Recently, I watched the 2002 film ‘The Pianist’ starring Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman (1911-2000), the pianist for Polish Radio who miraculously survived in Warsaw, Poland during the Nazi occupation. The film was recommended to me by someone very close to me in Buenos Aires and to say the film left me speechless would be an understatement. After viewing the film, I decided to locate the book that inspired it and found Spzilman’s book on Amazon. The book left me just as speechless as the film and even more in awe of Szpilman, as I know in order to have written the book, it would have required an extraordinary amount of courage on his part. The film follows closely to the book with very minor liberties taken by the filmmakers. Their finished product, is one of the best film adaptations that I’ve seen.
Spzilman’s book is slightly different in that it’s one told from life inside Poland and not Germany. The book begins on August 31, 1939, the day before the Germany Army launched the planned invasion of its Polish neighbor. The invasion had been planned well in advanced and a covert operation, named “canned goods” was used to describe the false flag mission that gave provocation for the Nazi assault. The Nazi threat had been looming over Poland for some time but as we see in the book, the savagery that resulted post-invasion was never envisioned by the people of Poland. Spzilman, a musician, and his family remain in Warsaw as the Germany army approaches, refusing to leave the only place they’ve called home. Their lives would never be the same after the war and for Spzilman, he would never again see any of his family members.
The Nazis began to construct the Warsaw ghetto as they continuously redesigned territorial borders expanding the reach of the Third Reich. As Szpilman relates, the ghetto was in a way worse than a jail cell for in a jail cell there’s a concrete definition of the nature of the relationship that exists. With the ghetto, no such definitions existed giving the Jews the false sense of well-being which lead many of them to believe that they would return home after serving in the labor camps during the war. The Germans’ macabre and perverse motto of arbeit macht frei, posted at the entrance of camps, reveals the level of vindictiveness displayed by unwavering believers of Aryan-supremacy and Jewish inferiority. Painful as it may be, Szpilman recounts the daily humiliation endured by Jews and the careless acts of murder committed by the Nazi regime. The crimes committed and disregard for human life are beyond shocking but reveal the truly revolting nature of the Third Reich’s plan for the removal of Jews from Europe that culminated with the deadly “Final Solution”.
By chance, Szpilman is separated from his family and is forced to survive on the streets of Warsaw, literally hiding in plain sight. Air raids, evacuation of residents and mounting German losses in the field, resulted in the neglect of many parts of Warsaw which would serve as a refuge for Szpilman during his quest to stay alive. Death, hunger, disease and mental instability are all threats to him on a daily basis but fate was on his side and he survives through sheer determination and help in some of the most unlikeliest of places.
Following the war he returned to Polish Radio but never forgot the events of those years. His story is among many of the horrors of the Holocaust which serve to remind us of the dangers of blind patriotism and fanatical beliefs. And as we continue to move forward in life and find ourselves at a crossroads in which decency and criminality cross paths, we can turn to the story of ‘The Pianist’ to remind us of the importance of helping others which in turn, allows us to learn about ourselves and the human race.
ISBN-10: 0312263767
ISBN-13: 978-0312263768
January 12, 2017 will mark fifty-two years since Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (1930-1965) died at the age of thirty-four after a long battle with intestinal cancer. Her masterpiece A Raisin In The Sun and the Broadway play of the same name, broke new ground in America for African-American playwrights. In fact, her play was the first by an African-American woman to have a run on Broadway. The story of the Younger family has been played out in cities all over the country as people have desired to leave their own communities in search of a better quality of life. The book remains her most popular work but just who was the real Lorraine Hansberry? In this biography, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack tell the story of the playwright’s life from start to finish. And what we see is the formation of the one of the most gifted Americans to have ever lived.
