Shpilman Vladislav: a great pianist with a difficult fate

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

How much hardship can one person endure? This is a rhetorical question, but Shpilman Vladislav proved by his personal example that a real person is capable of much, especially under the threat of extermination. The memories of this man have become 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 to Jewish parents Samuil and Eduarda 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.

Wladislav Shpilman, whose biography during the years of occupation of Poland by the German Nazis 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 the talented applicant was forced to go home to Poland.

Shpilman Vladislav before the start of the war worked on the capital's radio and studiedwriting various compositions and music for films. The talented composer and pianist managed to give several concerts together with the famous violinists of that period - Schering Gimpel and others.

World War II

Despite the fact that the Nazis were already in full control in Germany, ordinary people believed that "old Europe" would stop Hitler. The first bombings overtook the pianist during the next recording at the radio station. Shpilman Vladislav refused to leave his home, despite the wishes of the rest of the family.

These events took place on October 23, 1939, and four days later German troops occupied Poland. Vladek's family, as his close people called him, hoped that the war would not last long. Their expectations did not come true. Most of the Polish Jews were exterminated by the Nazis: some were simply killed, some were tortured to death in concentration camps. The entire Shpilman family 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.

Incident at the train station

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

Of course, thanks to his fame, the pianist had many friends and connoisseurs of his talent who stayed in Warsaw andhelped Vladislav. The Bogutsky family provided great assistance to the great musician: it was they who hid him in the apartments of the capital for a long time, hoping for a quick victory over the Nazis. The partisans were already preparing an uprising against the Germans in Warsaw.

At the time of the uprising Władysław Szpilman, a pianist and famous person in Poland, sat out either 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 ruined shelter and went to the hospital. His next refuge was an abandoned villa.

Who is Hosenfeld?

In the once rich, but now ruined villa, Shpilman lived for some time in the attic. But when one day he decided to go down to the house in search of some food, he saw a German officer there. It was Wilhelm Hosenfeld, he came to inspect the building, in which the Gestapo planned to locate the headquarters of the defense of Warsaw.

Seeing the emaciated man, the German officer asked who he was. Shpilman 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 the Chopin sonata.

The officer recommended Shpilman Vladislav to hide more carefully. Together they built a lodging for the pianist under the very roof. The officer brought the hiderfood and warm clothes for the Jew. When the German units began to retreat from Warsaw under the onslaught of the Allies and the Russians, the officer brought Shpilman Vladislav a soldier's overcoat and food. At the moment of parting, the pianist gave his name, but was afraid to ask the name of his savior.

The fate of Hosenfeld, who during the war years saved several dozen Jews, became known thanks to his detailed diaries and letters. He died in a Soviet camp, after terrible beatings in 1952. Shpilman, despite all his efforts, was unable to help his savior.

Warsaw Diaries by Vladislav Shpilman

After the war, the great pianist plunged into a long depression, he was tormented by his conscience because of the death of his parents, brother and sisters. Friends advised Vladislav to put all his memories on paper and lighten his soul.

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

In 1998, the memoirs of the great pianist were reissued. The book received great acclaim and has been translated into many languages. In 2002, the famous director Roman Polanski made a wonderful and painfully poignant film The Pianist based on this book.