A German officer found a starving Jewish man hiding in the ruins of Warsaw. Instead of killing him, he asked a question that changed everything.

Warsaw became a graveyard in November 1944 after the Nazis crushed the Polish uprising. Buildings lay shattered, while streets were empty except for patrols hunting survivors. Władysław Szpilman (December 5, 1911 – July 6, 2000) had been hiding for months. Before the war, he had been Poland’s most celebrated pianist, playing Chopin on Warsaw Radio while the city danced. Now, he was a ghost, surviving on scraps in abandoned buildings.

Then the footsteps came. Captain Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld (May 2, 1895 – August 13, 1952) of the Wehrmacht discovered Szpilman in an attic. The starving man froze as he thought that his end was near. However, Hosenfeld did not raise his weapon. Instead, he asked: “What are you doing here?” Szpilman told him that he used to be a pianist. Hosenfeld’s eyes changed. He pointed to a dusty piano in the corner and said: “Play something.“

So there, in the frozen ruins of a destroyed city, a Jewish man who had not touched his piano in years played Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor. His fingers moved from memory. The melody filled the bombed-out room. When the last note faded, Hosenfeld stood in silence. Then he asked where Szpilman was hiding. Not to arrest him, but to help him. For weeks, Hosenfeld returned secretly, bringing bread, jam and a warm coat. Helping a Jewish man meant execution if discovered. He came anyway.

In December, Hosenfeld visited one last time as German forces prepared to retreat. He left extra food and his own military blanket. “Hold on,” he told Szpilman, adding: “The Soviets are coming. The war will end soon.” Szpilman gave him his name. “Remember it. If you ever need help – Szpilman, Polish Radio,” he stressed. He never saw Hosenfeld again.

Szpilman survived and returned to Warsaw Radio. His first broadcast after liberation? Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor, the same piece he had played for the German officer who saved his life. Hosenfeld did not survive. Captured by the Soviet forces, he was convicted as a war criminal simply for being a German officer. The Soviet authorities ignored testimonies about his humanitarian acts.

Szpilman spent years trying to save Hosenfeld. He contacted officials, wrote letters and begged anyone who would listen. It was not enough. In 1952, Captain Hosenfeld died in a Soviet prison camp at the age of 57. He never learned that the pianist he had rescued tried everything to rescue him in return.

Decades later, Szpilman’s memoir became the film The Pianist, winning three Academy Awards. In 2009 (57 years after his demise), Hosenfeld was finally recognised by Yad Vashem (Israel’s official memorial institution to the victims of the Holocaust) as Righteous Among the Nations. His family accepted the honour on his behalf as he never lived to receive.

One question. One piece of music. Two men on opposite sides of history’s greatest horror – connected by a moment when humanity won. Szpilman, who passed away at the age of 88, spent his final years making sure the world remembered the German officer who had chosen mercy when he could have chosen murder. Because sometimes the most powerful resistance is not a weapon. It’s a piano.

Collected from the Facebook page of The Forgotten Ledger.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das