36 pages • 1 hour read
Władysław SzpilmanThe Pianist
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1946A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Hour of the Children and the Mad”
Before Chapter 1 opens, Władysław Szpilman’s son, Andrej Szpilman,composes a Foreword reflecting on his father’s musical accomplishments. He expresses regret that his compositions are not more well-known and connects this lack of recognition to that surrounding the memoir itself. It was first published in 1946 and not again published until 1999, as “the political authorities had their reasons”for suppressing it (9).
Chapter 1 gives an overview ofWładysław’s day-to-day experience in the Warsaw ghetto from roughly 1940 to 1942. He resides with his parents, two sisters (Halina and Regina), and brother (Henryk). He works as a pianist at a series of cafés, starting at Café Nwoszesna, where his playing goes largely unappreciated by the loud, wealthy clientele. He moves on to an unnamed café on Sienna street and then to the Sztuka. In both of these cafes, Szpilman establishes his “artistic reputation” as a pianist to a more welcoming crowd(15). He also becomes acquainted with many artists and creative personalities, such as the painter Roman Kramsztyk, with whom he spends many evenings.
While a small population of wealthy Jews frequent the cafes, abject poverty abounds outsides of them. Smuggling operations are very common, with adults tossing items over the wall enclosing the ghetto and children feeding items through the space beneath the wall. Corrupt policemen “turned a blind eye at agreed times”to some of the larger smuggling operations that bring loads of food, liquor, and other delicacies into the ghetto (13). A lice epidemic infests the ghetto, bringing in typhus and claiming roughly 5,000 lives per month. Szpilman dreads walking home from work because he encounters the corpses of the typhus victims as they often lay out in the streets for days before being removed.
Despite the curfew, children and the “mad” wander the ghetto streets at night.(19). Children beg and sing while the mad wander about, asking questions or provoking people. One man named Rubinstein often approaches German soldiers to “call them names, which the Germans find hilarious. They throw him coins or cigarettes as payment for his insults.
Chapter 2 Summary: “War”
This chapter moves back in time to September 1, 1939, the day the Germans invade Poland and initiate World War II. On the morning of September 1, MotherSzpilman wakes Władysław, saying, “Get up! The war…the war’s begun” (23). At first, little changes in the city:“There was no panic. The mood swung between curiosity—what would happen next?—and surprise: was this the way it all began?” (24). On September 3, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany, allying themselves with Poland. Szpilman and his family learn all of this through radio broadcasts. Władysław still reports to the Polish radio station, where he works as a pianist.
On September 7, Warsaw residents are urged to leave the city and cross the Vistula River because the Germans are advancing towards Warsaw. Though no official radio broadcasts make this announcement, word travels by mouth. At this point, the city is “unrecognizable” (30). The shops are closed, streets are filled with trash, usually elegant people are now “dressed carelessly and in obvious haste” (31). Residents pour out of the city in order to seek a more secure location. Władysław and his family, however, decide to stay. When Władysław reports to the station, the building is closed and cashiers are handing out severance checks. On September 8, the first German shells hit the timber yard across from the Szpilman house.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The First Germans”
Władysław details the experience in Warsaw as the German siege is underway, from September 8-23, 1939. At first, the remaining residents of Warsaw maintain their spirits:“We had a purpose—self defense—and its success or failure depended on ourselves” (34).The Germans continue to shell the city, and Warsaw residents take cover in air raid shelters. They work to defend the city by building trenches.The Szpilmans move to a more secure flat on Pańska Street.Władysław briefly goes back to work at the radio station, until it is destroyed on September 23.
The siege increases in intensity over the next several “dreadful days” (40). Warsaw surrenders to the Germans on September 27. A few days later, Germans post bi-lingual notices all over Warsaw guaranteeing, “peaceful working conditions and the care of the German state” along with a section guaranteeing the safety and rights of Jews; i.e., the ghetto (41).
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
These first chapters situate the reader at the outset of World War II, which took place from 1939-1945 between the Axis and Allied powers. It began with the German invasion of Poland, which Władysław witnesses firsthand.
As these chapters unfold, the author establishes a sarcastic, satirical, and, at times, darkly humorous tone. When discussing a talented bacteriologist named Dr. Weigel, the author states, “It was said they had offered him a fine laboratory and a wonderful villa with an equally wonderful car, after placing him under the wonderful supervision of the Gestapo” (17). Here, the author satirizes and condemns the Nazi’s treatment of Weigel. Instead of simply criticizing the regime, he uses the word “wonderful” in different contexts. The author again uses humor when describing the mentally-ill people who wander the streets of the ghetto, noting one man named Rubinstein who yells,“‘Keep your pecker up, my boy!’ His aim was to keep people’s spirits up by making them laugh” (20). These lines serve as darkly comic relief, as this lighter dialogue cuts into an otherwise tragicsituation. The author reflects that perhaps Rubinstein is “playing the fool to escape death,” thus reflecting the memoir’s own darkly humorous style, which stands in contrast to the dire circumstances it describes(21).
These initial chapters also establish Władysław’s ethical framework as a character. He prizes his music above all else and is insulted when he has to compete with the chatter of café patrons in order to be heard. Even when the German siege of Warsaw is in full force, Władysław dodges bouts of shelling to go to the radio station, noting, “I could scarcely hear the sound of my own piano through the noise” (38). Practicing his art is so important to him that he risks his own life to bring music to the public. He also conceptualizes the city of Warsaw as having a spirit. After the invasion, “The dignity the city had suddenly lost could not be restored. That was defeat” (32). By personifying the dignity of the city, Władysław portrays his own sense of patriotism, and the high esteem in which he holds Poland.
