszli did anything possible to survive, including serving as a doctor’s assistant to a war criminal so that he could tell the world what happened at the Auschwitz concentration camp.This hope for survival and some luck allowed Dr. Nyiszli to write about his horrific time at Auschwitz.His experiences in Auschwitz will remain apart of history because of the insight he is able to provide.

    Read More

  • Human Nature In Night By Elie Wiesel

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the publication of, Night by Eliezer Wiesel, the holocaust has been deemed one of the darkest times in humanity, from the eradication of Jewish people to killing of innocents. Wiesel was one of the Jewish people to be in the holocaust and from his experience he gave us a memoir that manages to capture the dark side of human nature in the holocaust. He demonstrates the dark side of human nature through the cruelty the guards treat the Jews and how the Jews became cold hearted to each other. Wiesel uses foreshadowing and imagery, and metaphors to describe these events.

    Read More

  • Brutality In Elie Wiesel's Night

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    The brutality the Germans displayed in the 1930s through the 1940s was utterly horrifying. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the author’s harrowing experience is shared. The Holocaust is worldly known as being one of the largest genocides in history, but not many truly understand what it was like to live through and witness. A lot of people had their life taken away whether figuratively or literally and many discovered so much loss that they became unphased by it after a while. Many who encountered the cruelty and merciless of the Germans have passed but a few remain that live to tell their story to the world and try to explain the feelings that coursed through them during the genocide and even now. Wiesel, who lived in Auschwitz for

    Read More

  • Inhumane Treatment in "Night"

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    The resistance of the Holocaust has claimed worldwide fame at a certain point in history, but the evidence that the evil-doers themselves left crush everything that verifies the fantasy of the Holocaust. For an example, in Poland, the total Jewish population of over thirty-three hundred thousand suddenly plummeted to three hundred thousand. Ten percent of the population survived the Holocaust in Poland. Almost every country that the Nazis have conquered has the same percent of survival as Poland. In Elie Wiesel Wiesel’s memoir Night, the activities in the concentration camps, the suffering of Jews, and the disbelief of the inhumane actions of the Nazis result in making people resist the truth.

    Read More

  • What Is The Purpose Of Night By Elie Wiesel

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Night, Elie Wiesel descriptively portrays the Holocaust and the experiences he has in each part of his survival. From the ghettos to the Death March and liberation, Elie Wiesel shares his story of sadness and suffering. Specifically Wiesel speaks about his short experience in the Sighet ghetto, a historically accurate recount illustrating the poor living conditions, the Judenrat and Jewish life in the ghetto as well as the design and purpose of the two Sighet ghettos. Wiesel’s description of the Sighet ghettos demonstrates the similar characteristics between the Sighet ghetto and other ghettos in Germany and in German-annexed territories.

    Read More

  • Three Aspects of Night by Elie Wiesel

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mood of Night is harder to interpret. Many different responses have occurred in readers after their perusal of this novel. Those that doubt the stories of the holocaust’s reality see Night as lies and propaganda designed to further the myth of the holocaust. Yet, for those people believing in the reality, the feelings proffered by the book are quite different. Many feel outrage at the extent of human maliciousness towards other humans. Others experience pity for the loss of family, friends, and self that is felt by the holocaust victims. Some encounter disgust as the realization occurs that if any one opportunity had been utilized the horror could of been avoided. Those missed moments such as fleeing when first warned by Moshe the Beadle, or unblocking the window when the Hungarian officer had come to warn them, would have saved lives and pain.

    Read More

  • The Action In The Ghetto Of Rohatin Summary

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem “The action in the ghetto of Rohatyn, March 1942” by Alexander Kimel is an amazing literary work which makes the reader understand the time period of the Holocaust providing vivid details. Kimel lived in an “unclean” area called the ghetto, where people were kept away from German civilians. The poet describes and questions himself using repetition and rhetorical questions. He uses literary devices such as repetition, comparisons, similes and metaphors to illustrate the traumatizing atmosphere he was living in March 1942.

