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szpilman pianist wladislaw szpilman - the pianist
in dutch the title is 'het wonderbaarlijke overleven' (the miracolous surviving), 1939 - 1945;
now very famous because of the film roman polanski made of this of this biography
this is a book that i have read several times, and each time within a couple of days
and after i finally went to see the movie, i had to read it again
if only to notice how well polanski created his movie 'the pianist'

this book has several features of interest for me
i studied history because i wanted to see how it has been possible that these things can happen
hoping to find a way it would never happen again
unfortunately discovering that it will happen again
(don't know how, don't know when: watch out: it creeps in)

szpilman survived (but without any close member of his family), that's what the title shows
it also gives a fine account of polish resistance helping jews in occupied poland
occupied poland:
how terrible the occupation of holland has been, there are many similarities, but
this can hardly be compaired to the occupation period of poland
which has been much more severe from the beginning