Re: The Pianist

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Shirona wrote:

> After seeing Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" (a powerful and upsetting
> film) - I looked up Wladyslaw Szpilman, the late Jewish/Polish
> composer/pianist who's autobiographic account of surviving  WWII in
> Warsaw is the basis of this film .  He was a prolific classical
> composer, before and after the war (he stayed in Poland until his
> death in 2000) - but also wrote some 500 songs, 150 of which are
> considered the "evergreens" of Polish popular music...and 40
> children's songs for which he received awards... Is anyone familiar
> with his music and songs? I couldn't help wondering though - how could
> he stay in Poland after the entire Jewish population was wiped out,
> and the Poles proved themselves to be just as savage and eager to get
> rid of the Jews as the Germans... Was he such a musical celebrity in
> Poland that being Jewish, in his case, didn't matter?
>
> I haven't seen the film yet, but I've heard that his celebrity was the
> reason he stayed.  Having lived and worked in Poland a while in 1999,
> I made many good, non-Jewish friends, who were deeply empathetic,
> caring, and curious about the Jewish legacy in their country.  Being
> there (and teaching a Jewish music course) was pretty eerie, rather
> like what Isaac Singer might have suggested, surrounded by millions of
> Jews, the vast majority of them ghosts.  I felt immensely connected to
> the place (although my own heritage is in Lithuania and Ukraine),
> because the markers of the lost Jewish world.  I sometimes burst into
> tears just walking down the streets of Lublin.  I was invited back and
> would have jumped at the chance had it not been for health problems.
>
> I don't think I've answered your question, especially since I'm not a
> Pole and had only a bit of the language, but the place has a way of
> holding one.  There was no way to be naive about the anti-Semitism,
> the grafitti was everywhere, but I also had incredible friends, some
> of the best folks I've ever known.  I also got the impression that
> some Jews felt the need to stay as a sort of act of resistance.
>
> As bad as it was for Jews after the war, it got considerably worse in
> 1967, when there was a huge employment purge after the Six-Day war.
>
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>   Shirona* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> * *
> Singer, Songwriter and Teacher of Jewish Music
>  Visit my website at    www.shirona.com
> Listen to my music at www.mp3.com/shirona
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

--
Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
Head, Division Of Composition and Music Theory
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)


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