The Pianist Page #14

Later:

The sun high, blazing. Szpilman is wandering around,

occasionally greeting people. The place is crowded now,

packed. Trucks bring more and more Jews at intervals.

Old people lying down, exhausted, impossible to tell whether

some of them are alive or dead. Women carrying dehydrated

children drag themselves from group to group. One WOMAN

approaches Szpilman.

WOMAN WITH CHILD

He's dying, don't you have a drop

of water? My child's dying of

thirst, he's dying, he's dying, I

beg you!

Szpilman shakes his head sadly. The woman with child wanders

off to another group.

A MAN'S VOICE

I'm telling you, it's a disgrace.

Szpilman turns to see a man, DR. EHRLICH, haranguing Father.

FATHER:

I can hear you.

Szpilman goes to them.

DR. EHRLICH

(overlapping)

We're letting them take us to our

death like sheep to the slaughter!

FATHER:

Dr. Ehrlich, not so loud!

DR. EHRLICH

Why don't we attack them? There's

half a million of us, we could

break out of the ghetto. At least

we could die honourably, not as a

stain on the face of history!

Another man, Grun, joins in.

GRUN:

Why you so sure they're sending us

to our death?

DR. EHRLICH

I'm not sure. You know why I'm not

sure? Because they didn't tell me.

But I'm telling you they plan to

wipe us all out!

FATHER:

Dr. Ehrlich, what do you want me

to do? You want me to fight?

GRUN:

To fight you need organisation,

plans, guns!

FATHER:

He's right. What d'you think I can

do? Fight them with my violin bow?

GRUN:

The Germans would never squander a

huge labour force like this. They're

sending us to a labour camp.

DR. EHRLICH

Oh, sure. Look at that cripple,

look at those old people, the

children, they're going to work?

Look at Mr Szpilman here, he's

going to carry iron girders on his

back?

A loud cry from Mother. Szpilman and Father spin round.

MOTHER:

Henryk!

REGINA:

(glancing up, shocked)

Oh my God!

Near the gates, among a large bunch of new arrivals, Henryk

and Halina.

MOTHER:

Halina! Henryk!

Regina and Szpilman also call and wave. Henryk and Halina

struggle through to them. Halina falls into Mother's arms

and they hug.

HALINA:

We heard you were here...we...didn't

want...we...we wanted to be with

you.

Mother comforts her. And so does Regina. Father smiles

sadly.

SZPILMAN:

(shakes his head,

almost to himself,

a forlorn smile)

Stupid, stupid!

THE YOUNG WOMAN:

Why did I do it? Why did I do it?

Szpilman stands and stares at her.

Later:

The sun lower but the heat still intense.

The place is now packed to suffocation. People calling out

names, trying to find each other. The wailing of women and

the cries of children.

A cordon of Jewish policemen and SS guards are, almost

surreptitiously, ringing the compound.

The Szpilmans sit in the same place, with Henryk sitting a

little apart and now reading a small book.

THE YOUNG WOMAN:

Why did I do it? Why did I do it?

HALINA:

She's getting on my nerves. What

did she do, for God's sake?

Grun leans across to her.

GRUN:

(quietly, to Halina)

She smothered her baby.

Halina looks at him in disbelief.

GRUN:

They'd prepared a hiding place and

so, of course, they went there.

But the baby cried just as the

police came. She smothered the

cries with her hands. The baby

died. A policeman heard the death

rattle. He found where they were

hiding.

Later:

Szpilman and Henryk.

SZPILMAN:

What are you reading?

HENRYK:

(a crooked, ironic

smile)

'If you prick us, do we not bleed?

If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

If you poison us, do we not die?

And if you wrong us, shall we not

revenge?'

Szpilman takes the book and reads the title page:

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

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