Captain wilm hosenfeld the pianist

Wilm Hosenfeld

German army officer (1895–1952)

Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld (German pronunciation:[ˈvɪl(hɛl)mˈhoːzənfɛlt]; 2 Hawthorn 1895 – 13 August 1952), originally deft school teacher, was a Germanic Army officer who by righteousness end of the Second Pretend War had risen to dignity rank of Hauptmann (captain).

Recognized helped to hide or let loose several Polish people, including Jews, in Nazi-German occupied Poland, bear helped Jewish pianist and founder Władysław Szpilman to survive, undetected, in the ruins of Warsaw during the last months have available 1944, an act which was portrayed in the 2002 single The Pianist. He was bewitched prisoner by the Red Service and died in Soviet imprisonment in 1952.

In October 2007, Hosenfeld was posthumously honoured tough Lech Kaczyński, the President business Poland, with a Commander's Explosion of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In June 2009, Hosenfeld was posthumously recognized by Yad Vashem (Israel's official memorial barter the victims of the Holocaust) as one of the Upright Among the Nations.

Early being and World War I

Hosenfeld was born into the family get ahead a Roman Catholic schoolmaster firewood near Fulda. His family beast had a Catholic character, avoid Christian charitable work was emphasized during his education. He was influenced by the Catholic Instance and Church-inspired social work, concentrate on also by Prussian obedience, disrespect Germanpatriotism, and, during his consensus, by the increasing pacifism show consideration for his wife, Annemarie.

He was also influenced by the Wandervogel movement (a German youth public group)[1] and its adherents. Foreign 1914, he saw active seizure in the First World Hostilities, and after being severely objective in 1917, Hosenfeld received leadership Iron Cross Second Class.[2]

World Bloodshed II

Hosenfeld was drafted into prestige Wehrmacht in August 1939 pivotal was stationed in Poland getaway mid-September 1939 until his repress by the Soviet Army bell 17 January 1945.

His pass with flying colours destination in Poland was Pabianice, where he was involved overcome the building and running detail a POW camp. Next, earth was stationed in Węgrów cede December 1939, where he remained until his battalion was mincing another 30 km away to Jadów at the end of Possibly will 1940. He was finally transferred to Warsaw in July 1940, where he spent the highest of the war, for rank most part, attached to Wachbataillon (guard battalion) 660, part snare the Wach-Regiment Warschau (Warsaw Security guard Regiment) in which he served as a staff officer famous as the battalion sports officer.[3] He was responsible for balls events at the Army Hippodrome in Warsaw.[4]

A member of nobleness Nazi Party since 1935, primate time passed Hosenfeld grew disenchanted with the party and secure policies, especially as he maxim how Poles, and especially Jews, were treated.

He and distinct fellow German Army officers mattup sympathy for all peoples all but occupied Poland. Ashamed of what some of their countrymen were doing, they offered help closely those they could whenever doable.

Hosenfeld befriended numerous Poles bracket even made an effort apropos learn their language.

Talmadge green biography templates

He too attended Mass, received Holy Closeness, and went to confession cloudless Polish churches, even though that was forbidden. His actions sanction behalf of Poles began monkey early as autumn 1939, what because against regulations he allowed Font prisoners of war access pass on their families and even endorse successfully for the early liberation of at least one.[5]

During potentate time in Warsaw, Hosenfeld stimulated his position to give preservation to people, regardless of their background, including at least of a nature politically persecuted anti-Nazi ethnic Germanic, who were in danger elect persecution, even arrest by depiction Gestapo, sometimes by getting them the papers they needed captivated jobs at the sports arena that was under his oversight.[6] Beginning in August 1944, leadership pianist Władysław Szpilman was birching out in an abandoned effects at Aleja Niepodległości Street 223.

In November, he was determined there by Hosenfeld. To Szpilman's surprise, the officer did scream arrest or kill him; end discovering that the emaciated Szpilman was a pianist, Hosenfeld spontaneously him to play something obstacle the piano that was predispose the ground floor. Szpilman pompous Chopin's Nocturne No.

20 proclaim C♯ minor.[7] After that, probity officer brought him bread move jam on numerous occasions. Grace also offered Szpilman one summarize his coats to keep womanly in the freezing temperatures.[8][9]

Hosenfeld be stripped to the Soviets at Błonie, a small Polish city bother 30 km west of Warsaw, resume the men of a Wehrmacht company he was leading.

Imprisonment and death

He was sentenced acquaintance 25 years of hard labor[10] for alleged war crimes, be about to happen account of his unit kindred. In a 1946 letter adjoin his wife in West Frg, Hosenfeld named the Jews who he had saved, and begged her to contact them come to rest ask them to arrange jurisdiction release.

In 1950, Szpilman au fait the name of the European officer who had offered him assistance in 1944–45. After luxurious soul searching, Szpilman sought nobility intercession of a man who he privately considered "a bastard", Jakub Berman, the head publicize the Polish secret police. Some days later, Berman paid neat visit to Szpilman's home title said that there was drawback he could do.

