The motion picture,
The Pianist is the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who was the most accomplished piano player in Poland, if not all of Europe, in the 1930s. This film does an excellent job of explaining why it became impossible for the Jewish people living in Europe to escape the Nazis and the plight of hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Warsaw. Post a reflective comment about the film and respond to at least one other student’s comment.
24 comments:
I was absent from class today
I think this movie did a great job of showing how the Jews were trapped by the Nazis. It seemed as though every person in the Ghetto was aware, even if they didn't really want to be, that they were doomed to be victims. The Jews handled this in different ways to try and save themselves. Some tried to be rebellious, some tried to just go with the flow and more or less come across as innocent Jews, and some even worked with the Nazis as Jewish police of the ghetto. At the end of the day none of these things would have made much of a difference, and it seemed as though living and dying was more up to chance rather than what you did.
I thought the movie The Pianist was good because it showed the steps leading to the encampment of the Jews. It showed some of the horrific but truthful events that occurred during this time period. The movie didn't completely shock me on what the Nazi's did to the Jews, however it was still hard to get a more visual perspective on what they did.
I agree with Sam. It seemed as though no matter what the Jews did, or what side they took they had no chance.
I thought that the Pianist was a great movie that showed how trapped and poorly treated the Jews were by the Germans. The movie showed many horrific events such as the old man in the wheel chair that was thrown out the window because he could not stand up when the Germans ordered him and his family to stand. Following that event the people in the apartment were ordered to run as the Germans shot at them and killed each and every person. These events were very disturbing based on how someone could throw someone over a balcony and let them fall to their death and then shot innocent people. The Jewish people could not do anything but stay neutral as the Germans continued to torture them.
I agree with Kelsey that the movie showed many horrific events that showed how trapped the Jews actually were.
I think that the movie shows how relentless the Germans were towards the Jews. I never really understood how brutal they were until I saw this movie. It was unbelievable how they went from one place to another without knowing where they were going. Each place was worse than the previous.
I agree with Sam on how he said that the Jews were doomed to be victims and that living and dying were up to chance. They had no way to escape. They went from one place to another and it kept getting worse. It was almost a guarantee that they would be killed.
Reflect on the film? No. Words are too limiting. They are meant to express ideas and concepts, logical analysis. We all saw the film, I can't say I really learned anything from it, except that the Jews would join police units in order to survive. The film conveyed the brutally unpleasant truth. What can words say about it? I can say that it really showed how horrible things were, making it so much more than words in a book. But we can all say that. Horrible is meaningless. Words are meaningless. I have nothing to say apart from how well it showed the horror. I'm sorry there I can say apart from recalling particular scenes. But everyone saw them. There's no point. I'm sorry, I just can't think of anything to say.
I thought this movie put everything that the Jews were forced into in perspective. Before seeing this film I had questions to why they didn’t leave, run away, or hide but I now see what was holding them back. After those who saw what happened to the families who tried to rebel they were scared to try and break away so they decided to go with the flow where they were still at risk of being killed. I knew the Jews were mistreated by the Nazis but to actually see a woman get shot in the head after asking where they were going to be taken, and an elderly men killed the way they were was shocking and horrific. I agree with Sam about how the future of each individual Jew was left to chance. It didn’t matter if you were young or old, working or unemployed, or a man or woman if you said or did one thing wrong (in the eyes of the Germans) you would be shot right then and there.
For me, seeing many other videos like this one in hebrew school, i can definitely say that this movie really captures the lack of escapes that jews had. The movie, although focused on one person, does an excellent job of showing us how the jews as a whole and as families were treated. It also really captures the idea that people were dying not because of anything else but lack of water, food, and hygiene. Although the movie does show all of these great things, there is no movie whether based on a true story or not, that can actually capture and portray what happened there besides the the documentary videos we watched.'
I agree with Sam in that the only thing that determined if you were going to die or live was not the choices people made, but that it was just left up to chance and if you got lucky you lived, but if you were not, there was nothing you could do about it.
I believe that this movie did a great job is depicting the helplessness that the jewish people felt in attempting to flee from their hardships. Decree after decree was put into place denying them of their liberties. As thing got worse for the jew the more power the Germans gained over them. They were willing to do anything and go anywhere if there was a hope of better opportunity or survival.
I agree with Mike with how the Jews were hopeless because it they acted against the Germans they would be killed or punished.
I would like to say that i really enjoyed the film. It shows exactly what the Jewish people had to go through and the sacrafices they made in order to stay alive. This movie truely showed the power the Nazis had and also how they weren't afraid to use it. I remember one scene where they invaded a family's appartment, then tortured them. It was sad to see the state of mind these people were in.
I agree with Sam in that the Jews were trapped and no matter what they did to help themselves, there was no hope.
I think this movie did a great job of showing how the jews were completely trapped by the nazi's during WWII. The movie did a great job of portraying just how hard it was to be a jew in poland during WWII. the movie showed just how in control the nazi's were at that time and that in order to survive, it was not what you did, but who you knew.
