Wilm Hosenfeld

Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld (2 May 1895 – 13 August 1952) was originally a school teacher and later served as a German Army officer, rising to the rank of Hauptmann (captain) by the end of the Second World War. He was known for his efforts in helping to hide or rescue several Polish people, including Jews, in Nazi-occupied Poland. Notably, he assisted Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman to survive in the ruins of Warsaw during the last months of 1944. This heroic act was portrayed in the 2002 film The Pianist.

Hosenfeld was taken prisoner by the Red Army and died in Soviet captivity in 1952. In October 2007, he was posthumously honored by Lech Kaczyński, the President of Poland, with a Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In June 2009, Hosenfeld was posthumously recognized by Yad Vashem (Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust) as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

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