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Violence In Roman Polanski's The Pianist

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Roman Polanski’s The Pianist tells the story about a Polish Jew pianist living in Warsaw during the German occupation of Poland. The story follows his life during the Holocaust, hiding from place to place in his Nazi-filled city. Roman Polanski made this film to show the cruelties that are commonly associated with the Holocaust. This tragedy caused some people to take measures to save themselves from being sent to their deaths in the German camps. Along with this, some non-Jews decided to assist Jews that are close to them by giving them a place to hide from the Nazis. To send the message that the Holocaust was a brutal and ruthless time in world history, Roman Polanski utilizes graphic scenes of violence, Vladek’s popularity as a musician …show more content…

Examples of this in The Pianist included the ruthless and indiscriminate killing of all Jews by the Nazis. Taking the life of one sole person feels different compared to the systematic extermination of many Jews during the Holocaust, mainly because the systematic method lacks the personal touch to killing a man. This was shown in the scene where a small child attempting to take a package from the outside of the Warsaw ghetto gets stuck underneath the wall and beaten to death by a German officer. Another example of the indiscriminate killing was when a Jewish woman was shot in the head after simply asking the Nazi officer where they were going. Although they were probably ordered to kill any Jews that stepped out of line, including children and women, it was evident that these acts were more than just following orders. In normal circumstances, many would hesitate to kill a woman or child, making these acts feel even more ruthless and brutal. Despite this, not all of the perpetrators of the Holocaust were going in with entirely malicious

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Many lives were lost during the German’s attempt to wipe out all Jews, and those who lived lost a part of their life during this time. The young boys lost their childhood and ‘innocences’. They witness more death and suffering than anywhere in the country. Today, there is still death and violence against others.

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The Holocaust was a horrible event in history that will scar humanity forever. With the events of the Holocaust being experienced by millions there are many different perspectives of said events. One such perspective is presented in Night, a memoir written by Elie Wiesel about his experiences as a young Jewish boy during the Holocaust. Another perspective is presented in Schindler’s List, a film directed by Steven Spielberg (based on the novel Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally) about Oskar Schindler, a gentile who saves over one thousand Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Both pieces show heart wrenching stories of the abuse of a group of people in different ways, each using different mediums to convey their points.

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The memoir written by Elie Wiesel, Night, is illustrating the Holocaust, the even which caused the death of over 6 million Jews. Auschwitz, the concentration camps, is responsible for over 1 million of the deaths. In the memoir Night, Wiesel uses the symbolism of fire, and silence to clearly communicate to the readers that the Holocaust was a catastrophic and calamitous event, and that children should never be involved in warfare. Elie Wiesel enters Auschwitz at the age of 15, and witnesses’ horrific events as a prisoner in Auschwitz, including the deaths of numerous children, and the beating and death of his own father. All these inhumane things were done just because Adolf Hitler wanted to cleanse the German society of the Jews.

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Schindler’s List displays this by showing how the Jews were sent to forced labour camps such as the Plaszow. When they arrived to these labour and concentration camps, they were separated by gender as told “men to the left, women to the right”, this separated families causing more effective discomfort to the Jews. In the labour camps, many Jews were shot often resulting in death because they were not working to the satisfaction of the Nazis or SS officers who were in charge of that labour camp. If any Jews were seen as unhealthy they were sent to death camps. During this stage of the holocaust many Jews were

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Introduction In a genre that has been dominated in recent years by the same cheap jump scares and unnecessary gore, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has breathed life into horror again by combining it with elements of fantasy and historical fiction. In many of his iconic films, del Toro immerses his audience in stories where terrifying monsters are outshined by the cruelty of humans. Utilizing this aspect, he often provides a commentary on politics, in particular the subject of fascism, interwoven into his films. Examining his career, no film defines Guillermo del Toro’s proficiency as a both director and a writer more than his 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth.

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737 Words | 3 Pages

Vladek was a real person who survived the Holocaust, a terrible war in that many people died. Vladek survived by pretending to be a Pole soldier who escaped the camps(pg.64). He then told the conductor if he could hide him and take him home. He got lucky the conductor helped him, but he still used his knowledge to pretend to be a Pole. Vladek also survived by making bunkers for him and his family to hide in (pg.110).

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When Madame exclaims that there’s a fire, Madame is not validated or heard. Rather, Madame is told to "shut up" and then forcibly beaten into silence. Once again, dehumanization is evident in how victims of evil treat one another. Throughout the camps, examples of children abandoning parents, people betraying one another, and internal aloneness dominating human actions until survival is all that remains are examples of dehumanization. These examples show that the Holocaust happened because individuals dehumanized one another.

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The article “Terrible Things, by Eve Bunting” is an allegory about the Holocaust and how no one did anything, and people ended up suffering. In the video “ Child of the Holocaust is about this man named Fred Gross who was three years old when Hitler started taking over his town. He talks about how there were so many good men that could have done something but they didn’t. The Holocaust happened in world war 2 and it was ran by Adolf Hitler a Nazi/ German. The Holocaust killed more that 18 million people in all.

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Despite the brave front that Vladek has put in the years following the war, his story remains to be a tale of suffering, agony, and death. The story of Vladek’s survival during the Holocaust is the central aspect of the novel,

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Introduction: During the Holocaust, many people suffered from the despicable actions of others. These actions were influenced by hatred, intolerance, and anti-semitic views of people. The result of such actions were the deaths of millions during the Holocaust, a devastating genocide aimed to eliminate Jews. In this tragic event, people, both initiators and bystanders, played major roles that allowed the Holocaust to continue. Bystanders during this dreadful disaster did not stand up against the Nazis and their collaborators.

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“Why dwell upon the study of the Holocaust when history is loaded with other tragedies? Because the Holocaust was unique. This is not to say that other tragedies were less horrible, only that the Holocaust was different and should not be compared and trivialized,” the author noted (Tarnor Wacks 9). A mere 71 years ago a defining feature of world history took place, in concentration camps across Eastern and Western Europe. 6 million Jews were ripped out of their homes and ultimately murdered.

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The most prevalent theme throughout Schindler 's List is the fragility of life. Countless Jews are murdered throughout the film for minor offenses and most for no reason at all. The accurate representation of the liquidation of Krakow also demonstrates how little the Nazis cared for the Jews, people who had once been their neighbors. The interactions between the Nazi Lieutenant Goth and his maid represent the struggle some Nazis had with treating people as animals while their humane morals overpowered them at times. The value of life as determined by Schindler and Goth is diametrically opposed.

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598 Words | 3 Pages

Without the fear of being afraid of the camp at first arrival or the fear of the Jew not eating because they know they will be killed, there wouldn’t be much hope. This proves the point on why fear overpowers people and make them not do what they would normally due since there life is at risk. This truly shows the bad of the holocaust. Due to all the fear no one could stand up to

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473 Words | 2 Pages

When the Nazis used innocent infants as shooting targets it showed significant dehumanization because as infants they haven’t experienced any aspect of life. When the Nazis took the infants lives at such young ages the infants are denied the chance for experiences of life. Additionally, the class of

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714 Words | 3 Pages

Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities, according to the dictionary. Throughout Night it shows a lot of dehumanization examples. It would take hours to name all of them. Some of the ways dehumanization was showed in Night was all of the abuse, having no identity except for a number, and the hunger they felt because they would only get one meal per day.

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