Wladyslaw Szpilman
Encyclopedia
Władysław "Wladek" Szpilman (vwaˈdɨswaf ˈʂpilman; 5 December 19116 July 2000) was a Polish
-Jewish
pianist, composer, and memoir
ist. Szpilman is widely known as the protagonist
of the Roman Polanski
film The Pianist
, which is based on his memoir of the same name
recounting how he survived the Holocaust. In November 1998 Władysław Szpilman was honored by the president of Poland
with a Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta
.
. After Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, Szpilman returned to Warsaw where he quickly became a celebrated pianist and composer of both classical and popular music. Szpilman composed many pieces and soundtracks while touring Poland with his accompanying violinist, Bronislav Gimpel
.
On 1 April 1935 he joined Polish Radio, where he worked as a pianist performing classical and jazz music, until the German invasion of Poland
reached Warsaw in September 1939 and Polskie Radio was forced off the air. The Nazi-led
General Government
established ghettos in many Polish cities, including Warsaw. However, Szpilman and his family did not need to find a new residence since their flat was already in the ghetto area. He continued to work as a pianist in restaurants in the ghetto. Through his piano playing, he was able to earn barely enough to support the family of six (his father, his mother, his two sisters, one brother and himself).
on 31 October 1940. Once all the Jews were confined within the ghetto, a wall was constructed to separate them from the rest of the city. Within the ghetto Szpilman had to work in order to support his family which included his mother, father, brother Henryk, and two sisters, Regina and Halina. He found work playing piano first in the Nowoczesna cafe, where the attendants did not pay his playing any attention. He later played in a cafe on Sienna Street and also the Sztuka Cafe on Leszno Street. In these last two cafes he met many new friends and performed with other musicians as well.
Life in the ghetto was straining on everyone, but especially the poor. People were already dying from starvation and lack of shelter, but there was also the threat of disease due to the unsanitary conditions. Lice were prevalent and served as vectors for Rickettsia prowazekii
, the bacterium responsible for epidemic typhus.
Everyone in his family was deported in 1942 to Treblinka, an extermination camp in the East. Szpilman managed to flee from the transport loading site (Umschlagplatz) with the help of a family acquaintance who grabbed him from the crowd and shooed him away from the waiting train. The acquaintance's name was Itzchak Heller, a Jewish policeman in the ghetto. None of Szpilman's family members survived the war. Szpilman was left in the ghetto as a laborer and helped smuggle in weapons for the coming Jewish resistance uprising
. He avoided capture and death by the Germans several times. Szpilman remained in the Warsaw Ghetto until it was abolished after the deportation
of most of its inhabitants and went into hiding.
As set out in his memoir, Szpilman found places to hide in Warsaw and survived with the help of his friends from Polish Radio and fellow musicians. In November 1944, Szpilman was hiding out in an abandoned building when he was found by a German officer. Surprisingly, the officer did not kill Szpilman, but instead after finding out that he was a pianist, asked Szpilman to play for him on a piano they had found. After that, the officer showed Szpilman a better place to hide and brought him bread and jam on numerous occasions. He also offered Szpilman one of his coats to keep warm in the freezing temperatures. Szpilman did not identify the German officer until 1950. His name was Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
. Despite the efforts of Szpilman and the Poles to rescue Hosenfeld, he died in a Soviet Prisoner of War camp in 1952.
(Lento con gran espressione), the same piece he was playing as the German bombs hit the studios of Polish Radio, interrupting its broadcast on 23 September 1939.
From 1945 to 1963 Szpilman was director of the Music Department at Polish Radio. During this period he composed several symphonic works and about 500 other compositions that are still popular in Poland today, as well as music for radio plays and films.
In the 1950s he wrote about 40 songs for children, for which he received an award from the Polish Composers Union in 1955.
From 1935 to 1972 he wrote about 500 popular songs. More than 100 of these are very well known as hits and evergreens in Poland.
In 1961 he initiated and organized Sopot International Song Festival
in Poland and founded the Polish Union of Authors of Popular Music.
Szpilman also performed as a soloist and with violinists Bronislav Gimpel
, Roman Totenberg
, Ida Haendel
and Henryk Szeryng
. In 1963, Szpilman and Gimpel founded the Warsaw Piano Quintet, with which Szpilman performed worldwide until 1986.
about his survival in Warsaw. He published the book, Śmierć Miasta (Death of a City), soon suppressed by the Stalinist Polish authorities. Following the de-Stalinization
period of the 1950s, the book was published and printed to a greater extent. Few copies of the book were printed initially, and the nationality of Wilm Hosenfeld
was changed to Austrian
.
