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Film

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:

Storyline

In this adaptation of the autobiography "The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945," Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jewish radio station pianist, sees Warsaw change gradually as World War II begins. Szpilman is forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, but is later separated from his family during Operation Reinhard. From this time until the concentration camp prisoners are released, Szpilman hides in various locations among the ruins of Warsaw. Written by Jwelch5742

Taglines:

Music was his passion. Survival was his masterpiece.

Did You Know?

Trivia

Of all the films he has made, Roman Polanski considers this movie his favorite. See more "

Goofs

When Szpilman is playing in the closing scenes, the piano's "Steinway & Sons" logo is the style first used in the 1990s. See more "

Quotes

[first lines]
: [running from bombing] Mr. Szpilman?
Wladyslaw Szpilman : Hello.
: Oh, I came specially to meet you. I love your playing.
Wladyslaw Szpilman : Who are you?
: My name is Dorota. I, I'm Jurek's sister... You're bleeding.
See more "

Crazy Credits

Aside from the Universal and Focus Features credits, there are no opening credits. All credits, including the title, appear at the end of the film. See more "

Connections

References Escape from Sobibor (1987) See more "

Soundtracks

Umowilem sie z nia na dziewiata
(1937)
Music by Henry Vars (as Henryk Wars)
Lyrics by Emanuel Schlechter (as Emanuel Szlechter)
See more "

User Reviews

Details

Release Date:

28 March 2003 (USA)

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$111,261, 29 December 2002

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$120,072,577

Company Credits

Technical Specs

See full technical specs "

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Cast overview, first billed only: In this adaptation of the autobiography "The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945," Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jewish radio station pianist, sees Warsaw change gradually as World War II begins. Szpilman is forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, but is later separated from his family during Operation Reinhard.

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As nations gear up to mark 100 years since the start of World War One, academic argument still rages over which country was to blame for the conflict.

Education Secretary for England Michael Gove's recent criticism of how the causes and consequences of the war are taught in schools has only stoked the debate further.

Here 10 leading historians give their opinion.

No one nation deserves all responsibility for the outbreak of war, but Germany seems to me to deserve most.

It alone had power to halt the descent to disaster at any time in July 1914 by withdrawing its "blank cheque" which offered support to Austria for its invasion of Serbia.

I'm afraid I am unconvinced by the argument that Serbia was a rogue state which deserved its nemesis at Austria's hands. And I do not believe Russia wanted a European war in 1914 - its leaders knew that it would have been in a far stronger position to fight two years later, having completed its rearmament programme.

The question of whether Britain was obliged to join the European conflict which became inevitable by 1 August is almost a separate issue. In my own view neutrality was not a credible option because a Germany victorious on the continent would never afterwards have accommodated a Britain which still dominated the oceans and global financial system.

Serbia bore the greatest responsibility for the outbreak of WW1. Serbian nationalism and expansionism were profoundly disruptive forces and Serbian backing for the Black Hand terrorists was extraordinarily irresponsible. Austria-Hungary bore only slightly less responsibility for its panic over-reaction to the assassination of the heir to the Habsburg throne.

France encouraged Russia's aggressiveness towards Austria-Hungary and Germany encouraged Austrian intransigence. Britain failed to mediate as it had done in the previous Balkan crisis out of fear of Germany's European and global ambitions - a fear that was not entirely rational since Britain had clearly won the naval arms race by 1910.

The generally positive attitude of European statesmen towards war, based on notions of honour, expectations of a swift victory, and ideas of social Darwinism, was perhaps the most important conditioning factor. It is very important to look at the outbreak of the war in the round and to avoid reading back later developments - the German September Programme for example (an early statement of their war aims) - into the events of July-August 1914.

A handful of bellicose political and military decision-makers in Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia caused WW1.

Relatively common before 1914, assassinations of royal figures did not normally result in war. But Austria-Hungary's military hawks - principal culprits for the conflict - saw the Sarajevo assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Bosnian Serb as an excuse to conquer and destroy Serbia, an unstable neighbour which sought to expand beyond its borders into Austro-Hungarian territories. Serbia, exhausted by the two Balkan wars of 1912-13 in which it had played a major role, did not want war in 1914.

