Tuesday, November 19, 2013

PERIOD 6: THE PIANIST

The motion picture, The Pianist, is based upon the true life story of Wladyslaw Szpilman and his family.  Mr. Szpilman was one of the most accomplished musicians in Poland before the Nazis attacked the country in 1939.  The film does an excellent job of explaining why it became impossible for the Jewish people living in Europe to escape the Nazis and showcases the plight of hundreds of thousands of Jews forced to live in the Warsaw ghetto.  What did you learn from the film that you did not know before?

26 comments:

Klein Muthie said...

I didn't get to watch the beginning of this movie yesterday, but from what I watched today my heart just broke. I felt soooo bad for the Jews because they were either beat, shot at, thrown off a balcony. The Nazis clearly didn't have a pure heart because they would run over the dead bodies and go right along or just shoot people for questioning the ideas. When they were boarding the freight trains, so many of them were being left behind because others were trying to get ahead and find room. Also they would choose out of a group of them to go to the death camps or stay. I felt like there was no reason for the pianist to be removed from the boarding line, it just wasn't fair. I really did wish we watched the whole movie!

Corey Schairer said...

to be honest watching this film just pissed me off to see so many people starve in the ghetto and watch everyone walkover the masses of bodies it sickened me. The part of movie that really got to me was the convoy of men that showed up at night and cleared out the whole apartment it was tragic to watch the old man in the wheel chair be dropped over the third floor balcony that scene is still etched in my mind, as well as watching the man who got shot down off the wall as he was trying to escape its all cruel and doesn't make any sense to me at all. after watching the film I'm better able to understand all the conditions in the ghettos and how sick and messed up the Germans were, they were just able to kill people and feel no remorse. One thing i personally think was that the pianist was a coward because the seen where his family was awaiting to be deported h]Henrick and the sister come and join the family to be deported as well, the pianist is shown saying "stupid" then in the last scene the pianist doesn't stay with his family to be deported he allows himself to escape if your going to die why not die with the ones you love that's just my personal input.

Leah Bridge said...

After watching this movie I was shocked to see how the jews were brutaly treated. It is unreal how people could just throw a man over a balcony and let him fall to his death without feeling any remorse. After watching this movie I learned that some of the jewsih people actually signed up to be police and kill the jewish people.

Elizabeth Volpe said...

I learned from this film, many more of the gruesome things that were done to the Jews and the Poles. I never knew that the Ghettos were surrounded with walls of concrete that you couldn't see over or around. I always just thought that they were surrounded with barbed wire or a more simple fence. I also did not know that Jews ran police forces inside of the ghettos in order to keep the other Jews in line for the Germans. It is crazy to think that when it comes to survival, people will slaughter their own people almost without question or thought. The ones that you would think would band together during this horrific time, end up murdering millions just as bad as the Nazis. Seeing that man in the wheelchair dropped form his balcony and that boy beaten to death, are images that will be seared into my brain forever.

Lalith Pramod Ganjikunta said...

After watching such horrible events take place to Jews, I have fully realized the monstrous acts the Nazis have committed to Jews not only in Warsaw but everywhere. There were many scenes which provoked and disturbed me. I despise the fact how the convoy of SS stormed into the house and pushed the man in the wheelchair out of the third floor balcony. I couldn't believe what I was watching, they were innocent people trying to live their own lives and haven't done any wrong, and Nazis just continue their cruel heartless acts. I was also extremely disturbed when the SS shot the girl who asked the question in the most kindest way possible and I thought "Are you even human, do you have any heart, mind, or soul?. These scenes deeply shocked me.

Caitlin Potts said...