In 1998, Szpilman’s son Andrzej
republished his father’s work, first in German as Das wunderbare Überleben (The miraculous survival) by the Ullstein Verlag, a major German publishing house, and then in English as The Pianist
. In March 1999 Władysław Szpilman visited London for Jewish Book Week, where he met English readers to mark the publication of his bestselling book in England. It was later published in more than 30 languages. In 2002, Roman Polanski
directed a screen version, also called The Pianist
, but Szpilman died before the film was completed. The movie won three Academy Awards
, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
Best Film Award
, and the Palme d'Or
at the Cannes Film Festival
.
Szpilman's son Andrzej
compiled and released a CD with the most popular songs Szpilman had composed under the title Wendy Lands Sings the Songs of the Pianist (Universal Music). Other CDs with the works of Szpilman include Works for Piano and Orchestra by Władysław Szpilman with Ewa Kupiec (piano), John Axelrod (director), and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
(2004) (Sony BMG) and the Original recordings of The Pianist and Władysław Szpilman—Legendary recordings (Sony classical).
on 6 July 2000 at the age of 88. He is buried at Powązki Military Cemetery
.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
-Jewish
History of the Jews in Poland
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...
pianist, composer, and memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
ist. Szpilman is widely known as the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
of the Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
film The Pianist
The Pianist (2002 film)
The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman...
, which is based on his memoir of the same name
The Pianist (memoir)
The Pianist is a memoir of the Polish musician of Jewish origins Władysław Szpilman, written and elaborated by a Polish author Jerzy Waldorff, who met Szpilman in 1938 in Krynica and became a friend of him...
recounting how he survived the Holocaust. In November 1998 Władysław Szpilman was honored by the president of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
with a Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta
Polonia Restituta
The Order of Polonia Restituta is one of Poland's highest Orders. The Order can be conferred for outstanding achievements in the fields of education, science, sport, culture, art, economics, defense of the country, social work, civil service, or for furthering good relations between countries...
.
Career as a pianist
Szpilman began his study of the piano at the Chopin School of Music in Warsaw, Poland then later went to the Academy of Arts in Berlin, Germany in 1931, where he studied with Leonid KreutzerLeonid Kreutzer
Leonid Kreutzer was a classical pianist.Kreutzer was born to a family of German Jewish parents. He was a highly influential piano teacher at the Berlin Academy of Music , together with Egon Petri...
. After Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, Szpilman returned to Warsaw where he quickly became a celebrated pianist and composer of both classical and popular music. Szpilman composed many pieces and soundtracks while touring Poland with his accompanying violinist, Bronislav Gimpel
Bronislav Gimpel
Bronislav Gimpel was a Polish-American violinist, and teacher. He was born in Lvov, Austria-Hungary, part of Polish Galicia , to a family of Jewish origin...
.
On 1 April 1935 he joined Polish Radio, where he worked as a pianist performing classical and jazz music, until the German invasion of Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
reached Warsaw in September 1939 and Polskie Radio was forced off the air. The Nazi-led
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
established ghettos in many Polish cities, including Warsaw. However, Szpilman and his family did not need to find a new residence since their flat was already in the ghetto area. He continued to work as a pianist in restaurants in the ghetto. Through his piano playing, he was able to earn barely enough to support the family of six (his father, his mother, his two sisters, one brother and himself).
Survival during the Holocaust
Wladyslaw Szpilman and his family, along with all other Jews living in Warsaw, were forced to move into a "Jewish District" known as the Warsaw GhettoWarsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
on 31 October 1940. Once all the Jews were confined within the ghetto, a wall was constructed to separate them from the rest of the city. Within the ghetto Szpilman had to work in order to support his family which included his mother, father, brother Henryk, and two sisters, Regina and Halina. He found work playing piano first in the Nowoczesna cafe, where the attendants did not pay his playing any attention. He later played in a cafe on Sienna Street and also the Sztuka Cafe on Leszno Street. In these last two cafes he met many new friends and performed with other musicians as well.