Broader European war ensued because German political and military figures egged on Austria-Hungary, Germany's ally, to attack Serbia. This alarmed Russia, Serbia's supporter, which put its armies on a war footing before all options for peace had been fully exhausted.

This frightened Germany into pre-emptively declaring war on Russia and on Russia's ally France and launching a brutal invasion, partly via Belgium, thereby bringing in Britain, a defender of Belgian neutrality and supporter of France.

WW1 did not break out by accident or because diplomacy failed. It broke out as the result of a conspiracy between the governments of imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary to bring about war, albeit in the hope that Britain would stay out.

After 25 years of domination by Kaiser Wilhelm II with his angry, autocratic and militaristic personality, his belief in the clairvoyance of all crowned heads, his disdain for diplomats and his conviction that his Germanic God had predestined him to lead his country to greatness, the 20 or so men he had appointed to decide the policy of the Reich opted for war in 1914 in what they deemed to be favourable circumstances.

Germany's military and naval leaders, the predominant influence at court, shared a devil-may-care militarism that held war to be inevitable, time to be running out, and - like their Austrian counterparts - believed it would be better to go down fighting than to go on tolerating what they regarded as the humiliating status quo. In the spring of 1914, this small group of men in Berlin decided to make "the leap into the dark" which they knew their support for an Austrian attack on Serbia would almost certainly entail.

The fine-tuning of the crisis was left to the civilian chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, whose primary aim was to subvert diplomatic intervention in order to begin the war under the most favourable conditions possible. In particular, he wanted to convince his own people that Germany was under attack and to keep Britain out of the conflict.

Long before the outbreak of hostilities Prussian-German conservative elites were convinced that a European war would help to fulfil Germany's ambitions for colonies and for military as well as political prestige in the world.

The actual decision to go to war over a relatively minor international crisis like the Sarajevo murder, however, resulted from a fatal mixture of political misjudgement, fear of loss of prestige and stubborn commitments on all sides of a very complicated system of military and political alliances of European states.

In contrast to the historian Fritz Fischer who saw German war aims - in particular the infamous September Programme of 1914 with its far-reaching economic and territorial demands - at the core of the German government's decision to go to war, most historians nowadays dismiss this interpretation as being far too narrow. They tend to place German war aims, or incidentally all other belligerent nations' war aims, in the context of military events and political developments during the war.

Whole libraries have been filled with the riddle of 1914. Was the war an accident or design, inevitable or planned, caused by sleepwalkers or arsonists? To my mind the war was no accident and it could have been avoided in July 1914. In Vienna the government and military leaders wanted a war against Serbia. The immediate reaction to the murder of Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 was to seek redress from Serbia, which was thought to have been behind the assassination plot and which had been threatening Austria-Hungary's standing in the Balkans for some time. Crucially, a diplomatic victory was considered worthless and "odious". At the beginning of July, Austria's decision-makers chose war.

But in order to implement their war against Serbia they needed support from their main ally Germany. Without Germany, their decision to fight against Serbia could not have been implemented. The Berlin government issued a "blank cheque" to its ally, promising unconditional support and putting pressure on Vienna to seize this golden opportunity. Both governments knew it was almost certain that Russia would come to Serbia's aid and this would turn a local war into a European one, but they were willing to take this risk.

Germany's guarantee made it possible for Vienna to proceed with its plans - a "no" from Berlin would have stopped the crisis in its tracks. With some delay Vienna presented an ultimatum to Serbia on 23 July which was deliberately unacceptable. This was because Austria-Hungary was bent on a war and Germany encouraged it because the opportunity seemed perfect. Victory still seemed possible whereas in a few years' time Russia and France would have become invincible. Out of a mixture of desperation and over-confidence the decision-makers of Austria-Hungary and Germany unleashed a war to preserve and expand their empires. The war that ensued would be their downfall.

It is human nature to seek simple, satisfying answers, which is why the German war guilt thesis endures today.

