Wilm Hosenfeld

Life & Legacy

Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld (German pronunciation: [ˈvɪl(hɛl)m ˈhoːzənfɛlt]; 2 May 1895 – 13 August 1952) was a German Catholic school teacher, and propaganda and intelligence officer in the German Army during World War II. He served as the commander of prisoner-of-war camps in the General Government and from 1940 as an intelligence and counterintelligence officer in the garrison of occupied Warsaw. During the Warsaw Uprising, he interrogated captive Polish civilians, Polish resistance members and Red Army soldiers before their execution.
He is credited with rescuing or assisting at least three Polish Jews, including the pianist and classical composer Władysław Szpilman during the German destruction of Warsaw, and with having helped a number of Polish people under Nazi occupation. Hosenfeld's assistance to Szpilman was portrayed in the 2002 film The Pianist. His efforts were recognised by the posthumous award of the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński in 2007, and of the Righteous Among the Nations title from Yad Vashem in 2009.