In "The Pianist," director Roman Polanski reveals the struggles that Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and talented pianist, must endure as he struggles for survival in WWII Warsaw. As all that he has known and loved is torn from him, including his entire family and way of life, Mr. Szpilman must resort to any means necessary in order to cling to life. In spite of his extreme caution and his extraordinary will to survive, it is ultimately his good fortune that sustains him, not his courage or valor. If not for the good will of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, Mr. Szpilman would surely have perished in the closing days of the war, notwithstanding his amazing endurance. Mr. Szpilman’s plight was all too common in the early 1940s due to the hate and racism that permeated Nazi rule of occupied territories during World War Two. In order to rise to power in the tumultuous political atmosphere enveloping Germany following the devastation of the First World War, Adolf Hitler established the Jewish people as the national scapegoat. Unable to deal with their own difficulties directly, the German citizens readily accepted this explanation. After rapidly ascending to a position of authoritarian power, Hitler proclaimed the supremacy of the Aryan race and began his totalitarian reign by preparing to wage war on the whole European continent. Poland made an easy first target for his unprecedented Blitzkrieg offensive, and Warsaw, as the capital city, was rapidly occupied by German troops. These events set the stage for half a decade of Jewish persecution throughout not only Poland, but almost all of Europe as well. These are the years which Wladyslaw records in his autobiography and which Roman Polanski relates in The Pianist. In his struggle to survive the Nazi occupation and decimation of Warsaw, Mr. Szpilman experiences incredible agonies brought upon him by various conflicts, both internal and external. Externally he is daily in direct conflict with the Nazis. On one occasion he tries to help a young boy get under the ghetto wall before the boy is bludgeoned to death, but, sadly, his rescue attempt fails. Another evening Szpilman can only watch with his family as a crippled neighbor in a wheelchair is thrown from a window to his death because he was unable to stand and salute the German officers. The feeling of helplessness, of resignation to fate, which commonly consumes individuals in such traumatic situations, is only held off by Szpilman through his own tireless activity and personal commitment to behave virtuously. While working in the labor force he risks his own safety on a daily basis by secretly relaying weapons to the Polish res