Without Berlin's encouragement of a strong Austro-Hungarian line against Serbia after Sarajevo - the "blank cheque" - WW1 would clearly not have broken out. So Germany does bear responsibility.

But it is equally true that absent a terrorist plot launched in Belgrade the Germans and Austrians would not have faced this terrible choice. Civilian leaders in both Berlin and Vienna tried to "localise" conflict in the Balkans. It was Russia's decision - after Petersburg received its own "blank cheque" from Paris - to Europeanise the Austro-Serbian showdown which produced first a European and then - following Britain's entry - world conflagration. Russia, not Germany, mobilised first.

The resulting war, with France and Britain backing Serbia and Russia against two Central Powers, was Russia's desired outcome, not Germany's. Still, none of the powers can escape blame. All five Great Power belligerents, along with Serbia, unleashed Armageddon.

The war was started by the leaders of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Vienna seized the opportunity presented by the assassination of the archduke to attempt to destroy its Balkan rival Serbia. This was done in the full knowledge that Serbia's protector Russia was unlikely to stand by and this might lead to a general European war.

Germany gave Austria unconditional support in its actions, again fully aware of the likely consequences. Germany sought to break up the French-Russian alliance and was fully prepared to take the risk that this would bring about a major war. Some in the German elite welcomed the prospect of beginning an expansionist war of conquest. The response of Russia, France and later Britain were reactive and defensive.

The best that can be said of German and Austrian leaders in the July crisis is that they took criminal risks with world peace.

In my opinion, it is the political and diplomatic decision-makers in Germany and Austria-Hungary who must carry the burden of responsibility for expanding a localised Balkan conflict into a European and, eventually, global war. Germany, suffering from something of a "younger child" complex in the family of European empires, saw an opportunity to reconfigure the balance of power in their favour via an aggressive war of conquest.

On 5 July 1914 it issued the "blank cheque" of unconditional support to the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire (trying to reassert its dominance over the rebellious Serbia), despite the likelihood of this sparking war with Russia, an ally of France and Great Britain. However, Austria-Hungary's actions should not be ignored.

The ultimatum it issued to Serbia on 23 July was composed in such a way that its possibility of being accepted was near impossible. Serbia's rejection paved the way for Austria-Hungary to declare war on 28 July, thus beginning WW1.

The largest share of responsibility lies with the German government. Germany's rulers made possible a Balkan war by urging Austria-Hungary to invade Serbia, well understanding that such a conflict might escalate. Without German backing it is unlikely that Austria-Hungary would have acted so drastically.

They also started wider European hostilities by sending ultimata to Russia and France, and by declaring war when those ultimata were rejected - indeed fabricating a pretext that French aircraft had bombed Nuremberg.

Finally, they violated international treaties by invading Luxemburg and Belgium knowing that the latter violation was virtually certain to bring in Britain. This is neither to deny that there were mitigating circumstances nor to contend that German responsibility was sole.

Serbia subjected Austria-Hungary to extraordinary provocation and two sides were needed for armed conflict. Although the Central Powers took the initiative, the Russian government, with French encouragement, was willing to respond.

In contrast, while Britain might have helped avert hostilities by clarifying its position earlier, this responsibility - even disregarding the domestic political obstacles to an alternative course - was passive rather than active.

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World War One: 10 interpretations of who started WW1

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As nations gear up to mark 100 years since the start of World War One, academic argument still rages over which country was to blame for the conflict. Education Secretary for England Michael Gove's recent criticism of how the causes and consequences of the war are taught in schools has only stoked the debate further.

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t redefined women's rights, race relations, civil liberties and America's role in the world. It caused twice as many American deaths as the Vietnam war. But there is no national memorial to it in Washington DC and, on Thursday, its centenary will pass with little fanfare.

On 6 April 1917, America declared war on Germany and charged into the first world war. After nearly three years of reluctance, its hand was forced by the sinking of neutral US ships by German submarines, and by Britain's interception of the so-called Zimmerman telegram revealing a German plot to persuade Mexico to wage war on the US.

