Losing Track

So, I'm losing track of the days. 

I don't know why. 

Anywho, recently my historical interests

in World War II and the Holocaust

were sparked after watching

a documentary called A Film Unfinished. 

It's a film about the Warsaw Ghetto during

the war and the collection of films that were 

made during the period that it was active.

It showcased a film that had no soundtrack

and no notes for the purpose of its use, except of

course for propaganda. 

Scenes of men, women, and children

were shot (and apparently staged)

so that others outside the area 

may know that the Jews there 

weren't being mistreated 

and they were living it up as always, except

confined within a 3-mile territory. 

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Some of the footage is very shocking

because it shows how poor the conditions were

and yet the next scene would show a woman 

alone in an apartment preparing for a tea party. 

The roads were filled with pedestrians 

who obviously had one disease or another, 

most likely, typhus, which was common

in squalor conditions such as these.

All these images made me think of

the film, The Pianist, with Adrian Brody. 

Such a great film, and I'm telling you that 

the filmmakers definitely watched footage similar

to this documentary, because their scenes

were almost identical.

I was also reminded of Frederic Chopin. 

Mainly, because Brody's character, Wladyslaw Szpilman

was a classical pianist, who played many pieces for 

Polish Radio, before it was shut down by the Nazis 

after the occupation of Poland. 

Even though you probably want to see

images of this film, 

I won't show it, because it is very sad and

I get angry and depressed at the same time

just watching it. 

Moving on, I'm almost finished with A Film Unfinished

I'm learning even more than I already knew about

Warsaw Ghetto and eventual uprising against the Nazis. 

You know what's really sad? 

Is that hatred and treatment of people

is still like this in some countries

and no one has stopped it.