    Read More

  • Compare the way Goldhagen and Browning present the perpetrators of the Holocaust

    2071 Words  | 5 Pages

    The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...

    Read More

  • Use of Narrative in John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne, significantly distorts the truth of the Holocaust in order to evoke the empathy of the audience. This response is accomplished by the author through hyperbolizing the innocence of the nine-year old protagonist, Bruno. Through the use of dramatic irony, Boyne is able to both engage and involve the audience in the events of the novel. Although it is highly improbable that a son of a German high-ranking Schutzstaffel (SS) officer would not know what a Jew is and would be unable to pronounce both Fuhrer and Auschwitz, (which he instead mispronounces as ‘Fury’ and ‘Out-with’ respectively, both of which are intentional emotive puns placed by the author to emphasize the atrocity of the events), the attribution of such information demonstrates the exaggerated innocence of Bruno and allows the audience to know and understand more than him. This permits the readers to perceive a sense of involvement, thus, allowing the audience to be subjected towards feeling more dynamic and vigorous evocation of emotions and empathy towards the characters. Fu...

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going.

    Read More

  • Friendship and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

    1716 Words  | 4 Pages

    Director Mark Herman presents a narrative film that attests to the brutal, thought-provoking Nazi regime, in war-torn Europe. It is obvious that with Herman’s relatively clean representation of this era, he felt it was most important to resonate with the audience in a profound and philosophical manner rather than in a ruthlessness infuriating way. Despite scenes that are more graphic than others, the films objective was not to recap on the awful brutality that took place in camps such as the one in the movie. The audience’s focus was meant to be on the experience and life of a fun-loving German boy named Bruno. Surrounding this eight-year-old boy was conspicuous Nazi influences. Bruno is just an example of a young child among many others oblivious of buildings draped in flags, and Jewis...

    Read More

  • What Are The Similarities Between Within Our Gates And The Pianist

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    Micheaux’s film depicts the racial conflict and segregation that appears in the North and South. Old Ned, a black preacher, states to himself that “Negroes and whites—all are equal” (Within Our Gates). Contrary to his statement, the film frequently shows blacks oppressed by whites as being inferior. For example, a white woman by the name of Mrs. Geraldine Stratton says that “it is an error to try and educate [blacks]…thinking would only give them a headache” (Within Our Gates). Despite Mrs. Stratton’s regressive thinking, a light skinned black man named Dr. Vivian is portrayed as a well-mannered, educated black man of the North. The portrayal of Dr. Vivian can be juxtaposed with Władysław Szpilman, the protagonist in Polanski’s The Pianist, because Szpilman is an educated Polish-Jewish composer who is renowned in the city of Warsaw up until the German invasion (The Pianist). This dichotomy demonstrates that the oppressors will always view the oppressed as inferior regardless of intellectual

    Read More

  • Schindler's List Ethical Analysis Essay

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    A film bursting with visual and emotional stimuli, the in-depth character transformation of Oscar Schindler in Schindler’s List is a beautiful focal point of the film. Riddled with internal conflict and ethical despair, Schindler challenges his Nazi Party laws when he is faced with continuing his ambitious business ideas or throwing it all away for the lives of those he once saw as solely cheap labor. Confronted with leading a double life and hiding his motivations from those allegiant to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, Schindler undergoes numerous ethical dilemmas that ultimately shape his identity and challenge his humanity. As a descendent of a Jewish-American, Yiddish speaking World War II soldier who helped liberate concentration camps in Poland, this film allowed for an enhanced personal

    Read More

  • Responding To Texts By Anita Lobel

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    The German language used provided the voice of polish (victims) Germans enemy, antagonist shouting at the Jewish people “Raus, Schnell!” This biography is written in past tenses i.e. after the events happened, also the use of connection to time “For five and half years my brother & I had escaped. We had been running and hiding and pretending not to be Jews” (pg 107).

    Read More

More about Wladek's Portrayal Of The Holocaust In The Pianist

Open Document