In September 1939, Władysław Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist, has his radio station rocked from German bombing with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland and the subsequent outbreak of World War II. Hoping for a quick victory, Szpilman rejoices with family at home when learning that Britain and France have declared war on Germany, but the German army defeats Poland and captures Warsaw. Living conditions for the Jews deteriorate, as they are allowed a limited amount of money and later must wear armbands with the Star of David. By November 1940, they are forced into horrid and humiliating conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto, where Szpilman's family—including his father and mother —witness how the SS raid an opposite apartment and kill everyone there. Soon the family are rounded up for deportation to Treblinka extermination camp, but Szpilman is saved by a friend in the Jewish Ghetto Police.
Szpilman becomes a slave labourer working on the "Aryan" side, where he survives a random mass execution. Szpilman learns of a coming Jewish revolt and helps by smuggling weapons into the ghetto, narrowly avoiding a suspicious guard. He then manages to escape and goes into hiding with help from non-Jewish friend Andrzej Bogucki and his wife Janina. In April 1943, Szpilman observes the rise and fall of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from his window near the ghetto wall. A year goes by and Szpilman is forced to flee after a neighbor discovers him. In a second hiding place provided to him, he is shown into a room with a piano but forced to keep quiet, and suffers jaundice.
In August 1944, Polish resistance mounts the Warsaw Uprising, attacking a German building across the street from Szpilman's hideout. A tank shells his apartment and he is forced to flee and hide elsewhere as fighting rages around. Over the course of the next months the city is destroyed and emptied of the population and Szpilman, entirely alone, searches desperately for shelter and supplies among the ruins. Eventually, he is discovered by the Wehrmacht officer Wilm Hosenfeld, who learns that Szpilman is a pianist and asks him to play on the grand piano nearby. The decrepit Szpilman plays Ballade in G minor, which moves Hosenfeld, who then allows Szpilman to hide in the attic of an empty house and regularly brings him food. As the Germans are forced to retreat due to the advance of the Red Army in January 1945, Hosenfeld meets Szpilman for the last time and promises to listen to him on Polish Radio. He gives Szpilman his greatcoat to keep warm and leaves, which is almost fatal for Szpilman when he is shot at by Polish troops liberating Warsaw, who apprehend him and realize he is Polish.
Elsewhere, former inmates of a Nazi concentration camp pass a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp for captured German soldiers and verbally abuse them, with one ranting that he used to be a violinist. Hosenfeld, now a prisoner, asks the violinist, if he knows Szpilman, which the violinist confirms and asks if Szpilman can return the favor. The violinist brings Szpilman to the site, but it is only a grassy field. Later, Szpilman performs Chopin's Grand Polonaise brillante to a large and prestigious audience.
The epilogue states that Szpilman died at the age of 88 in 2000, while Hosenfeld died in Soviet captivity in 1952. - wikipedia.org
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