Summary of Władysław Szpilman's The Pianist

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#1 I was a pianist in the Café Nowoczesna, which was in Nowolipki Street in the Warsaw ghetto. The afternoon was best for smuggling, as the police were less alert then. Small black figures would rush towards the openings in the wall, where they would haul consignments of goods through.

#2 The Nowoczesna was a café in the ghetto that was frequented by the rich. They would complain about the hard times and the lack of solidarity shown by American Jews, who they felt were doing nothing to help their country.

#3 I played in a café in Sienna Street, a Jewish intellectual café, where I made friends with many of the regulars. One of them was the painter Roman Kramsztyk, who was working on a cycle of drawings depicting life inside the ghetto walls.

#4 I played piano at the Sztuka café in Leszno Street, which was the biggest in the ghetto. I met many friends there, but I was always thinking about my return home in the evening. The thought of it cast a shadow over me all afternoon.

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Release date

Ebook: 26 July 2022