This book is great for anyone who wants to be moved

This book was stunning. Absolutely beautifully written, and on such a poignant topic.

Utterly haunting. The excerpt from the diary of the German officer at the end was unexpected and unforgettable. To do what is good and right in a time of fear and terror is incredibly brave and beyond words. Szpilman was not the only person this brave man saved.

I have been wanting to read this book for quite some time. A few weeks ago there was a rerun of the movie on one of the movie channels, I wasn’t able to see it, only tidbits, which pushed me to read the book ASAP. What a great book! The terrible thing is knowing that Wladyslaw, like so many jews, lived through this terrible time in our history. I will never understand what led those beasts to do what they did, treating people as they did! How can any human treat another like they did, specially the children. I never tire of reading books from the Holocaust, and pray we never go through anything like it again.
Since as Wladyslaw wrote this book in the years following the war, everything was still fresh in his mind, which made all the discriptions even harder. We also learn that not all the Germans were bad, and some even helped the jews. I recommend everyone to read it.

I think in order to gain a full appreciation of this book and what this man went through, you have to see the movie, because I think without the visual, it's hard to imagine the complete devastation of a city and just how hard it would have been for him to survive. I went straight from seeing the movie to the bookstore and read this all the way through while sitting there.

This book is painful to read. And necessary. And beautiful.

Por Dios, no he leído o visto nada mas devastador que este libro. Soy un fanático a morir de esta temática, me gusta conocer muchos datos al respecto, he leído ya varios libros de esta época, pero al leer estas memorias de este señor me dejaba con un nudo en la garganta que llegué incluso a llorar. No dejaba de pensar: como carajos una persona puede llegar a planear algo de este calibre, como carajos una persona puede olvidar que todos sentimos dolor tanto físico como emocional.

Y es que a ver, toda guerra es innecesaria, incluso la mas justificada.

Bueno, hablando un poco del libro si se vieron la película, ya estarán enterados de que va más o menos la historia. Nos cuenta todo lo que pasó con la población judía que residía en Polonia en la época de la 2da guerra mundial desde punto de vista de Szpilman. Él nos cuenta la vida antes de que el régimen alemán cayese sobre una Polonia que trataba de protegerse contra una invasión que se veía venir desde mucho tiempo atrás. Luego, vemos su vida en el gueto, la separación de su familia y todas las penurias por las que pasa este pobre hombre.

Debo decir que muchas de las cosas horribles que pasaban en la película pensé que eran eso, cosas horribles que pasan en la películas, pero resulta que de verdad si sucedieron. Pensé que la persona que lo ayudaba al final de la película era alguien que intentaba redimirse consigo mismo, que buscaba la forma de salvarse a si mismo, pero resulta que era una persona buena, que aunque hacia parte de los nazis quería que todo aquello acabase, me gustó mucho descubrir ese dato


EN CONCLUSIÓN, CONSIDERO QUE ES MUY RECOMENDADO, Y SI NO SE HAN VISTO LA PELÍCULA SERÍA BUENA IDEA LEER PRIMERO ESTAS MEMORIAS, PARA LUEGO VER LA PELI

Heart breaking. It's something every adult should read. It's hard to wrap one's mind around the 'how did this happen?!' of the times. As strange as this sounds I read it slowly and savored the book. Every AM I'd read a chapter and then compare his journey to my trifling worries of the day and it'd put everything in perspective. "I have this pesky deadline I'm stressed about tomorrow. Well, Wlad, let me just go get a refill of hot, delicious coffee whilst you slowly starve to death while clinging to a roof for your life." Amazing book. I'm thankful to him for writing it.