The film, The Pianist, was very hard to watch knowing that those events actually happened and people were dying in such horrific ways. It was shocking to me to watch the movie and see old men, who were wheelchair bound, being thrown off a balcony for not stand and all of the other cruel ways to die. The masses of bodies in the street sickened me, there was no where they could be brought to rest in peace so they just were left there for people to walk over. What saddened me the most was how desensitized the other jews were to death, I couldn't imagine not being phased by watching people get killed right in front of me, and it's sad that that was something they had to see everyday for multiple years. I also learned that there were other jews who knowingly signed up to enforce Nazi policies in the Ghettos, it's scary to think what people are willing to do for their own survival. After watching this, I don't think I could ever forget the gruesome things shown in the movie.

Ryan Neil said...

This film frustrated me to know end. I have been thinking about it all day. I don't understand how a nation can be so brainwashed that they think the things they are doing is not only acceptable, but the right thing to do. I just don't get it. The main thing that I learned that I didn't previously know is that Jews turned against eachother very quickly to try and escape jewish persecution by becoming Jewish guards. This film captured the terror of the Jewish ghettos more than any documentary I have ever previously seen.

Ethan Peterson said...

After watching The Pianist I was shocked at the amount of unjust brutality the Nazis imposed on the Jewish population. What is even more shocking is that Jews themselves would signup themselves as police force to beat on their own deprived population. These men thought that they would save themselves at the expense of everyone else. What I did not know about the Ghettos is that they were influenced by the wealthy Jewish people until Nazi rule place everyone in the concentration camps. This movie displayed the brutality and suffering the Ghettos were for a family.

Rachel Hurkmans said...

This film left me feeling both shocked and saddened. I feels so bad for the Jewish people who were treated so poorly by the Germans. The two scene that I found most difficult to watch were when the boy was beaten to death for sneaking food for his family and when the man with the wheelchair was dropped from a three story window. It amazes me how the Germans that did these things felt absolutely no remorse. I don't know how I could live with myself after killing a poor innocent boy and a weak man in a wheel chair. In addition, before watching this film I hadn't really thought much about how the Jewish people were not getting much to eat. I had also though of the aggressive acts of the Germans rather than about starvation. I think if I were a Jewish person and I didn't have the money to get food and I did not have a family to help I would rather attempt to climb over the wall and get shot than die a slow painful death by starving.

Abby Underwood said...

Before watching this film I had no idea how awful the conditions within the ghettos were. I didn't realize that Jewish people were asked to become part of the police and they were not forced. It was shocking how easily some of these people were willing to go against their neighbors and even brutally murder them, seemingly without any reason except they wanted to. It was also shocking how within the ghettos it seemed as if some individuals were living way better off than others. Some were able to dine at a restaurant while others starved on the streets. The people within the ghettos became so immune to death that they simply stepped over the dead bodies in the streets. it shocked me how easily the guards were able to hold a gun up to someone's head and shoot them just for asking a question, as if that life meant nothing to them and they felt nothing in response to their action.

Brittany Baxendale said...

This film was hard to watch, probably the hardest one yet. To see people get treated so poorly because of there religion is heartbreaking. I didn't know that Jews signed up for policing and had to do things to people of their own culture. I also learned about the ghettos they had to live in. I cant even imagine walking over a dead person and acting like it is nothing. This is so sad because it became part of life as they know it.

Tabitha Domeij said...

Watching this film mad me sad, angry, and sick to my stomach. The one scene that sticks out to me the most is the one in which the soldiers raid the homes of one particular family and dumps an old man in a wheelchair's body off of the balcony as if it was nothing while the family watched. This scene really bothered me because it showed how cruel the Nazis were to even the most innocent people. The man in the wheelchair had no way to defend himself and in no way could harm the soldiers, yet he was dumped off of the balcony like a piece of garbage. In addition to this, it sickened me to see how dead bodies in the streets of all the people who had died of starvation were merely obstacles to people walking around town because they were so abundant in the ghettos. I feel like a lot of times in a history class, you hear about what conditions the Jews faced in the Ghettos, and sure it's sad then, but to watch something that seems so realistic and to see things as they really had happened in reality is a whole other story because it allows you to see the horror first hand and really grasp the emotions of the situation. "The Pianist" is a film that is able to relay this emotion to its viewers and show a personal account of a Jewish family's horrid life spent in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland.

