"The Pianist" is a story of a family living in Warsaw, Poland during WWII. During WWII, Poland was occupied by Germany(similar to things going on today. Tibet ring a bell?) That means that the Nazi's invaded Poland(EVEN AFTER THEY SIGNED A PEACE TREATY) and that Poland belonged to Germany. When a country is occupied, it affects everybody. The new foreign language is taught in schools, there are armed officers everywhere, the laws are changed to adapt to the captors nationality, and the people living in the country have a LOT less freedom. I wouldn't even call it freedom or living.
The movie shows how the family is invaded by Nazi's and is taken to a ghetto in Warsaw. The common term "ghetto" for a run-down neighborhood is used jokingly now; but back in WWII that's what the Jewish citizens were forced to live in. The ghetto was separated from the actual city of Warsaw by walls, guards, and barbed wire. The ghetto was also, pretty much, a holding place for Jews before they were shipped off to concentration camps like cattle.
Although there were killings in the ghetto, mass slaughters were most likely carried out in concentration camps. An infamous concentration camp is Auschwitz. In concentration camps, genocides occurred. Not only were Jewish people persecuted; but there were also gypsies, handicap people, and anyone that didn't meet the code of Hitler's mercy.
The young man and his family in this movie were sent to the ghetto in Warsaw. They resided in a cramped apartment, living a poor lifestyle, for more than two years......then one day the trains arrived.
Nazi's told the residents of the ghetto that they would be going on to a better place to live. That was 110% bull. People boarded trains and were sent to concentration camps to suffer, starve, be tortured; and eventually die by suicide, murder, or illness/disease. The young man was spared his life by a Jewish officer, hired by the Nazi's in the ghetto. The rest of his family was shipped off to die.
In concentration camps, there were different forms of death. Today, most people may think that the only way genocide was carried out in the concentration camps was by gassing. That is very incorrect. The Nazi's used "shower houses" to kill their prisoners. The process was that each person got a bar of soap and went into the warehouse and they locked the doors. With the doors locked, the Nazi's gassed the whole building and people suffocated to their death. Other forms of termination consisted of prisoners digging big pits and then kneed on the edge of the pit. Nazi officers would proceed by shooting them and the bodies falling into the holes; pretty much they dug their own graves. Officers would also have random line ups and pick random prisoners to kill. Just for their own sick nasty pleasure.
When my history class studied Attila the Hun, the movie we watched showed a psychological analysis of his life and the overall outcome of how his mind works. The psychologist concluded that Attila was a psychotic killer that took pleasure in bloodshed. If what Attila did is similar to the Nazi's, then all Nazi's were either forced into being a Nazi or a psychotic killer.
How could a person be convinced that killing a living person is right? There is no way that a sane, normal, loving human being could kill a person shamelessly; let alone millions of people! To think, that there were menacing Nazi officers by day that led out countless executions; and by night they were loving siblings, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles. The Nazi's that came from families of love seem like they can somehow justify murder in their minds. Hitler claimed to be a Christian. If God loves everybody, as it is taught in Christian religions, then how could a "good Christian" be filled with so much hate? How could anyone think that wiping out populations and killing children would be okay? Well, my answer to that is one phrase I was taught by my history teacher: Overall humans are bad, but they can do good things.
Nazi Concentration Camps:
- Germany:
- Bergen-Belsen (probably 2 subcamps but location is unknown)
- Börgermoor (no sub-camp known)
- Buchenwald ( 174 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Dachau (123 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Dieburg (no sub-camp known)
- Esterwegen (1 sub-camp)
- Flossenburg (94 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Gundelsheim (no sub-camp known)
- Neuengamme (96 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Papenburg (no sub-camp known)
- Ravensbruck (31 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Sachsenhausen (44 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Sachsenburg (no sub-camp known)
- Austria:
- Mauthausen (49 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Belgium:
- Breendonck (no sub-camp known)
- Czechoslovakia:
- Theresienstadt (9 external kommandos)
- Estonia:
- Klooga
- Vivara
- Finland:
- Kangasjarvi
- Koveri
- France:
- Argeles
- Brens
- Drancy
- Gurs
- Les Milles
- Le Vernet
- Natzweiler-Struthof (70 camps satellites et kommandos)
- Noé
- Récébédou
- Rieucros
- Rivesaltes
- Suresnes
- Thill
- for these camps, no sub-camp known
- Abadla
- Ain el Ourak
- Bechar
- Berguent
- Bogari
- Bouarfa
- Djelfa
- Kenadsa
- Meridja
- Missour
- Tendrara
- Great Britain (*Note: Alderney in the Channel Islands was the only place in the British Isles where German concentration camps were established. In January 1942, the occupying German forces established four camps, called Helgoland, Norderney, Borkum and Sylt.)