Life in the ghetto was straining on everyone, but especially the poor. People were already dying from starvation and lack of shelter, but there was also the threat of disease due to the unsanitary conditions. Lice were prevalent and served as vectors for Rickettsia prowazekii
Rickettsia prowazekii
Rickettsia prowazekii is a species of gram negative, Alpha Proteobacteria, obligate intracellular parasitic, aerobic bacteria that is the etiologic agent of epidemic typhus, transmitted in the feces of lice. In North America, the main reservoir for R. prowazekii is the flying squirrel. R...
, the bacterium responsible for epidemic typhus.
Everyone in his family was deported in 1942 to Treblinka, an extermination camp in the East. Szpilman managed to flee from the transport loading site (Umschlagplatz) with the help of a family acquaintance who grabbed him from the crowd and shooed him away from the waiting train. The acquaintance's name was Itzchak Heller, a Jewish policeman in the ghetto. None of Szpilman's family members survived the war. Szpilman was left in the ghetto as a laborer and helped smuggle in weapons for the coming Jewish resistance uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
. He avoided capture and death by the Germans several times. Szpilman remained in the Warsaw Ghetto until it was abolished after the deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
of most of its inhabitants and went into hiding.
As set out in his memoir, Szpilman found places to hide in Warsaw and survived with the help of his friends from Polish Radio and fellow musicians. In November 1944, Szpilman was hiding out in an abandoned building when he was found by a German officer. Surprisingly, the officer did not kill Szpilman, but instead after finding out that he was a pianist, asked Szpilman to play for him on a piano they had found. After that, the officer showed Szpilman a better place to hide and brought him bread and jam on numerous occasions. He also offered Szpilman one of his coats to keep warm in the freezing temperatures. Szpilman did not identify the German officer until 1950. His name was Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
Wilm Hosenfeld
Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld , originally a teacher, was a German Army officer who rose to the rank of Hauptmann by the end of the war. He helped to hide or rescue several Poles, including Jews, in Nazi-occupied Poland, and is perhaps most remembered for helping Polish-Jewish pianist and composer...
. Despite the efforts of Szpilman and the Poles to rescue Hosenfeld, he died in a Soviet Prisoner of War camp in 1952.
Polish Radio
Wladyslaw Szpilman started playing for Polish Radio in 1935 as their house pianist. In 1939, Szpilman was in the middle of broadcasting when German fire was opened on the studio and he was forced to stop playing. This was the last live music broadcast that was heard until the war's end. When Szpilman resumed his job at Polish Radio in 1945, he did so by carrying on where he left off six years before: poignantly, he opened the first transmission by playing Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minorNocturne Op. Posth. in C-sharp minor (Chopin)
Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., Lento con gran espressione, Op. P 1, No. 16, KKIVa/16, is a solo-piano piece composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1830....
(Lento con gran espressione), the same piece he was playing as the German bombs hit the studios of Polish Radio, interrupting its broadcast on 23 September 1939.
From 1945 to 1963 Szpilman was director of the Music Department at Polish Radio. During this period he composed several symphonic works and about 500 other compositions that are still popular in Poland today, as well as music for radio plays and films.
Compositions
Szpilman's compositions include the suite for piano "Life of the Machines" 1932, Violin Concerto 1933, "Waltzer in the Olden Style" 1937, Soundtracks "Swit, dzien i noc Palestyny" (1934) Wrzos (1937) and Dr. Murek (1939), Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (1940), Paraphrase on Own Themes (1948) "Ouverture for Symphonic Orchestra" (1968) and more.In the 1950s he wrote about 40 songs for children, for which he received an award from the Polish Composers Union in 1955.
From 1935 to 1972 he wrote about 500 popular songs. More than 100 of these are very well known as hits and evergreens in Poland.
In 1961 he initiated and organized Sopot International Song Festival
Sopot International Song Festival
The Sopot International Song Festival is an international song contest held in Sopot, Poland. It was the biggest Polish music festival altogether with the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole, and one of the biggest annual song contest in Europe...
in Poland and founded the Polish Union of Authors of Popular Music.
Szpilman also performed as a soloist and with violinists Bronislav Gimpel
Bronislav Gimpel
Bronislav Gimpel was a Polish-American violinist, and teacher. He was born in Lvov, Austria-Hungary, part of Polish Galicia , to a family of Jewish origin...
