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 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “A Fine Gesture by Mrs K”
This chapter details instances of the German practice of “human hunting”: stopping people in the streets to either beat them or send them to labor camps (75). In the spring of 1942, the Germans temporarily pause their arrests in the ghetto. Władysław and Henryk have taken to sleeping in a doctor’s surgery at night to avoid the nocturnal raids. One night in April 1942, German shoot seventy men in an attempt to “cleanse our part of the city of ‘undesirable elements’” (76).
In May, the Germans transfer the job of human-hunting to the Jewish police and labor bureau. The Jewish police force is made up of young men from the wealthy classes. These members of the Jewish police try to be “in close touch with the Gestapo,” emphasizing their ability to speak German and demonstrating harshness in dealing with other Jews (77).In one of the roundups, the police apprehend Henryk. Władysław uses his status as a musician to get his brother released. The other individuals rounded up by the police are taken to a camp in Treblinka, “so that Germans could test the efficiency of the newly built gas chambers and crematorium furnaces” (78).At this point in the story, Władysław is still unaware that Jews are being murdered in the camps. His later knowledge informs the narration of the events.
In June, another “bloodbath” occurs, in which 100 people are shot in the ghetto (78). During this time, the Germans shoot film of people in cafes, at concerts, and even at the public baths. They show this footage to stave off rumors of Jewish maltreatment.
On July 18, 1942, Władysław plays a concert with fellow pianist Goldfeder meant to benefit another pianist with tuberculosis. Two wealthy and charitable women, Mrs. L and Mrs. K, attend the concert. The crowd wonders if they would speak to each other due to an incident that took place a few days earlier at the Szutka café. While the two wealthy women enjoy themselves at the Szutka, a starving woman had dragged herself in front of the entrance and died. Mrs. L encounters the corpse and “fell into convulsions and could not be calmed” (83). Mrs. K, however, gives money to have the woman buried.
Rumors of “resettlement” of the ghetto circulate but remain unconfirmed (85). This would entail moving groups of people from the ghetto to go work in other locations, which is the German euphemism for putting people in concentration camps.
Chapter 8 Summary: “An Anthill Under Threat”
On July 19, 1942, Władysław performs music for the last time in the Warsaw ghetto. Though rumors had been circulating for some time, resettlement of the Jews starts in earnest on July 22. The Germans declare that the Jews will be moved, and all able-bodied people will work in German factories. Resettlement is undertaken by lottery system, and people are evacuated in an unpredictable manner, as “victims were crammed into trucks and dispatched into the unknown” (90). Jewish police enact this under German supervision.
Some Jews buy certificates of employment proving they work at German companies, hoping these certificates will spare them from resettlement. Władysław does not have enough money to buy them for his family, so he resorts to begging and “pulling all the strings” he can to acquire the certificates (92).Ukrainian and Lithuanian soldiers enter the ghetto, but they disregard certificates of employment, and people continue to be evacuated.
Władysław and his family get jobs at the collection center by the Umschlagplatz, or assembly and transit center. They cart away furniture taken from the Jews who have been resettled.August 16,Władysław, Regina, Father and Mother are evacuated from the ghetto.
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Umschlagplatz”
The family arrives at the Umschlagplatz, located on the border of the ghetto, and waits for the train. They avoid an area filled with fresh corpses. As they wait, more and more trucks arrive bringing people in from the ghetto. The Jews there speculate as to where they will be taken. One dentist insists that the Germans intend to kill them, while Father parries that the Germans would never kill such a large labor force.
Halina and Henryk eventually arrive. After learning that their other family members had been taken, the two decide to voluntarily join them. German soldiers arrive and select a few hundred young, strong people as a “labour force” and drive them away (105).
The train arrives, made up of more than a dozen trucks smelling strongly of chlorine. The Szpilmans make their way towards the train, but Władysław notes, “a hand grabbed me by the collar, and I was flung back out of the police cordon” (105). Though unclear at this point of the text, later sections clarify that it is a Jewish policeman who knows Władysław’s reputation and removes him from the group. Władysław tries to rejoin his family, but a policeman tells him to go save himself. Władysław runs out into the street and slips into a group of Council workers. Though Władysław does not know it at the time, his family is headed towards their deaths and he will never see them again.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
These chapters underscore the theme of separation between wealthy and poor Jews and injustice within the Jewish community. Though all Jews are under control of the Germans, there is still a sizableclass divide in the ghetto. The wealthy Jews can enjoy café culture, attending concerts like those performed by Władysław; the Mrs. K and Mrs. L anecdote illustrates this gap. Both women are wealthy and considered charitable. However, as they are drinking and enjoying themselves in Café Szutka, an impoverished woman dies outside of the café doors. Mrs. L is so overwhelmed that she cannot do anything but scream, while Mrs. K offers money, saying “Please deal with this for me […] See she gets a decent burial” (84). The two wealthy women use this poor woman’s death as a means of engaging in social rivalry, or one-upping each other.
So, too, do some wealthy, educated Jews become part of the police force. They do all they can to be like the Germans. Władysław notes of them, “We were all the more horrified when we saw that men with whom we used to shake hands, who we had treated as friends, men who had still been decent people not long ago, were now so despicable” (77). Though Władysław is part of the “intelligentsia,” he nonetheless criticizes those wealthy people who do not connect to the plight of the Jews as a whole. He portrays them as existing in a sort of bubble, in which they are protected by their wealth and status.
These chapters also bring about changes in Władysław’s character trajectory. Whereas his pride and integrity have held strong up until this point, he experiences feelings of weakness and inadequacy. When he is unable to buy certificates of employment for his family, he notes, “I was shattered by my helplessness, and by having to watch as my richer friends easily secured their families’ safety” (92). His sense of pride is challenged here: he wants to be able to operate like those other members of the educated class, but he cannot, due to his financial circumstances. Władysław has to beg to get the certificates that he needs and his belief in himself is challenged.
So, too, does Władysław become nervous during the process of resettlement, becoming jumpy whenever he hears a truck go by: “I was the only one of the family to act with such shameful weakness. Perhaps it was because Ialone might somehow be able to save us, through my popularity as a performer” (94). Here, Władysław wants to be the strong center of the family, but his emotions get in the way. Where he once saw himself as close to unassailable, he now recognizes his weak spots. When the policeman removes him from the group going to the train, Władysław at first struggles but then runs away. In a certain sense, he gives up on his mission to keep his family safe and together, which has previously been at the center of his existence.