America mustered more than 4.7 million service members with astonishing speed and suffered 53,402 battle deaths and 63,114 other deaths in service, many from Spanish flu. America's involvement was crucial to the Germans' defeat in 1918, profoundly shaping what came to be known as "the American century". Yet in contrast to the extensive centenary commemorations in Britain three years ago - a memorial at the Tower of London featured 888,246 red poppies to represent each soldier who died - this has for many Americans become a forgotten war.

"America didn't suffer the way Great Britain did, certainly," historian A Scott Berg said during a panel discussion hosted by PBS in Washington on Monday. "Woodrow Wilson kept us out of the war for three years; we really only fought for about six months. Britain lost a generation. We lost a lot comparatively speaking, but nothing compared to what Britain lost."

But Jennifer Keene, a historian specialising in the first world war at Chapman University in Orange, California, disagreed: "I hate comparisons like that. I feel like they're really unuseful in terms of understanding our different experiences of war. We lost 52,000 casualties in six months. If 52,000 Americans had come back [dead] from Iraq in the first six months of fighting there I don't think that anybody would say that that was insignificant, or that America wouldn't feel it."

Along with the huge loss of life, the war had seismic implications for the US economically, socially and culturally. Women played an outsized role in the mobilisation effort and seized the opportunity to demand the vote, staging protests outside the White House and hunger strikes in jail; Wilson eventually persuaded Congress that suffrage was a war measure.

A woman looks at a replica of a first world war recruitment poster at an Arlington National Cemetery exhibit. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

The war was a catalyst for the great migration of African Americans, and those who returned from the war, finding inequality intact, demanded civil rights. In addition, the conflict heralded the rise of conscription, mass propaganda, the national security state and the FBI. It accelerated income tax and urbanisation and helped make America the pre-eminent economic and military power in the world.

These transformations are vividly chronicled in the American Experience TV series, The Great War, starting on PBS on 10 April. The show also reveals how immigrants were scapegoated, with those of German ancestry forced to register with authorities and pressured to prove their loyalty to America. There are references to events where steins were smashed and German dogs were slaughtered.

Donald Trump's German grandfather, Friedrich Trump, emigrated to America in 1885. But Trump's father, Fred, claimed to be of Swedish descent because of anti-German sentiment provoked by the war. The president himself claimed Swedish, not German, ancestry until 1990. On Thursday the president will be travelling to his luxury estate in Florida for talks with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, bypassing the official commemoration at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, where the most senior official will be the acting army secretary, Robert Speer.

But the fact that he is meeting the leader of the world's rising superpower - an authoritarian state with little regard for free speech - will carry its own symbolism 100 years after Wilson set the tone for America as global watchdog for democracy.

Speaking on the panel at the Newseum in Washington, Berg, a biographer of Wilson, said: "With all due respect to Tom Brokaw and to Tom Hanks for that matter, I don't think the world war two generation was the greatest generation. I think the world war one generation was the greatest generation, in large measure because that generation went to war over principles. We weren't attacked."

The world war one generation was the greatest generation ... [They] went to war over principles. We weren't attacked

A Scott Berg

This week, he added, marked the centenary of "what I consider the single most important foreign policy speech in the last 100 years, if not the last 260-odd years, and that was Woodrow Wilson going before a joint session of Congress and asking for a declaration of war, and within that speech, Woodrow Wilson uttered eight words that have been the foundation of all American foreign policy ever since: 'The world must be made safe for democracy'. Whether you agree with it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you understand it or not, doesn't matter. That has been the foundation of almost all American foreign policy for the last 100 years."

It is a thread that has, for better or worse, run through the US interventions in the second world war, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf war, Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, but which Trump has now suggested he will abandon in the name an "America first" foreign policy that no longer seeks to impose democracy abroad.

There were 52,000 US casualties in six months of the first world war. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/Associated Press

Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University in Washington, said: "Trump is the first president since then I think who's not really a Wilsonian in his heart. He'd like the US just to bash its enemies and then get out. He says, 'We should have taken the oil', which is not something any other American president would say in the same circumstances.

"So we might - who knows - be seeing the end of this Wilsonian tradition - whether it's a good one or not is a different matter - and the realists will be borne out, that America will go to war only when it's totally in American self-interest, not for any larger ideals."

