Newspaper Article

The Nazi hero who inspired Polanski ; REVEALED: The amazing story of the SS captainwho saved the life of a Jewish pianist hiding in the ruins of theWarsaw ghetto ... and how it drove Poland's great film director to make a cinematic masterpiece

Pryer, Nick, Cleaver, Hannah

2003

Overview

Despite [Wladislaw Szpilman]'s best efforts after the War the two men never met again and he was haunted until his death two years ago, aged 88, by the memory of the brave German who saved his life. THE relationship between Wladislaw Szpilman and [Wilm Hosenfeld] has been known to only a handful of people for the past 50 years. But now Hosenfeld's humanity is pivotal in director Roman Polanski's searing new film The Pianist, based on the musician's account of his five years in the Warsaw ghetto. He wrote: 'I want to comfort all these poor souls and ask for their forgiveness because the Germans have treated them so badly. We put an eternal curse on ourselves. I am ashamed to walk the streets.' SURVIVOR'S SONG: Adrien Brody, above, plays Wladislaw Szpilman in Polanski's film. Below right is the real Szpilman, pictured in 1946 HOSENFELD was taken prisoner by the Red Army on January 17, 1945, and his Russian interrogators were convinced he worked in intelligence. Made a scapegoat for the German brutality in Poland, he was tried as a war criminal, convicted by a Soviet court and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour. He was appalled to discover that Hosenfeld was still a prisoner and contacted Szpilman in Warsaw for help. But in the confusion, and blocked by bureaucracy, Szpilman never got to see Hosenfeld before he died in 1952.

• Publisher: Solo Syndication, a division of Associated Newspapers Ltd
• Subject: Hosenfeld, Wilm / Polanski, Roman / Szpilman, Wladislaw