The Pianist
Wladyslaw Szpilman • 1946
Devastation Rating
Holocaust memoir music Warsaw
Our Take
Szpilman survived the Warsaw Ghetto by hiding in ruins while his family was transported to Treblinka. A German officer heard him play Chopin and chose not to kill him. The randomness of his survival — talent meeting mercy meeting luck — is more disturbing than any explanation could be.
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