Trump ... would like the US just to bash its enemies and then get out

Michael Kazin

Kazin said it is a "shame" that few in America appreciate the importance of the US entry into the war, both in terms of changing its outcome and transforming American society.

In the introduction to his book, War Against War: The Rise, Defeat and Legacy of the Peace Movement in America 1914-1918, Kazin writes: "Although combatants in the second world war and the Vietnam conflict are memorialised in large and popular sites on the National Mall, the men who fought in the Great War - and the 53,000 who died in battle - still have no such honour in stone.

"Alone among citizens of the former belligerent nations, Americans celebrate a holiday on the anniversary of the Armistice that makes no explicit reference to the war itself. When I ask students why Veterans Day happens to take place on November 11, hardly any know the answer."

In an interview at the Wilson Center in Washington, he elaborated: "For the US, world war one is messy. Americans don't quite understand why did we get in so late, and then why isn't there some famous battle that we all know about as there is of course in world war two, and why aren't there movies about it, why isn't there serious literature about it.

"Except for Hemingway, Farewell to Arms, there's no important world war one literature in this country, nothing compared to all the [Wilfred] Owens and [Siegfried] Sassoons and others. A lot of it's radical poetry, pretty lousy stuff: doggerel is a better description of it. There's no important American movie about it, nothing like [Jean Renoir's] Grand Illusion."

Woodrow Wilson leads a group of people at the peace conference after the first world war. Photograph: AN2

The centenary is not passing entirely unmarked, however. Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the Library of Congress, National Archives and Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, are staging various exhibitions, lectures and screenings. A centennial commission is finally planning a national memorial for Washington, although it will be in Pershing Park, not on the National Mall.

Matthew Naylor, president and chief executive of the museum in Kansas City, said it has seen a 52% increase in visitors since 2013, reaching more than 225,000 last year. "There is a deep vein of interest," he added. "We don't seek to compete with those other wars. We seek to take our rightful place among the monuments that honour those who served."

But whereas Britain will again commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice in November next year with pomp, America's reflections on a war that lacked a clear moral lesson - Wilson lost the peace when the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations - will inevitably be more muted.

Mitch Yockelson, chief historical consultant with the World War I Centennial Commission, mused: "You go into a London bookshop and it's full of world war one books; you go into one in the US and there are hardly any.

"As one historian wrote perfectly, world war one got bookended between the civil war and world war two. Many of the soldiers didn't want to talk about it, it was such a horrific experience. It took a while to sink in and by the time people were ready to write histories, it was into world war two."

Yockelson added: "I can guarantee that, once the armistice is commemorated in 2018, it will be pretty much forgotten but for a core group of people."

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The first world war helped shape modern America. Why is it so forgotten?

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It redefined women's rights, race relations, civil liberties and America's role in the world. It caused twice as many American deaths as the Vietnam war. But there is no national memorial to it in Washington DC and, on Thursday, its centenary will pass with little fanfare.

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he best diaries of the second world war were written by women, and this is no paradox. Their observation and analysis of events around them deepened with the idea that they were living through a crucial moment in history that they felt a duty to record. These remarkable writers - who included Lydia Ginzburg, Ursula von Kardorff and the anonymous author of - pondered the unpredictability of human behaviour, as war often brought out the best in people as well as the worst.

As Lucy Hughes-Hallett points out in her excellent introduction to this volume, Iris Origo, with typical modesty, referred in her memoirs to her "little war diary" in no more than a passing subordinate clause. In fact War in the Val d'Orcia, first published in 1947, was immediately hailed as one of the great diaries of the 20th century. It described the chaos and suffering of Italian civilians caught between the Allies and the Germans in 1943 and 1944.

The Anglo-American Marchesa Origo, owner of 7,000 acres and 25 farms southeast of Siena, sheltered and fed anti-fascist partisans and escaped British prisoners-of-war, as well as refugees from allied bombing. Caroline Moorehead, in her biography of Origo, records that while she helped hide these fugitives at great risk, her husband Antonio, who had forsworn his earlier support for Mussolini, would be "tying up a German patrol in conversation at the front of the house". Then, when the fighting drew near and the Germans forced them to abandon everything, the couple shepherded a crowd of some 60 women with babies, children and the elderly through artillery fire to safety at Montepulciano.

