It took me a long time to read this book. Getting from cover to cover only took me a day but choosing this spine over the other books’ spines in my bookcase took me 6 years. Maybe the war in Ukraine and the current mood of uncertainty in Europe created an opportunity for me to dive into the misery of another war.

As an insight into life in the Warsaw ghetto, I find this book singular. Szpilman’s account is detailed yet succinct; you’ll get no vivid description of the flowers growing in the gutter, but Szpilman doesn’t spare the reader the terror of occupation. In a way, I found Szpilman’s clinical account of his experiences almost made them more incredulous.

I also reflected on the lack of animosity toward the perpetrators and those that did not give aid. Szpilman’s empathy for his fellow man and the difficult choices they were forced to make got me wondering what right later generations have to be anything but empathetic.

A beautiful book! It was a somewhat harrowing and difficult read for me simply because I'm in Warsaw right now, and I actually am living a block away from one of the streets that he mentions. Szpilman is a great writer, I enjoyed the style and tone. It's a short book and a very fast read, I recommend it!

The subtitle is all the synopsis anyone needs: The Extraordinary True Story of One man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945.

Szpilman was a pianist who performed on Polish radio. He was, in fact, playing Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, live on the radio on Sept 23, 1939, when shells exploded outside the station. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw that day; a German bomb hit the station, and Polish radio went off the air. Ultimately, the Nazi’s plan for extermination of the Jews would take all of his family, but Szpilman would manage – by luck, courage, tenacity, and the kindness of others – to stay hidden and survive. The most unlikely person to help him was a German officer who came across him in the ruins of a building scrounging for food.

He wrote his story shortly after the war was over, but it was suppressed for decades, finally being published in 1999, and even then, not in Poland. The edition I had included entries from the diary of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, the German officer who saved Szpilman towards the end of the war.

Szpilman’s story is told in a very straightforward manner. He recounts the ever-increasing restrictions imposed by the government on Jews, the forbearance and belief that “this is bound to pass” among his family and others in the community, the terror and horror of witnessing (or being subject to) random acts of violence and death. And yet, there is a certain cool detachment. Almost as if he were witnessing someone else’s story rather than reliving those experiences himself. In the forward, his son Andrzej supposes that his father wrote the memoir “… for himself rather than humanity in general. It enabled him to work through his shattering wartime experiences and free his mind and emotions to continue with his life.”

I found it engaging and gripping. Even though I knew he survived, I simply could not stop reading.

The extraordinary memoir was adapted to film in 2002, starring Adrien Brody (who won the Oscar for his performance) and directed by Roman Polanski (Oscar for Best Director).

I loved The Pianist for a number of reasons but the supreme reason goes to Władysław Szpilman's storytelling. Szpilman writes down the struggles which he endured in order to survive in Warsaw under the occupation of the Nazis. Władysław voice never grows bitter, neither do his emotions twist to constant abhorrence and it’s why, I find myself greatly respecting him. His story was in no means told to invoke hatred or disgust towards Germans. His intention was not to spit out political statements about WWII. As mentioned on the title of the book, it was solely based on his extraordinary true story to survive when the whole of Europe went into chaos. Not to forget, it was about his determination to live long enough so that one day he could hopefully achieve his dreams.



Wladyslaw Szpilman was a Polish Jew born in Warsaw. He had three siblings and two loving parents. He was a talented musician growing up. He studied in Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and then attended the prestigious Academy of Arts in Berlin before Hitler was in power. He then worked at a polish radio performing Jazz and classical music. But in 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland and developed a new general government which established a ghetto in Warsaw, specifically for Jews. Life for Władysław turned into a daily torture. Hunger and illness sweeped every corner of the streets in the ghetto. Senseless hate by the Nazis and unjustified murder led Szpilman to escape rather than await his death. However, survival behind the walls of the Warsaw ghetto proves to be as difficult as a rapid death.

“Tomorrow I must begin a new life. How could I do it, with nothing but death behind me? What vital energy could I draw from death?”

Szpilman, out of all odds, survived the six year war. Considering all he underwent, it did not leave him with a taste of vengeance and animosity. I thought at first that if I read more in-between the lines then I would catch some slight repugnance towards the Germans, but Władysław displayed none whatsoever. I was not the only one curious about this, so when the book reached the epilogue (written by a German poet Wolf Biermann), I finally had my answer, which strengthens my respect for Szpilman.

“One thing strikes me; Szpilman’s emotional register seems to include no desire for revenge. We once had a conversation in Warsaw; he had toured the world as a pianist and was now sitting, exhausted, at his old grand piano, which needed tuning. He made an almost childish remark, half ironically but half in deadly earnest. “When I was young man I studied in music for two years in Berlin. I just can’t make Germans out…they were so extremely musical!”

I will lastly talk about Captain Wilm Hosenfeld (who I can't help but include in my review). Captain Wilm appeared as if something out of a fairy tale: the one good guy among a sea of cruel men. Hosenfeld helped Szpilman survive when he was closest to his death. Captain Wilm is very much a hero with his capability to clearly draw the line between wrong and right when countless others in Germany were utterly and completely swayed by the Nazi Ideology. The book gives an extract from the diary of Hosenfeld. His opinion is straightforward and clear on how villainous he thought the Nazis were.

“It is hard to believe all this, and I try not to, not so much of anxiety for the future of our nation, which will have to pay for these monstrous things someday – but because I can’t believe Hitler wants such things and there are Germans who will give such order. If it so, there can only explain: they’re sick, abnormal or mad.”

Overall, you might/or might not pick up The Pianist, but if you’re still interested in the story then the film version of The Pianist is also a great insight of Władysław Szpilman's survival.