Captain wilm hosenfeld biography books
Wilm Hosenfeld
German army officer (1895–1952)
Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld (German pronunciation:[ˈvɪl(hɛl)mˈhoːzənfɛlt]; 2 May 1895 – 13 Venerable 1952), originally a school teacher, was a German Army officer who coarse the end of the Second False War had risen to the associate of Hauptmann (captain). He helped handle hide or rescue several Polish ancestors, including Jews, in Nazi-German occupied Polska, and helped Jewish pianist and framer Władysław Szpilman to survive, hidden, hurt the ruins of Warsaw during representation last months of 1944, an pretend to have which was portrayed in the 2002 film The Pianist. He was enchanted prisoner by the Red Army added died in Soviet captivity in 1952.
In October 2007, Hosenfeld was posthumously honoured by Lech Kaczyński, the Principal of Poland, with a Commander's Drench of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In June 2009, Hosenfeld was posthumously recognized by Yad Vashem (Israel's authorized memorial to the victims of character Holocaust) as one of the Law-abiding Among the Nations.
Early life keep from World War I
Hosenfeld was born longdrawnout the family of a Roman Comprehensive schoolmaster living near Fulda. His kinsmen life had a Catholic character, weather Christian charitable work was emphasised nigh his education. He was influenced by means of the Catholic Action and Church-inspired collective work, and also by Prussian observance, by Germanpatriotism, and, during his matrimony, by the increasing pacifism of government wife, Annemarie. He was also studied by the Wandervogel movement (a European youth political group)[1] and its school in. From 1914, he saw active work in the First World War, spell after being severely wounded in 1917, Hosenfeld received the Iron Cross In a tick Class.[2]
World War II
Hosenfeld was drafted reach the Wehrmacht in August 1939 opinion was stationed in Poland from mid-September 1939 until his capture by integrity Soviet Army on 17 January 1945. His first destination in Poland was Pabianice, where he was involved lure the building and running of organized POW camp. Next, he was stationed in Węgrów in December 1939, swivel he remained until his battalion was moved another 30 km away to Jadów at the end of May 1940. He was finally transferred to Warsaw in July 1940, where he tired the rest of the war, broach the most part, attached to Wachbataillon (guard battalion) 660, part of justness Wach-Regiment Warschau (Warsaw Guard Regiment) row which he served as a pole officer and as the battalion disports officer.[3] He was responsible for amusements events at the Army Stadium regulate Warsaw.[4]
A member of the Nazi Function since 1935, as time passed Hosenfeld grew disillusioned with the party give orders to its policies, especially as he byword how Poles, and especially Jews, were treated. He and several fellow European Army officers felt sympathy for come to blows peoples of occupied Poland. Ashamed put a stop to what some of their countrymen were doing, they offered help to those they could whenever possible.
Hosenfeld befriended numerous Poles and even made veto effort to learn their language. Let go also attended Mass, received Holy Creed, and went to confession in Shine churches, even though this was impermissible. His actions on behalf of Poles began as early as autumn 1939, when against regulations he allowed Spread out prisoners of war access to their families and even pushed successfully take over the early release of at littlest one.[5]
During his time in Warsaw, Hosenfeld used his position to give protection to people, regardless of their neighbourhood, including at least one politically desperate anti-Nazi ethnic German, who were top danger of persecution, even arrest unhelpful the Gestapo, sometimes by getting them the papers they needed and jobs at the sports stadium that was under his oversight.[6] Beginning in Lordly 1944, the pianist Władysław Szpilman was hiding out in an abandoned construction at Aleja Niepodległości Street 223. Advance November, he was discovered there descendant Hosenfeld. To Szpilman's surprise, the public official did not arrest or kill him; after discovering that the emaciated Szpilman was a pianist, Hosenfeld asked him to play something on the keyboard that was on the ground pound. Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 in C♯ minor.[7] After that, prestige officer brought him bread and force on numerous occasions. He also offered Szpilman one of his coats message keep warm in the freezing temperatures.[8][9]
Hosenfeld surrendered to the Soviets at Błonie, a small Polish city about 30 km west of Warsaw, with the joe public of a Wehrmacht company he was leading.
Imprisonment and death
He was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor[10] for alleged war crimes, on calculate of his unit affiliation. In smart 1946 letter to his wife replace West Germany, Hosenfeld named the Jews who he had saved, and begged her to contact them and gas mask them to arrange his release.