The workplace in a sense becomes a second home to the majority of us, and for some of us, they become even closer to us than those with whom we have a biological link. But what happens when you’re an agent in the Secret Service? There is no set eight-hour workday for agents assigned to the first family. Instead, their hours are often unpredictable, long and extremely fatiguing. Nevertheless, the agents do their jobs to the best of their abilities and in the process create bonds with the members of the first family that sometimes remain in place many years after their service has ended. Clint Hill, long retired from the Secret Service, is best remembered by many people from the Zapruder film, in which he is the sole agent that attempts to come to the aid of the president as jumps on the back of the motorcade as the Secret Service transports a mortally wounded John F. Kennedy to Parkland Memorial Hospital. He has written several books on his time as a Secret Service agent with several presidents and the events that took place during that fateful trip to Dallas, Texas. This is his memoir of his time with the former first lady and the relationship that developed.
On July 26, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act, establish a new intelligence agency to gather information deemed critical to the protection of the United States from foreign threats. The new agency is known as the Central Intelligence Agency and its initial members are former members of the Office of Strategic Services which had been discontinued following the allied Victory in World War II. As the Cold War heated up with the Soviet Union and new leaders came to light in several continents, the members of the new agency felt a surging sense to act preemptively to what was perceived to be direct threats to the safety and stability of the western hemisphere. Among the large number of those afraid of Communist infiltration and the end of U.S. business interest were two brothers who controlled an overwhelming majority of power over U.S. foreign policy whose names today are largely unknown to the younger generation. John Foster and Allen Welsh Dulles, the former Secretary of State and Director of the C.I.A., remain controversial and pivotal figures in 20th century American history. In this expose about their time in high posts within the U.S. government, author Stephen Kinzer reveals the dark side of the U.S. government as two brothers used the White House, military and Central Intelligence Agency to advance their financial agenda across several continents resulting in the overthrow of governments, assassination of foreign leaders and financial exploitation of smaller nations caught in the grip of U.S. occupation.
Prior to his death from cancer, Jack Ruby, the convicted murdered of Lee Harvey Oswald who executed his prey live on national television, once remarked that to get answers in the murder of John F. Kennedy, it would wise to ask the man currently in office. That man as we all know was Lyndon B. Johnson. In most history classes, Lyndon Johnson or LBJ for short, is seen as a pioneering president, responsible for the passage of the monumental Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, what is often looked over is his role in the escalation of the U.S. military in southeast Asia resulting in the Vietnam War. As the body count of American soldiers climbed, his approval rate dropped to absurdly low levels, possibly the worst in recent history. And the announcement of Robert Kennedy for candidacy for president served as a final nail in the coffin forcing Johnson to withdraw his name in the 1968 presidential race. Many years after his death, the true story of the life of Lyndon Johnson has come to light in dozens of books. And what we learn through each of these books is that there was a very dark side to the 36th President of the United States.
The story of the continent of Africa is one of the most beautiful and tragic we have ever seen. The mass of land that has been described as the cradle of civilization and home to some of the most beautiful places on earth, has also been subjected to severe colonization resulting in continuing poverty, tribal and cultural division and civil wars that nearly destroyed several countries as millions of people lost their lives before the genocidal campaigns were brought to a halt. The story of Rwanda is largely well-known, from books and even a feature film, ‘Hotel Rwanda’ starring Don Cheadle. Rwanda, however, is not the only country to experience a crisis of that nature and as we learn in this memoir by Ishmael Beah, Sierra Leone also has a dark history of internal conflict which caused the nation to be considered one of the most dangerous places in the world. And even to this day, their dark past continues to remain relevant.
February 25, 1986-Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos and wife Imelda, relinquish power and flee into exile in fear of prosecution for embezzlement and election fraud. The former first couple were airlifted from the presidential palace due to growing crowds of demonstrators intent on the removal of the despotic couple. Their reign of power is still one of the most infamous in modern history and the effects of their tyrannical and avaricious administration are still being felt today in the Philippines as the country still struggles with the remnants the Marcos’ rule. Myles A. Garcia, a native of the Philippines who relocated to the United States revisits the rule of the couple and the staggering amount of corruption that occurred under their rule.
FREETHINKING BIBLIOPHILE 
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