The Holocaust In The Film, The Pianist

Day by day the Nazi’s would come and take people off the streets and they would disappear and never return. Adolf Hitler had been in power and declared that Europe would be Jew free. From this point on, Yanek and the rest of the Jewish population in Europe had been hiding, in fear of the Nazi’s.

The most memorable genocide constructed abruptly by German Nazis left both Jewish and German-Jewish residents of Poland in a whirl of destruction. 1933 had been the year that changed the lives of billions, but one young lady by the name of Stefania (Fusia) Podgorska managed to save thirteen, including herself along with her young sister. Upon moving to Przemysl and working a steady job as a grocer, ghettos in Poland had begun to be invaded, and her mother and eldest brother were not too lucky. Podgorska’s family had been sent to Germany for forced labor, like the rest of the Jewish community in that vicinity. While still without question, going through a rough patch at the grocery store, oddly enough, she had also been relieved simply because

“Smuggling began at the very moment that the Jewish area of residence was established; its inhabitants were forced to live on 180 grams of sugar a month, 1kg. of jam and 1 kg. of honey, etc it was very calculated that the officially supplied rations did not cover even 10 percent of the normal requirements”(Doc.2). The food for the ghettos was rationed and many died from poor nutrition especially when one needed to make the rations last. “... The German authorities did everything to seal off the ghetto hermetically and not allow a single gram of food”(Doc.2). They Nazi’s isolated the Jews and impoverished them from their lives. In addition, they were excluded from various things that affected them financially and healthwise. “They were excluded from the practice of dentistry… practice of law was denied to them… practice of medicine… They were denied employment by press or radio… excluded from stock exchanges and stock brokerage… They were excluded from farming” (Doc.3). They were excluded from various practices, jobs, and money. Jews were not accepted in several places and it changed their life economically especially with money to get the things they

Poland, not having the resources to fight the Nazis, lost Warsaw to Germany after a successful bombing of Warsaw. The bombing of the capital has proved to be one of the country’s lowest moments. Black Monday was the fateful day that has had the biggest impact on the city of Warsaw. As described by Colonel. Tadeusz Tomaszewski, “The bombing started around 7am, lasted for 10 terrible hours, hours like hell that no one who has not lived is not able itself to even approximately imagine.”

Very soon after Warsaw surrendered, German troops came in and basically told them how to live. They shut down the schools, and took away their property. The Jewish people were forced to wear white armbands with a blue star of David, this helped with showing they were a Jew. Men here were forced into harsh, labor, work. On October 12, 1940 the Warsaw ghetto was oficially established. The purpose of the ghetto was to seperate the Jews from the rest of the civilization. They had walls 10 feet high to section off the Warsaw ghetto. This ghetto was about 1.3 square miles, with a population of 400,00 and around 7 people per house. “Children Starving to death.” says Czerinakow in his diary from 1942. (“Warsaw”) These ghettos were

Two major ghettos, Warsaw and Lodz were the biggest and msot dirty and packed ghettos. Warsaw held at least 400,000 jews children and adults. Lodz carried about 160,000 jews. Both ghettos were crowded many jews slept in the streets and had nothing of their own possesions, they survived in very bad living conditions. Jews were not allowed to leave these "cities", this was an order by hitler so these cities had gates up and guards to ensure they didn't leave. They had to buy food and were only allowed a certain amount of food and the only things they could get is bread and potatoes. The apartments were overcrowded and the plumbing was broke so waste and garbage ended up in the street.

The first section of the film highlights how Jews lived a very religious life around the early to mid 1910s, before the start of World War I. There were very few Jews in the villages of Poland and the Jewish children did not often play with other children around them. An interviewee remarks on this as being quite a lonely life, but her religion made her content nonetheless. She even states that there was a Jewish star on the roof of her childhood home because her family was very proud to be Jewish. It is also explained that wooden synagogues would be prided upon since they would take a great deal of money and skill to complete (Waletzky).

Many of the Jews in the ghettos died of starvation, the ones who didn’t die of starvation found a way to smuggle food safely into the ghetto without being caught. The Jews, as the Nazis prisoners, were

Marcela Robet Dr. Roy Mittelman The Holocaust in Film Au Revoir les enfants is an autobiographical film written and directed by Louis Malle of the causatum of the Holocaust. Louis Malle role in this film is depicted by the character Julien Quentin, the top student at a boarding Catholic school in France.

More than 30,000 Jews were arrested to go to these ghettos. Once they had everything ready for all of the undesirables. SS guards were hired to do the dirty work of putting all of the prisoners to do forced labor until they died. No one cared how all of the undesirables were treated. It became an amusement to watch one die or get killed. Considering that's all they wanted was for all the innocent people to die. Every Day would be the same watching friends and families die, working for the Nazi getting nothing in return, digging their own graves, and only getting one cup of black coffee with soup that was just broth a day. Women even got raped by SS guards during this time considering the women were separated from the men to different camps. No one did anything to stop it because of the fear of death. In 1939 the Nazi had figured out a way to make sure there will never be a Jew again they called it the final

lives were ended as a result of this unnatural disaster, most of them civilian. The people

The ghetto was used to contain the Jews in an area where they could not escape even if they tried. The ghetto required that all Jewish residents of Warsaw were to move in immediately. All women and children over the age of ten were required to wear a white armband with a blue star of David. Some of the Jewish

The Soviet troops arrived in Mir, where Jack`s parents lived, and took control a few days after the invasion. The troops seemed friendly. The Russians chose not to acknowledge the “Jewish problem.” The Russian occupation was not too bad, especially when compared to the German occupation. In June 1941, Germany invaded the eastern part of Poland. They turned on their Russian allies who were caught by surprise by the Nazi Blitzkrieg and did not put up much of a fight. At the beginning of their occupation, the Nazi`s were secretive about their plans and actions. Then, “about two months after the initial occupation, the action against the Jews were intensified (page 40, Jack and Rochelle).” The Jews were instructed to give up all valuables and then pack. The Jews were headed for the ghetto, which “was located in the worst part of town (page 40, Jack and Rochelle).”

When the ghettos were first developed, the Jews presumed it was a safe place free of the oppressing outside world: “In Poland, the Jews . . . resigned themselves to the establishment of ghettos and hoped that living together in mutual cooperation under self-rule would make it easier for them to overcome the period of repression until their country would be liberated from the Nazi yoke.” (Berenbaum 3). Most of the Jewish people were cooperative, believing they would be freed soon: “If within the ghetto, they presumed they would somehow be safer, as they would no longer interact with non-Jews in quite the same way and be freed of daily humiliations and dangers.” (Berenbaum 4). They tried to live their normal lives as each day passed by. Tragically, the Jews had no idea of the Nazis true plans for them. When the truth of the “final solution” for the Jews was revealed to the community, revolts against the police and officials

The Pianist is a movie that shows the life of one man, Wladyslaw Szpilman who was a popular Jewish Pole radio station pianist. In the World War II which is a background of the movie, How Szpilman suffered and how he survived are presented in the movie. While the movie portrays Szpilman’s life, it also shows how the Jewish people are dehumanized by Nazi during the war. The director, Roman Polanski, successfully uses camera angle, lighting and plot structure, and characterization to present the theme of dehumanization.