Usually when I think of Holocaust films as a genre, I think of a mixture of sorrow and depression at the brutality and inhumanity and arbitrariness depicted in such a film. That is abundant in The Pianist. Usually the Holocaust films have an aspect about the nobility of some in the midst of such brutality. There is some of that in The Pianist, too. We also can expect a Holocaust film to tell of miraculous or near miraculous survival. That is the center of The Pianist.

The Pianist demonstrates the importance of the determination to survive. Determination is often the basis for the miraculous.

A man in earnest finds means, or if he cannot find, creates them.
--WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING (1780–1842)

I will go anywhere—provided it be forward.
--DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813–1873)

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.
--TOMMY LASORDA

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
--NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI (1469–1527)

Will is power.
--GERMAN PROVERB

You must either conquer the world or the world will conquer you. You must be either master or slave.
--CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN (1801–1890)

Before us is a future all unknown, a path untrod;
Beside us a friend well loved and known—
That friend is God.

All heaven is waiting to help those who will discover the will of God and do it.
--J. ROBERT ASHCROFT (1878–1958)

Psalm 55:18 -Message Translation
My life is well and whole, secure
in the middle of danger
Even while thousands
are lined up against me.

Psalm 76:5-6 -Message Translation
The warriors were plundered
and left there impotent.
And now there's nothing to them,
nothing to show for their swagger and threats.
Your sudden roar, God of Jacob,
knocked the wind out of horse and rider.

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