The movie was very gruesome and straightforward with everything that it presented. Dead bodies are seen rotting in the streets, children are seen beaten to death, elderly people brutally murdered, and many Jews going insane. Any Jews who rebelled were killed instantly or taken into custody. Anyone who did not follow orders was killed instantly. The Jews would do anything that the German soldiers said, and even then they were usually executed. The Nazis always had the Jews packing and moving to different places, and that was an effective way to keep them from plotting anything against them.
I also agree with Sam's statement that the Jews were hopeless and the everything was up to chance.
The Jews basically found it impossible to escape the Nazis. One reason for that is because they might have thought the mistreatment and hate crimes would get worse if they rebelled against the Nazis. After all, the Nazis had more power than them at the time, so they didn't want to anger those in power if fear of their own safety. Also, as the years went on, the Jewish Police Force was formed, and they served the Nazis, hurting the other Jews and leading them to their deaths at the camps.
Amazing movie, but scary - in the sense that this was actually HAPPENING not too long ago...
I agree with Mike -- as awful as it was to see the Nazis throw the man in the wheelchair out the window and then kill the others while their backs were turned, one simply couldn't tear the eyes away from the screen. The riveting story and events really grabbed the viewer. I think this scene also shows how hopeless the Jews were during the rule of the Nazis.
This has been one of my favorite films we have watched in class this year. I think the movie did a great job depicting the process of the Jewish encampment in concentration camps. In books in the past, the details are left out in terms of the slow progression of de-humanizing the Jews. First they were forbidden from stores, next they had to wear the band, next they had to move to ghettos, the movie tracks the everyday struggles of a Jewish family during that time extremely well. The family was optimistic at first and by the time they realized the situation had gone terribly south it was too late.
I agree with Allie that I know understand why the Jews did not flee and feel that I would have probably done the same. The changes seemed small at first but eventually became unspeakable crimes against the Jews.
This movie did a great job of not just showing how impossible it was for Jews to live the life they wanted, but it also showed the steps Germany progressively took to complete this. Like what Kelsey said, the movie also used great cinematography to capture the horrific true events that also occurred such as murder. The Pianist wasn't just informative, it was extremely interesting. I enjoyed this movie.
Although this film was difficult to watch i am glad i was able to see it. The amount of brutality toward the Jews amazed me. I also thought back to the Milgram experiment as i watched this because the Germans showed no remorse when committing unbelievable murders.
I like what Andrew said about it showing how these people had no options, they where trapped in an awful situation.
So far I would conside this to be one of my favorite films, I look forward to watching the whole movie. From what was shwon I was able to see the treatment of the jews hand in hand as it happened during the Haulocost. The Jews trapped in the ghetto lived there lives inf ear of the Germans as well as the violence that erupted inside there. Some of the scenes from the film were gruesome but really portrayed the horrors that people faced during these times.
I agree with Brian about how each place they were moved to was worse than the pervious place. It was a gradual process, but the Germans were able to slowly push all the jews into the worst living situation just before being sent to their deaths.
I have seen this movie before and I agree with Sam in that this movie does a great job depicting the events that took place in Warsaw. It is a very realistic movie and the fact that it follows one persons story throughout the movie making it even more interesting. The Jews seemed to have no breathing room; they had to be alert at all times. There really was no escape.
I also think this was a good movie and a good depiction of certain events in the holocaust. It does show how people were beaten down and blind sided so many couldn't resist before it was too late. However, some did resist and there was a two year struggle in the Warsaw ghetto so it isn't true that no one fought back. There were also people who were able to flee the country and got away from the Nazis. I agree with Sam Nichols about it life and death being random. No matter what some people did they were still killed in the end just because the right people said so, no amount of money or anything could save you.
This movie showed even how other Jews tried to discriminate against themselves and turned the weaker into victims. This was all induced by the Nazis and the Nazis forced this upon them. They needed to herd them up and turn them against each other in order to control them. This movie showed how they at least got them on the trains and moved them around. Slowly but surely they took what it means to be human away from them.
The film was something that was incredibly eye opening for me. I could have never visualized the horrors that went on during this period of time on my own. The way that the horrid acts progressed slowly showed how the Jewish people were unable to leave. It really helped the viewer of the movie actually understand that the Jewish people were trapped. They didn't have any other options. The events leading up to this were very disturbing and were pretty hard to believe that they happened. Agreeing with Kelsey here, it gave you a more visual perspective of everything that happened. It made things easier to visualize and really see it all, as best as one can.
I think that this movie was a great depiction of how the Nazis treated the Jews during the Holocaust. The thing that disturbed me the most was that most of the non-Jewish people appeared to know what was going on and did little to nothing to stop it.
I agree with Sam that although the Jewish people tried many different things to avoid this treatment by the Nazis, none of it could have worked.
I think that the movie did an excellent job of showing what things were like for the jews that were forced to conform to the Nazi's rules, and i can't believe how poorly they were treated. I think that it is terrible that jews have often been used as a scapegoat for societies problems.
I agree with Sam, and believe that the Nazis did make it more of a gamble to the jews for whether they would live or die, and it is completely wrong that they did that for so long with no opposition.
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