It's not mentoring how you should live, it just shows you this is a possible option. And it totally has me at crossing "Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world" off the list.
The story of a man who is not a hero, and whose survival depended on sheer chance and the mercy of the enemies. Only a real survivor of WWII (Polanski & Szpillman) would tell such a story, without binary good/evil, and with such restraint.