Shannon lawton said...

I was not in school the day we watched the movie.

Rodrigo.Arguello said...

The film was one of those films that I did not want to continue watching after I saw half of it, not because it was a bad movie but because I did not want to see anymore death in the movie. There were a couple of scenes were I was actually shocked at, it makes a big difference to know that this film is based on a true story and it worries me about what happens when people have complete control over others. The Nazis were so used to their power that at if a Jew annoyed them in anyway or did not follow a order, no mater how impossible, the Jews were shot to death instantly or worse.

Emily Zarrilli said...

I was really disappointed that we did not get to see the entirety of the film but that being said, I probably would have had a hard time viewing the rest. I had no idea that Jewish people were put into ghettos before being sent to death camps and I had no idea that it was nearly impossible for them to leave the country. For years I had wondered why the jews hadn't just left the country before being sent to the camps but now I finally understand. The hardest part of the film for me to watch was the man in the wheel chair being tossed over the edge of the balcony like trash, I was horrified that this could have even taken place. My reaction to the film was just pure astonishment at the treatment of Jews before the work & death camps. How could this have gone on for even a day without the US doing something about it? This movie really left a mark on me and I am worried about what's to come.

Olivia Longo said...

I was shocked while watching The Pianist and seeing just how cruel the Nazis were to the Jews. I was stunned when the police in the ghetto threw a man off the balcony because he was in a wheelchair and could not stand. I don't understand how people could be so cruel and heartless and why they would think that it was okay to kill and harm everyone. After watching the movie, I learned that Jews actually signed up to kill other Jews.

Kate Burgess said...

I had trouble watching The Pianist. I was horrified to see how the jews were treated and the progression up to the final solution. I found it aweful how many of these people were starved to death and no one could do anything about it. Bodies lined the streets and soldiers and jews alike walked past them like they were just sticks. I didn't know previously that there were jewish poilice officers that hurt fellow jews and in some cases killed them. I was horrified when I watched the pain of all of the jews as they were stuffed in the train cars by fellow jews and sent off to their certain death. The jewish police knew where these people were going and did nothing to stop it they just guided their brothers and sisters to their death.

Ashley Chiu said...

Before watching this film, I sometimes wondered why the Jews didn't just leave the areas of Europe under Nazi control, as Mr. Gallagher talked about. However, after seeing The Pianist, I realized that it was actually impossible for the Jews to leave, especially after they were imprisoned in the Ghettos such as the Warsaw Ghetto. The scene from the movie that remains in my memory is when the police came in the night and killed the Jewish family in such a brutal way and showed no mercy. Another surprising thing I learned is that there was a Jewish council and a Jewish police force who voluntarily killed other Jews in the ghettos.

Anna Meshreky said...

While watching this flim in class, there were a few scenes that caused tears to fall from my eyes. It really disgusted me and angered me to see how hostile the Nazis were to the Jewish people. Many times they had killed innocent people for no reason at all, and relentlessly beaten young children and innocent Jews. The Nazi soldiers were killing Jews left and right, as if they were in a video game and their lives had no meaning at all. It made me so angry to see I just wanted to get up and walk out of class because of all the feelings and emotions running through my mind as I was watching this movie. I put myself in their position and imagined these awful things happening to my family and I for no reason and just could not do it. I felt so much remorse for these innocent people and I hope these events never take place again.

Shannon Connors said...