, Roman Totenberg
Roman Totenberg
Roman Totenberg is a Polish-American violinist and educator.He is the father of National Public Radio journalist Nina Totenberg...
, Ida Haendel
Ida Haendel
Ida Haendel, CBE is a British violinist of Polish birth.- Career :Ida Haendel was born in Chełm, a small city in Eastern Poland. She took up the violin at the age of three and as a seven-year-old was admitted at the Warsaw Conservatory. She later studied with Carl Flesch and George Enescu in Paris...
and Henryk Szeryng
Henryk Szeryng
Henryk Szeryng was a Polish violinist.-Early years:He was born in Żelazowa Wola, Poland on 22 September 1918 into a wealthy family....
. In 1963, Szpilman and Gimpel founded the Warsaw Piano Quintet, with which Szpilman performed worldwide until 1986.
Memoirs
In 1945, shortly after the war’s end, Szpilman wrote a memoirMemoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
about his survival in Warsaw. He published the book, Śmierć Miasta (Death of a City), soon suppressed by the Stalinist Polish authorities. Following the de-Stalinization
De-Stalinization
De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...
period of the 1950s, the book was published and printed to a greater extent. Few copies of the book were printed initially, and the nationality of Wilm Hosenfeld
Wilm Hosenfeld
Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld , originally a teacher, was a German Army officer who rose to the rank of Hauptmann by the end of the war. He helped to hide or rescue several Poles, including Jews, in Nazi-occupied Poland, and is perhaps most remembered for helping Polish-Jewish pianist and composer...
was changed to Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
.
Andrzej Szpilman
Andrzej Szpilman is a dentist, composer, music producer, publisher, and son of the famous pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman....
republished his father’s work, first in German as Das wunderbare Überleben (The miraculous survival) by the Ullstein Verlag, a major German publishing house, and then in English as The Pianist
The Pianist (memoir)
The Pianist is a memoir of the Polish musician of Jewish origins Władysław Szpilman, written and elaborated by a Polish author Jerzy Waldorff, who met Szpilman in 1938 in Krynica and became a friend of him...
. In March 1999 Władysław Szpilman visited London for Jewish Book Week, where he met English readers to mark the publication of his bestselling book in England. It was later published in more than 30 languages. In 2002, Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
directed a screen version, also called The Pianist
The Pianist (2002 film)
The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman...
, but Szpilman died before the film was completed. The movie won three Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
Best Film Award
BAFTA Award for Best Film
This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
, and the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
.
Szpilman's son Andrzej
Andrzej Szpilman
Andrzej Szpilman is a dentist, composer, music producer, publisher, and son of the famous pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman....
compiled and released a CD with the most popular songs Szpilman had composed under the title Wendy Lands Sings the Songs of the Pianist (Universal Music). Other CDs with the works of Szpilman include Works for Piano and Orchestra by Władysław Szpilman with Ewa Kupiec (piano), John Axelrod (director), and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (East Berlin)
The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In Berlin, the orchestra gives concerts at theKonzerthaus Berlin and at the Berliner Philharmonie...
(2004) (Sony BMG) and the Original recordings of The Pianist and Władysław Szpilman—Legendary recordings (Sony classical).
Death
Władysław Szpilman died in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
on 6 July 2000 at the age of 88. He is buried at Powązki Military Cemetery
Powązki Military Cemetery
Powązki Military Cemetery is an old military cemetery located in the Wola district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. The cemetery is often confused with the older Powązki Cemetery, known colloquially as "Old Powązki"...
.
See also
- The Pianist (memoir)The Pianist (memoir)The Pianist is a memoir of the Polish musician of Jewish origins Władysław Szpilman, written and elaborated by a Polish author Jerzy Waldorff, who met Szpilman in 1938 in Krynica and became a friend of him...
- The Pianist (film)The Pianist (2002 film)The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman...
- Andrzej SzpilmanAndrzej SzpilmanAndrzej Szpilman is a dentist, composer, music producer, publisher, and son of the famous pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman....
- 9973 Szpilman9973 Szpilman9973 Szpilman is a main belt asteroid. It orbits the Sun once every 4.03 years.Discovered on July 12, 1993 by E. W. Elst working at the European Southern Observatory, it was given the provisional designation . It was later renamed "Szpilman" after Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish pianist.- References :...
(main belt asteroid) - Death of A City (Book)