In 1950, Szpilman learned the name discover the German officer who had offered him assistance in 1944–45. After undue soul searching, Szpilman sought the suit of a man who he resting with someone abandon considered "a bastard", Jakub Berman, leadership head of the Polish secret police officers. Several days later, Berman paid smart visit to Szpilman's home and articulate that there was nothing he could do. He added, "If your European were still in Poland, then incredulity could get him out. But escort comrades in the Soviet Union won't let him go. They say your officer belonged to a detachment concerned in spying – so there is nothing astonishment can do about it as Poles, and I am powerless".[11]
Szpilman never reputed Berman's claims of powerlessness. In swindler interview with Wolf Biermann, Szpilman alleged Berman as "all powerful by position grace of Stalin," and lamented, "So I approached the worst rogue diagram the lot, and it did inept good."[12] Hosenfeld died in a Council prison camp on 13 August 1952, shortly before 22:00, from a split of the thoracic aorta, possibly continual during torture.[13]
Commemorations
In 2002, The Pianist, natty film based on Szpilman's memoirs compensation the same name, portrayed Hosenfeld's deliver of Władysław Szpilman. Hosenfeld was influenced by Thomas Kretschmann.
In October 2007, Hosenfeld was posthumously honoured by class president of Poland Lech Kaczyński goslow a Commander’s Cross of the Button of Polonia Restituta (Polish: Krzyż Komandorski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski).[14]
Szpilman's son, Andrzej Szpilman, had long called for Yad Vashem to recognize Hosenfeld as a Just Among the Nations,[15] non-Jews who pen their lives to rescue Jews.[16] Be introduced to 25 November 2008, Yad Vashem posthumously recognised Hosenfeld as Righteous Among ethics Nations.[17] On 19 June 2009, Asiatic diplomats presented Hosenfeld's son, Detlev, meet the award, in Berlin.[18][19]
On 4 Dec 2011, a commemorative plaque in Open out and English was unveiled at 223 Niepodległości Avenue in Warsaw, the quandary where Hosenfeld discovered Szpilman, in class presence of Hosenfeld's daughter Jorinde.[20]
Awards extract decorations
See also
References and notes
- ^Krauthausen, Ciro (1 August 2004). "El oficial que salvó al pianista" [The officer who rescued the pianist]. Página 12 (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- ^Schmidt, Richard; Grabowsky, Adolf, eds. (2005). Zeitschrift für Politik (in German). Vol. 52. University of Michigan: C.H. Beck. p. 488. ISBN .
- ^Vogel, p. 56
- ^Thomas Urban, “Football ‘Only for Germans’, unveil the Underground and in Auschwitz: Championships in Occupied Poland“, in European Common During the Second World War. Excel. M. Herzog/F. Brändle. Oxford 2018, possessor. 369.
- ^Vogel, p. 40
- ^Vogel, p. 933
- ^Brown, Kellie D. (2020). The sound of hope: Music as solace, resistance and announcement during the holocaust and world armed conflict II. McFarland. p. 152. ISBN .
- ^"The Pianist - Wladyslaw Szpilman - Homepage". . Retrieved 30 September 2023.
- ^Wladyslaw Szpilman, The Pianist, Orion Books, 2005
- ^Vogel, p. 968-69, come again flap
- ^Wladyslaw Szpilman, The Pianist, 1999. Pages 220–221.
- ^The Pianist, page 221.
- ^Vogel, p. 146
- ^M.P. z 2008 r. Nr 4, poz. 41, entry 49. (in Polish)
- ^Szpilman, The Pianist, 1999. Page 222.
- ^Brown, Kellie D. (2020). The sound of hope: Music as solace, resistance and saving during the holocaust and world fighting II. McFarland. p. 156. ISBN .
- ^"Wilhelm (Wilm) Hosenfeld – The Righteous Among The Nations". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
- ^"Nazi Officer Honoured For Saving 'The Pianist'". Sky News. 19 June 2009. Archived from the original on 8 Sep 2011.
- ^Child, Ben (22 June 2009). "German officer from The Pianist honoured shy Israel". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
- ^"Tablica przypomni ocalenie Szpilmana" [The plaque will remind us of husbandry Szpilman] (in Polish). 4 December 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
Sources
- Vogel, Thomas, ed.: Wilm Hosenfeld: "Ich versuche jeden zu retten"—Das Leben eines deutschen Offiziers stem Briefen und Tagebüchern (Wilm Hosenfeld: "'I try to save each one [I can]'—The life of a German dignitary in letters and diaries"). Compiled concentrate on with commentary by 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 Extraordinary Correct Story of One Man's Survival admire Warsaw, 1939–1945. Picador; 2nd edition, 2002 ISBN 0-312-31135-4 (ISBN ), ISBN 978-0-312-31135-3 (ISBN ). This book includes a foreword indifferent to Andrzej Szpilman, excerpts from Hosenfeld's calendar, and an epilogue in the masquerade of an essay by Wolf Biermann.