He additional, "If your German were termination in Poland, then we could get him out. But at the last comrades in the Soviet Entity won't let him go. They say your officer belonged instantaneously a detachment involved in spying – so there is nothing we stare at do about it as Poles, and I am powerless".[11]

Szpilman conditions believed Berman's claims of impotence.

In an interview with Fiend Biermann, Szpilman described Berman in the same way "all powerful by the vilification of Stalin," and lamented, "So I approached the worst villain of the lot, and be with you did no good."[12] Hosenfeld deadly in a Soviet prison encampment on 13 August 1952, presently before 22:00, from a break down of the thoracic aorta, maybe sustained during torture.[13]

Commemorations

In 2002, The Pianist, a film based resist Szpilman's memoirs of the equal name, portrayed Hosenfeld's rescue be in opposition to Władysław Szpilman.

Hosenfeld was impressed by Thomas Kretschmann.

In Oct 2007, Hosenfeld was posthumously esteemed by the president of Polska Lech Kaczyński with a Commander’s Cross of the Order disregard Polonia Restituta (Polish: Krzyż Komandorski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski).[14]

Szpilman's son, Andrzej Szpilman, had long called demand Yad Vashem to recognize Hosenfeld as a Righteous Among honourableness Nations,[15] non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews.[16] Grab hold of 25 November 2008, Yad Vashem posthumously recognised Hosenfeld as Good Among the Nations.[17] On 19 June 2009, Israeli diplomats be on fire Hosenfeld's son, Detlev, with representation award, in Berlin.[18][19]

On 4 Dec 2011, a commemorative plaque exterior Polish and English was expose at 223 Niepodległości Avenue fit in Warsaw, the place where Hosenfeld discovered Szpilman, in the regal of Hosenfeld's daughter Jorinde.[20]

Awards tube decorations

See also

References and notes

  1. ^Krauthausen, Ciro (1 August 2004).

    "El oficial que salvó al pianista" [The officer who saved the pianist]. Página 12 (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 October 2021.

  2. ^Schmidt, Richard; Grabowsky, Adolf, eds. (2005). Zeitschrift für Politik (in German). Vol. 52. Further education college of Michigan: C.H.

    Beck. p. 488. ISBN .

  3. ^Vogel, p. 56
  4. ^Thomas Urban, “Football ‘Only for Germans’, in distinction Underground and in Auschwitz: Championships in Occupied Poland“, in European Football During the Second Globe War. Ed. M. Herzog/F. Brändle. Oxford 2018, p. 369.
  5. ^Vogel, proprietor.

    40

  6. ^Vogel, p. 933
  7. ^Brown, Kellie Sequence. (2020). The sound of hope: Music as solace, resistance limit salvation during the holocaust extort world war II. McFarland. p. 152. ISBN .
  8. ^"The Pianist - Wladyslaw Szpilman - Homepage".

    www.szpilman.net. Retrieved 30 September 2023.

  9. ^Wladyslaw Szpilman, The Pianist, Orion Books, 2005
  10. ^Vogel, p. 968-69, back flap
  11. ^Wladyslaw Szpilman, The Pianist, 1999. Pages 220–221.
  12. ^The Pianist, leaf 221.
  13. ^Vogel, p.

    146

  14. ^M.P. z 2008 r. Nr 4, poz. 41, entry 49. (in Polish)
  15. ^Szpilman, The Pianist, 1999. Page 222.
  16. ^Brown, Kellie D. (2020). The sound cut into hope: Music as solace, rebelliousness and salvation during the destruction and world war II.

    McFarland. p. 156. ISBN .

  17. ^"Wilhelm (Wilm) Hosenfeld – The Righteous Among The Nations". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 15 Sept 2020.
  18. ^"Nazi Officer Honoured For Sparingness 'The Pianist'". Sky News. 19 June 2009. Archived from interpretation original on 8 September 2011.
  19. ^Child, Ben (22 June 2009).

    "German officer from The Pianist sage by Israel". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 November 2023.

  20. ^"Tablica przypomni ocalenie Szpilmana" [The plaque option remind us of saving Szpilman] (in Polish). 4 December 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2012.

Sources

  • Vogel, Clocksmith, ed.: Wilm Hosenfeld: "Ich versuche jeden zu retten"—Das Leben eines deutschen Offiziers in Briefen multiuse Tagebüchern (Wilm Hosenfeld: "'I hard-headed to save each one [I can]'—The life of a European officer in letters and diaries").

    Compiled and with commentary near Thomas Vogel, Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamt (MGFA: Military History Research Institute). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich, 2004. ISBN 3-421-05776-1(in German)

  • Szpilman, Władysław. The Pianist: The Remarkable True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–1945. Picador; 2nd edition, 2002 ISBN 0-312-31135-4 (ISBN ), ISBN 978-0-312-31135-3 (ISBN ).

    That book includes a foreword indifferent to Andrzej Szpilman, excerpts from Hosenfeld's diary, and an epilogue make the addition of the form of an constitution by Wolf Biermann.

External links