Shpilman Vladislav: a great pianist with a difficult destiny

How much hardship can one person endure? This is a rhetorical question, but Shpilman Vladislav proved by his personal example that the real person is capable of much, especially under the threat of extermination. The memories of this man became a real revelation for future generations.

Life before the war

Little is known about Shpilman's childhood. The future great pianist was born in Sosnowiec in the family of Jews Samuel and Eduard Shpilman. The couple had four children - two boys and the same number of girls. Little is known about the future composer's family, but like many Jews in Warsaw, they were middle class.

Vladislav Shpilman, whose biography during the Nazi occupation of Poland became an example of courage for many people around the world, studied at the Chopin Musical University in the class of Alexander Mikhalovsky. Then he received a scholarship to study at the Berlin Academy of Music, but already in Germany in Germany the Nazis came to power and a talented entrant was forced to return to Poland.

Shpilman Vladislav worked on the capital radio before the war and was engaged in writing various compositions and music for films. A talented composer and pianist managed to give several concerts together with well-known violinists of that period - Schering Gimpele and others.

The Second World War

Despite the fact that the Nazis were already completely in charge in Germany, ordinary people believed that Hitler would be stopped by "old Europe". The first bombings were overtaken by the pianist during the next recording on the radio station. Shpilman Vladislav refused to leave his native home, despite the desire of the rest of the family.

These events took place on October 23, 1939, and in four days the German troops occupied Poland. The Vladek family, and so it was called by close people, hoped that the war would not last long. Their expectations were not realized. Most of the Polish Jews were destroyed by the Nazis: someone was just killed, some tortured in concentration camps. The whole family Shpilman was taken to Treblinka. There they completed their earthly journey. The same fate was prepared for the famous pianist and composer, but his popularity saved him.

The case at the station

At the station, in the crowd of Jews, a compatriot working as a policeman saw him and pushed him out of the crowd. Shpilman Vladislav was left alone. He worked on construction sites in the ghetto and miraculously avoided the next selection of Jews several times. In 1943, he fled the ghetto and went to seek help from friends.

Of course, thanks to the fame of the pianist, there were many friends and connoisseurs of his talent who stayed in Warsaw and helped Vladislav. Great help to the great musician was provided by the Bogutskiy family: they had long been hiding him in the apartments of the capital, hoping for an early victory over the Nazis. The partisans were already preparing an uprising against the Germans in Warsaw.

At the time of the uprising, Vladislav Shpilman, a pianist and well-known person in Poland, sat out in the attic or in the apartment of one of the houses in the center. When the Nazis set fire to the building, he decided to poison himself by drinking a sleeping pill, but he did not die. After the Warsaw Uprising, Vladek was one of the few people who survived.

To find at least some food, he decided to leave his destroyed shelter and went to the hospital. His next refuge was an abandoned villa.

Who is Hozenfeld?

At a once rich and now destroyed villa, Spielmann lived for a while in the attic. But when I once decided to go down to the house in search of some food, I saw a German officer there. It was Wilhelm Hosenfeld, he came to inspect the building, in which the Gestapo planned to locate the Warsaw defense headquarters.

Seeing the emaciated person, the German officer asked who he was. Shpilman replied that he was a pianist. In the next room stood a grand piano, the German asked Vladislav to play something. The great pianist sat down for the instrument for the first time in two and a half years of the war and played the Chopin Sonata.

The officer recommended Shpilman Vladislav hide more carefully. Together they built an overnight stay for the pianist under the roof. The officer brought food and warm clothes to the Jew who was hiding. When the German units began to retreat from Warsaw under the onslaught of the Allies and Russians, the officer brought Shpilman Vladislav a soldier's overcoat and food. At the moment of farewell, the pianist named his name, but was afraid to ask his savior's surname.

The fate of Hosenfeld, who saved several dozen Jews during the war, became known thanks to his detailed diaries and letters. He died in the Soviet camp, after a terrible beating in 1952. Shpilman, despite all his efforts, could not help his savior.

Vladislav Shpilman's Warsaw Diaries

After the war, the great pianist plunged into a prolonged depression, his conscience was tormented by the death of his parents, brother and sisters. Friends advised Vladislav to transfer all memories to paper and to ease his soul.

In 1946, the pianist's memoirs were published in Poland under the title "The Death of the City." Post-war censorship changed a lot of facts in the pianist's memories, including the fact that his savior was a German. As a result, the book was banned.

In 1998, the re-issue of the memoirs of the great pianist was published. The book received great recognition and was translated into many languages. In 2002, the famous director Roman Polanski took the remarkable and painfully piercing film "Pianist" on the motives of this book.