After watching this film, i learned a lot More about the Nazi’s movement and rather enforcement of Jews into work and camps in certain parts of Poland. I learned that the polish Jews were literally locked inside of the death camps by brick walls that Jewish polish leaders of the camps were forced to build. They also had barbed wire connected to them to prevent escape. I also learned that the Nazi’s forced other polish Jews, usually middle aged to older men to run the camp and be responsible for things like cleaning up dead bodies on streets. I also learned that polish Jews killed other polish Jews within the camps. I recognized how even if polish Jews were employed inside the ghettos they had the same chance of being forced out of their rooms in the middle of the night and sent to death camps. I learned that Jews were randomly shot in lines to decrease the number brought to the camps as the trains would not be large enough to fit them. I also learned about the tragic way in which Nazis would kill disabled or even functioning polish Jews on the spot for no reason and recognized how unfortunately easy it was for them to do so.

maddi avergon said...

there were definatly times during this movie that were extremely hard to watch. In fact, most of the movie i felt this way. usually im able to deal better with that because ive watched movies like this in religous school, but this movie was different. One moment that stood out was when they took the man in the wheel chair and lifted the chair over the ledge of the building dropping him to his death. The man was so helpless because there was no ay for him to escape. This was how all the jews felt at the time of the holocaust because there was no way to eescape the death that hitler and the nazi's brought upon them.

Sabrina Herstedt said...

This movie left me speechless. I cannot even recall what I might have learned, only that I felt so confused watching it. There were many times where I had to restrain myself from leaving the room. The things that happened are just a glimpse at what might have occurred and even those were so horrific. It definitely made it hard to watch, and left me angry and in disbelief. There is so much hatred, that I don't have the capacity to understand. However, I did lean about the ghettos. I wasn't aware that Jews willingly joined police forces against their own kind, kill and beating other Jews, in the name of money. I didn't know that these ghettos were walled off from the rest of the world. And I most certainly didnt know that people were smuggling nothing else but food back into these places. Geting caught doing so would result in death. I just can't wrap my head around it I am so baffled by these people's actions. Even now just recalling a movie gets me worked up. This movie was great and I hope to be able to finish watching it at home.

Megan Whittles said...

I was not in class for the entire film, but I did learn a lot by what I did watch. I hated this film while watching it considering how terrible these people were. Actually, words cant even describe these people. A man couldn't stand because he was in a wheel chair and was thrown over a building onto the concrete to die. Part of me was glad that I left class early because of this movie so I wouldn't have to be exposed to anymore torture. I learned that the Jews were sent into an enclosed ghetto to live before they were sent into concentration camps. I also learned that they ran out of jobs, went hungry and many of them would be dead on the streets every day. The Germans must have something wrong with their minds if they were able to torture and kill this many people. This movie just shocked me.

Ivan Truong said...

The Pianist showed how the Jews were isolated in the ghettos in Poland and the harsh conditions they had to endure. The Nazis were able to do pretty much whatever they wanted and treated the Nazis like objects. Meanwhile, the Jews were blocked off from society by a wall lined with barbed wire and eventually (as their money quickly ran out) they found themselves penniless and starving. I just realized how much the Jews were being ripped off when the movie showed the piano scene when the man came to make an offer for the piano.

Kevin Koenigsberg said...

In any discussion about the Holocaust, the terms concentration camp and ghetto get thrown around a lot. After watching this film, I feel like I have a much better understanding of what those words really mean. They signify the oppression the Jews faced at the hands of the Nazis. The Nazis gradually stripped them of their homes, their rights, their possessions, and eventually their lives and thus film helps to show what actually happened within a family that was experiencing Nazi oppression. Unfortunately, the movie is not fiction and the gruesome scenes depict events that actually happened, but we have to remember that millions died in the camps and ghettos, and until we realize what that means, we can never truly understand the horrific scale of the Holocaust.

Jake Foster said...

After and during this film i felt very sad and very upset with the things i was seeing. In reality this did really happen and some people dont really know this. The part when the germans came into the houses and took the old sick man that couldnt stand up and threw him off the balcony was absolutey crazy. I cant even imagine how people can do that and not even feel a sign of emotion. it destoys me to see this stuff because i get so angery with the decisions that are being made towards the jews. The germans have no feelings and are willing to do anything to make them better and more powerful.