Mussolini greets the fascist militia in the Colosseum, Rome, in 1930. Photograph: Hulton Deutsch/Corbis via Getty Images

This volume, a worthy counterpart to War in the Val d'Orcia, focuses on Mussolini's fatal miscalculation that, heedless of the dangers for Italy, he could side with Hitler to extract maximum profit from a German victory. Origo decided in March 1939 to keep the diary to help her remain "steady" as the government of her adopted homeland became increasingly hostile to her two countries of origin.

The "chill in the air" of the title refers both to Mussolini's dictum that "perpetual peace would be a catastrophe for human civilisation", and the danger of an alliance with Nazi Germany. The Tuscan contadini, whose parents' lives had been squandered in 1917 on the allied side during the terrible fighting in the Dolomites, had no enthusiasm for the new "axis" with the Nazis. Even as war fever mounted after the German occupation of Prague and threats to Poland, there was an air of disbelief that it could be in anyone's interests to become embroiled in a war of Hitler's making. "One young woman, who is just expecting her first baby, prays daily that it will be a girl. 'What's the use of having boys if they'll take them away from me and kill them?'"

Italy then invaded Albania. The fascist press claimed that its army was saving the country from brigands. One and a half million men were called up, a disaster in a primarily agricultural country: even then it was far short of the "eight million" bayonets of Mussolini's ludicrous boast, which prompted jests about the lack of rifles to put them on.

Origo analyses the propaganda lies with the piercing intelligence that so impressed Frances Partridge and Virginia Woolf. "It is now clear what form propaganda, in case of war, will take," she writes. Mussolini will accuse the "haves" of the "democratic countries" of blocking the economic expansion of the "have-nots" by not sharing colonies and resources. And Germany's behaviour would be justified on the grounds that by offering a guarantee to Poland, the British and the French were guilty of attempting to "encircle" Germany. The fake news issued by the regime was so implausible that many were tempted to dismiss all news, however accurate, as no better. "The radio has made fools of us all," a man says to her.

What's the use of having boys if they'll take them away from me and kill them?

Origo manages to sum up the corruption in all dictatorships with a simple anecdote. "A little boy of 10, the son of one of my friends, was highly praised for his school essay, which was full of the most orthodox fascist sentiments. When he brought home a rough copy, his mother asked him: 'Do you really believe all this, Luigino?' 'Oh no, mother, of course not! But it is the only way to get good marks.'"

War fever abated in the late spring of 1939, when Mussolini claimed that only Britain and France wanted to fight. The dictatorships simply desired "peace and justice". Despite the wild rumours and the endless propaganda, Origo clearly saw the direction of events. A month and a half before the Nazi-Soviet Pact exploded like a bombshell in the capitals of Europe, Origo spotted it coming. She was, of course, helped by being extremely well-connected and in touch with fascists, antifascists and foreigners, such as her godfather - the American ambassador in Rome. A close associate of Mussolini described to her the Duce's contempt for humanity: "A sentimentalist about 'the people' en masse, he is completely cynical about all individuals, and measures them only by the use he can put them to."

Unfortunately all too many Italians believed Mussolini would avoid an entanglement with Hitler. "Don't you worry, nothing's going to happen," Origo's hairdresser says when he spots her reading the newspaper. "You'll see, the Duce will stop the war at the last moment," a taxi driver tells her. In the countryside, the contadini are under no illusion. "One old man, whose four sons work on the farm, put a shaking hand on my arm and looked up into my face. 'If they all four go, I might as well throw myself into that ditch. Who will work the farm? What shall we give the children to eat?'"

