How many adversities can one person endure? This is a rhetorical question, but Shpilman Vladislav proved by his own example that a 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 into a 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 family of the future composer, but, like many Jews in Warsaw, they were representatives of the middle class.
Vladislav Shpilman, whose biography during the years of Nazi occupation of Poland became an example of courage for many people around the world, studied at the Chopin University of Music in the class of Alexander Mikhalovsky. Then he received a scholarship to study at the Berlin Academy of Music, but already in 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany and a talented student was forced to go home to Poland.
Shpilman Vladislav before the war began working on the capital's radio and was engaged in composing various compositions and music for films. The talented composer and pianist managed to give several concerts along with the famous violinists of that period - Schering Gimpel and others.
The Second World War
Despite the fact that the Nazis were already in full control in Germany, ordinary people believed that "old Europe" would stop Hitler. The first bombing overtook the pianist during the next recording on the radio station. Shpilman Vladislav refused to leave his home, despite the desire of the rest of the family.
These events occurred on October 23, 1939, and four days later German troops occupied Poland. The family of Vladek, and that is what his close friends called him, hoped that the war would not last long. Their expectations were not realized. Most Polish Jews were exterminated by the Nazis: someone was simply killed, some were tortured to concentration camps. The whole Shpilman family was taken to Treblinka. There they completed their earthly journey. The same fate was reserved for the famous pianist and composer, but his popularity saved him.
Case at the train station
At a train station in a crowd of Jews, a compatriot who worked as a policeman saw him and pushed him out of the crowd. Shpilman Vladislav was left alone. He worked at construction sites in the ghetto and miraculously several times escaped the next selection of Jews. In 1943, he escaped from the ghetto and went to seek help from acquaintances.
Of course, thanks to fame, the pianist had many friends and connoisseurs of his talent, who remained in Warsaw and helped Vladislav. The Bogutsky family rendered great help to the great musician: it was they who hid him for a long time 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 famous person in Poland, was sitting 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 sleeping pills, but did not die. After the Warsaw uprising, Vladek was one of the few survivors.
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 Hosenfeld?
In the once rich and now ruined villa, Spilman lived for some time in the attic. But when one day he decided to go down to the house in search of any food, he saw a German officer there. It was Wilhelm Hosenfeld, he came to inspect the building, in it the Gestapo planned to place the headquarters of the Warsaw defense.
Seeing a haggard man, a German officer asked who he was. Spielman replied that he was a pianist. There was a piano in the next room, the German asked Vladislav to play something. The great pianist sat down at the instrument for the first time in two and a half years of the war and played Chopin's sonata.
The officer recommended Shpilman Vladislav to hide more carefully. Together they built an overnight stay for the pianist under the roof. The officer brought food and warm clothes to the hiding Jew. When the German units, under the pressure of the allies and the Russians, began to retreat from Warsaw, the officer brought Shpilman Vladislav a soldier's coat and food. At the moment of farewell, the pianist called his name, but was afraid to ask the name of his savior.
The fate of Hosenfeld, who saved dozens of Jews during the war, became known thanks to his detailed diaries and letters. He died in the Soviet camp, after terrible beatings in 1952. Shpilman, despite all his efforts, could not help his savior.
The Warsaw Diaries by Vladislav Shpilman
After the war, the great pianist fell into a long depression, he was tormented by conscience because of the death of his parents, brother and sisters. Friends advised Vladislav to transfer all his memories to paper and lighten his soul.
In 1946, the pianist’s memoirs were published in Poland under the title “City Death”. Post-war censorship changed many facts in the pianist's memoirs, including the fact that the savior was German. As a result, the book was banned.
In 1998, a reprint of the memoirs of the great pianist was published. The book has received great recognition and has been translated into many languages. In 2002, the famous director Roman Polanski made a wonderful and painfully piercing film “The Pianist” based on this book.