When I first sat down to watch this movie, I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't even aware that this is a holocaust movie.

All I knew was that (1) it won the Oscars and (2) therefore it must be good. (Oh, and (3) Adrien Brody has a long nose.)

 

The movie turns out to be totally different to what I can ever imagined  (I thought if anything, The Pianist sounds more like a musical). The scenes of the movie was actually horrific beyond words. The movie shows detailed accounts of holocaust in Warsaw, Poland in 1940s: how the discrimination begun in subtle ways (firstly, jews were not allowed in the park), then becoming increasingly obvious (the jews must carry a big 'star' sticker on their left arm to be easily distinguished, so they can be brutally abused everyday on the street), how they are forced to leave their homes and confined into a Jewish ghetto for awhile and eventually sent to concentration

camps to be mass-murdered.

 

Even though it was rated MA (not R), I couldn't bear to watch it. Yes, I knew about holocaust and has watched holocaust materials before (Roberto Benigni's 'Life is Beautiful', Anne Frank's diary, etc) but this one is way more graphic than anything I've ever seen and very traumatising for my little brain. >< Knowing all these horrible scenes were based on true story made it even worse to watch. I stopped the movie many times and at one stage it was too disturbing almost gave up watching it completely. Its only when my brother kept me company that I managed to continue watching. Im glad that I did watch it through the end, to realise that there is a positive note at the end.

 

The movie is actually about a jewish survivor named Wladyslaw Szpilman who was a pianist and how he managed to go through the

living hell and miraculously survived at the end. His rescuer is actually a high-ranked German officer (a Nazi member!) who've found him hiding in a house and instead of killing him, the officer hid him in the attic and brought him food regularly (And this is a true story, they really existed) This shed a totally different light into the movie - showing a lesson that not all shown as bad are bad and  amongst the ugliest state of life, there lies some amazing stories that shows the beautiful side of human beings as well. From here, I have learnt that during the Holocaust, there are actually alot of people from all walks of life that risked their life in protecting the jews.

 

Click the link below for stories of the rescuers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_assisted_Jews_during_the_Holocaust

 

Even though the survivors represent a very small number of jewish population, the rescue stories are quite comforting. From normal people to diplomats to leaders to businessmen, using creative ways of rescuing, have fought for the survival of the jews. The most intriguing historical event was with the rescue of jews in Denmark, where the entire country fought to defend - and succeeded. 

 

The recollection of the rescue in Denmark were amazing: when the Danish citizen learnt about the Nazi's plan, they independently pursued measures to find the jews and hide them; some even went through the telephone books and called the jewish-sounding names families to go into hiding; the local officers and policemen organised the smuggling and kept them out of sight from the Gestapo; the local fishermens organised fishing boats, kayaks, rowboats, etc to carry the jewish out from the country; wealthy Danes donating money to fund the entire "underground Danish rescue of the jews", etc. As a result, most of Denmark's Jewish population (about 8000 people) survived the Holocaust. How amazing is that!  It is the collective actions of the citizens of the country made it very outstanding.

 

Although Holocaust has very little to do in our modern lives now, it is a history that should never be forgotten. And really, when you think about it, in comparison to what these people been through, our everyday complaints and worries are nothing... right right right? (yes applies to you too poorin!)