Takie tango . Such a Tango . The Pianist

Budka Suflera - Takie tango /"because tango requires two"
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THE PIANIST Trailer (subtitles) /Multi-award-winning drama starring Adrien Brody based on the true story of a Polish-Jewish musician who struggles to survive in the Warsaw Ghetto
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In 1940, the Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto along with thousands and thousands of other Jews. For the inhabitants, there is no prospect of escaping deportation to the inhumane concentration camps. Already on the way to the wagons and thus doomed to death, a Jewish policeman helps Wladysław to escape. A time of loneliness and constant flight dawns for him – until he is discovered in the rubble of the bombed city by the German officer Wilm Hosenfeld shortly before the end of the war
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"Hosenfeld, who had been a member of the Nazi Party since 1935, became disillusioned with the party and its policies over time, especially when he saw how Poles and especially Jews were treated. He and some fellow officers of the German Wehrmacht felt sympathy for all peoples of occupied Poland. They were ashamed of what some of their compatriots were doing and offered help to those they could whenever possible."

"Hosenfeld made friends with numerous Poles and even made an effort to learn their language. He also attended mass, received Holy Communion and went to confession in Polish churches, although this was forbidden. His commitment to the Poles began as early as the autumn of 1939, when, contrary to regulations, he allowed Polish prisoners of war access to their families and even successfully campaigned for the early release of at least one of them."

During his time in Warsaw, Hosenfeld used his position to give refuge to people regardless of their origins, including at least one politically persecuted anti-Nazi Volksdeutsche, who were at risk of persecution, sometimes even arrest by the Gestapo, sometimes by getting them the papers they needed and jobs at the sports stadium under his supervision. From August 1944, pianist Władysław Szpilman hid in an abandoned building at 223 Aleja Niepodległości Street. In November, he was discovered there by Hosenfeld. To Szpilman's surprise, the official did not arrest or kill him; after finding out that the emaciated Szpilman was a pianist, Hosenfeld asked him to play something on the piano, which was on the ground floor. Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 in ♯ C minor. After that, the official brought him bread and jam several times. He also offered Szpilman one of his coats to keep warm in the freezing temperatures.

Hosenfeld surrendered to the Soviets in Błonie, a small Polish town about 30 km west of Warsaw, with the men of a Wehrmacht company he led.

Imprisonment and death
He was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor for alleged war crimes because he was a member of a unit. In a 1946 letter to his wife in West Germany, Hosenfeld gave the names of the Jews he had saved and asked her to contact them and ask them to arrange his release.

In 1950, Szpilman learned the name of the German officer who had offered him help in 1944-45. After much thought, Szpilman sought the intercession of a man he secretly considered "a bastard," Jakub Berman, the head of the Polish secret police. A few days later, Berman visited Szpilman's house and said there was nothing he could do. He added, "If your German was still in Poland, then we could get him out. But our comrades in the Soviet Union won't let him go. They say your officer belongs to a department that deals with espionage - so we as Poles can't do anything about it, and I'm powerless."

Szpilman never believed Berman's claims of powerlessness. In an interview with Wolf Biermann, Szpilman described Berman as "omnipotent by the grace of Stalin" and lamented, "So I turned to the worst villain of all, and it didn't help." Hosenfeld died in a Soviet prison camp shortly before 10 p.m. on August 13, 1952, from a rupture of the thoracic aorta, possibly sustained during torture.

Commemorations
In 2002, Hosenfeld's rescue of Władysław Szpilman was depicted in The Pianist, a film based on Szpilman's memoir of the same name. Hosenfeld was played by Thomas Kretschmann.

"In October 2007, Hosenfeld was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Polish: Krzyż Komandorski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski) by Polish President Lech Kaczyński."

"Szpilman's son, Andrzej Szpilman, had long demanded that Yad Vashem recognize Hosenfeld as a Righteous Among the Nations, non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews. On November 25, 2008, Hosenfeld was posthumously recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations. On June 19, 2009, Israeli diplomats in Berlin presented the award to Hosenfeld's son Detlew."

"On December 4, 2011, a memorial plaque in Polish and English was unveiled in Warsaw, the place where Hosenfeld discovered Szpilman, in the presence of Hosenfeld's daughter Jorinde." (Beware! en.wikipedia.org)