On 1 September, Hitler invaded Poland, claiming that the fault lay with the Poles for having mobilised when German armies massed on her borders. "Total silence from Rome," Origo notes. But those who admired Mussolini for keeping Italy out of the war would be disabused. In June 1940 he became the jackal to Hitler's lion, declaring war on Britain and France just as the victorious Germans were poised to enter Paris. All Italians were summoned to the wireless to listen to his bombastic speech. The contadini can do little but shrug and turn away. Their "rough, awkward country boys dressed up in ill-fitting uniforms" will pay the price.

* Antony Beevor's Ardennes 1944 is published by Penguin.

A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary 1939-1940 is published by Pushkin. To order a copy for £12.74 (RRP £14.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.

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A Chill in the Air by Iris Origo review - when Mussolini joined Hitler

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he best diaries of the second world war were written by women, and this is no paradox. Their observation and analysis of events around them deepened with the idea that they were living through a crucial moment in history that they felt a duty to record.

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Jeremy Paxman tells how the First World War transformed the lives of the British people.

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blackadder 4 - blackadder goes forth - the entire historic fourth series [1989] [dvd]

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Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of ...

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The Clever Teens' Guide to World War Two

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Buy The Clever Teens' Guide to World War Two by Felix Rhodes (ISBN: 9781542655941) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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the clever teens' guide to world war one

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juvenile nonfiction / history / military & wars

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young adult nonfiction / history / military & wars

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The Clever Teens' Guide to World War One

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Buy The Clever Teens' Guide to World War One by Felix Rhodes (ISBN: 9781542837088) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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young adult nonfiction / history / modern

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Buy The Clever Teen's Guide to The Cold War by Felix Rhodes (ISBN: 9781542676854) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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WWII

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simple history: hitler & the rise of nazi germany

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Simple History: Hitler & the Rise of Nazi Germany

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Learn about one of the most explosive periods in German history: the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party. In this book you'll discover how Hitler came to power, convinced the German people to follow him, and brought not just Germany, but the whole of Europe to the brink of destruction in the...

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The Cold War

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juvenile nonfiction / history / united states / 20th century

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The Iron Curtain and nuclear missiles. The Cold War was a scary situation. As the Capitalist West faced off against the Communist East, the world anticipated a nuclear showdown. Witness the Berlin Wall - a symbol of the great divide. See the Cold War conflicts. Be amazed at super spy gadgets, and...

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Nazi Germany

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juvenile fiction / action & adventure / general

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young adult fiction / historical / europe

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Buy The Darkest Hour by Caroline Tung Richmond (ISBN: 9780545801270) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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The USSR under Stalin

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children's / teenage fiction: historical fiction

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children's / teenage social issues: war & conflict issues

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historical fiction (children's / teenage)

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modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

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social issues: war & conflict issues (children's / teenage)

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One night fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother and young brother are hauled from their home by Soviet guards, thrown into cattle cars and sent away. They are being deported to Siberia. An unimaginable and harrowing journey has begun. Lina doesn't know if she'll ever see her father or her friends aga...

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Children's classic

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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Vintage Children's Classics)

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'Some things are just sitting there, minding their own business, waiting to be discovered. Like America. And other things are probably better off left alone'Nine-year-old Bruno has a lot of things on his mind. Who is the 'Fury'? Why did he make them leave their nice home in Berlin to go to 'Out-W...

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The Rise of the Berlin Wall

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family & home stories (children's / teenage)

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juvenile fiction / family / general (see also headings under social themes)

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juvenile fiction / action & adventure / general

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A Night Divided joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!With the rise of the Berlin Wall, Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. ...

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1939 Nazi Germany

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the book thief: 10th anniversary edition

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bridge of clay epic new novel sweeping literary saga; keeper lost things  boy in the striped pyjamas john green boyne; fault in our stars best story richard and judy pick; prizewinning winner shortlist shortlisted booker womens; curious incident of the dog in the night time hunger games wonder; r j palacio light between oceans; elinor oliphant gail honeyman; matt haig how to stop time jo cannon; three things about elsie lullaby mermaid mrs hancock

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germany: national socialist period (1933-1945)

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modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

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young adult fiction / historical / holocaust

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The Book Thief: 10th Anniversary Edition

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The New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller'A novel of breathtaking scope' Guardian1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentrati...