(1895-05-02)2 May 1895 Hünfeld, Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, German Empire
Died
13 August 1952(1952-08-13) (aged 57) Stalingrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Allegiance
German Empire Nazi Germany
Branch
Imperial German Army German Army
Years of service
1914–1917 1939–1945
Rank
Hauptmann
Unit
Guard Battalion 660
Battles/wars
World War I
Eastern Front (WIA)
World War II
Eastern Front (POW)
Awards
Order of Polonia Restituta (posthumous) Righteous Among the Nations Iron Cross
Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld (German pronunciation:[ˈvɪl(hɛl)mˈhoːzənfɛlt]; 2 May 1895 – 13 August 1952), originally a school teacher, was a German Army officer who by the end of the Second World War had risen to the rank of Hauptmann (captain). He helped to hide or rescue several Polish people, including Jews, in Nazi-German occupied Poland, and helped Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman to survive, hidden, in the ruins of Warsaw during the last months of 1944, an act which was portrayed in the 2002 film The Pianist. He was taken prisoner by the Red Army and died in Soviet captivity in 1952.
In October 2007, Hosenfeld was posthumously honoured by the president of Poland Lech Kaczyński with a Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In June 2009, Hosenfeld was posthumously recognized in Yad Vashem (Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust) as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
from Hosenfeld's diary, and an epilogue in the form of an essay by Wolf Biermann. WilmHosenfeld, A Man Of courage – The story of WilmHosenfeld Comment...
include Lieutenant Hans von Witzland in Stalingrad (1993), Hauptmann WilmHosenfeld in The Pianist (2002), Hermann Fegelein in Downfall (2004), Captain...
000 1.71 Belarus 676 5,568,994 12.14 Germany 641 Oskar Schindler, WilmHosenfeld, Hans von Dohnanyi, Bernhard Lichtenberg, Gustav Schröder, Karl Plagge...
Zigahl (1885–1955), politician Anton Storch (1892–1975), politician WilmHosenfeld (1895–1952), officer and Righteous Among the Nations Paul Deichmann...
Erich Honecker (1912–1994), KPD Hans Hornberger [de] (d. 1944), KPD WilmHosenfeld (1895–1952), Nazi Captain who hid and rescued many Polish people, including...
Brian Horrocks – British WW2 general, WWI POW in Germany and Russia WilmHosenfeld – Soviet POW in WWII, most remembered for saving the life of Polish...
of the local military command, and placed them under his protection. WilmHosenfeld – an army captain in Warsaw – helped, hid, or rescued several Poles...
exceptions, the best known being that of Szpilman's encounter with WilmHosenfeld, a captain of the Wehrmacht who helped to hide and feed him. In a few...
dissidents. Yet other Germans, like Oskar Schindler and Wehrmacht Captain WilmHosenfeld, used the outward appearance of conformity as a shield for the rescue...
the most famous German POWs to die in Soviet captivity was Captain WilmHosenfeld, who died of injuries, sustained possibly under torture,[citation needed]...
Marianne Golz Jane Haining Helen of Greece and Denmark Feng-Shan Ho WilmHosenfeld Constantin Karadja Jan Karski Derviš Korkut Valdemar Langlet Carl Lutz...
Marianne Golz Jane Haining Helen of Greece and Denmark Feng-Shan Ho WilmHosenfeld Constantin Karadja Jan Karski Derviš Korkut Valdemar Langlet Carl Lutz...
Schröder who commanded the "Voyage of the Damned"; Wehrmacht officers WilmHosenfeld, Heinz Drossel, Karl Plagge, and Albert Battel; resistance fighter Hans...
Higuchi – Japanese lieutenant general who saved 20,000 Jewish refugees. WilmHosenfeld – German officer who helped pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew...
Marianne Golz Jane Haining Helen of Greece and Denmark Feng-Shan Ho WilmHosenfeld Constantin Karadja Jan Karski Derviš Korkut Valdemar Langlet Carl Lutz...
Cross) William Holmes — British general (Commander's Cross with Star) WilmHosenfeld — German officer (Commander's Cross) Norman Hulbert — British officer...
12 August - Richard Otto, German physician (born 1872) 13 August - WilmHosenfeld, officer (born 1895) 18 December - Ernst Stromer, German paleontologist...
Marianne Golz Jane Haining Helen of Greece and Denmark Feng-Shan Ho WilmHosenfeld Constantin Karadja Jan Karski Derviš Korkut Valdemar Langlet Carl Lutz...
Marianne Golz Jane Haining Helen of Greece and Denmark Feng-Shan Ho WilmHosenfeld Constantin Karadja Jan Karski Derviš Korkut Valdemar Langlet Carl Lutz...
Marianne Golz Jane Haining Helen of Greece and Denmark Feng-Shan Ho WilmHosenfeld Constantin Karadja Jan Karski Derviš Korkut Valdemar Langlet Carl Lutz...
Global Information
German Empire
Nazi Germany
Imperial German Army
German Army