- Aurigny
- Holland:
- Amersfoort
- Ommen
- Vught
- Arnhem
- Breda
- Eindhoven
- Gilze-Rijen
- 's Gravenhage (The Hague)
- Haaren par Tilburg
- Leeuwarden
- Moerdijk
- Rozendaal
- Sint Michielsgestel
- Valkenburg par Leiden
- Venlo (Luftwaffe airfield)
- Westerbork (transit camp)
- Italy:
- Bolzano
- Fossoli
- Risiera di San Sabba (no sub-camp known)
- Latvia:
- Riga
- Riga-Kaiserwald
- Dundaga
- Eleje-Meitenes
- Jungfernhof
- Lenta
- Spilwe
- Lithuania:
- Kaunas
- Aleksotaskowno
- Palemonas
- Pravieniskès
- Volary
- Norway:
- Baerum
- Berg
- Bredtvet
- Falstadt
- Tromsdalen
- Ulven
- Poland:
- Auschwitz-Birkenau - Oswiecim-Brzezinka (extermination camp - 51 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Belzec (extermination camp - 1 subcamp)
- Bierznow
- Biesiadka
- Dzierzazna & Litzmannstadt (These two camps were "Jugenverwahrlage", children camps. Hundreds of children and teenagers considered as not good enough to be "Germanized" were transfered to these places - see our article about the The “Lebensborn ” — and later sent to the extermination canters)
- Gross-Rosen - Rogoznica (77 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Huta-Komarowska
- Janowska
- Krakow
- Kulmhof - Chelmno (extermination camp - no sub-camp known)
- Lublin (prison - no subcamp known)
- Lwow (Lemberg)
- Czwartaki
- Lemberg
- Maidanek (extermination camp - 3 subcamps)
- Mielec
- Pawiak (prison - no subcamp known)
- Plaszow (work camp but became later subcamp of Maidanek)
- Poniatowa
- Pustkow (work camp - no subcamp known)
- Radogosz (prison - no subcamp known)
- Radom
- Schmolz
- Schokken
- Sobibor (extermination camp - no subcamp known)
- Stutthof - Sztutowo (40 subcamps and external kommandos)
- Treblinka (extermination camp - no subcamp known)
- Wieliczka
- Zabiwoko (work camp - no subcamp known)
- Zakopane
- Russia: (The real number of concentration and extermination camps established in occupied Soviet Union by the Nazies is unknown. The following list contains the name of the major camps. Some of these camps were under Romanian control; e.g. Akmétchetka or Bogdanovka where 54,000 were executed between December 21th and December 31th, 1941)
- Akmétchetka
- Balanowka
- Bar
- Bisjumujsje
- Bogdanovka
- "Citadelle" (The real name of this camp is unknown. The camp was located near Lvov. Thousands of Russians POW were killed in this camp)
- Czwartaki
- Daugavpils
- Domanievka
- Edineti
- Kielbasin (or Kelbassino)
- Khorol
- Lemberg
- Mezjapark
- Ponary
- Rawa-Russkaja
- Salapils
- Strazdumujsje
- Yanowski
- Vertugen
(for all these camps, no subcamp known).
- Yugoslavia:
- Banjica
- Brocice
- Chabatz
- Danica
- Dakovo
- Gornja reka
- Gradiska
- Jadovno
- Jasenovac
- Jastrebarsko
- Kragujevac
- Krapje
- Kruscica
- Lepoglava
- Loborgrad
- Sajmite
- Sisak
- Slano
- Slavonska-Pozega
- Stara-Gradiska
- Tasmajdan
- Zemun
"Despite everything, I believe people are really good at heart"
-Anne Frank
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