@@SonyaBladesBootyWehrmacht was the German Army, consisted of regular men who wanted to serve their country for better or for worse. SS were the nutjobs who believed every single word of Nazi ideology and propaganda.
Szpilman. Which in german sounds like Spiel mann, which translates to English: "Play Man". Hence, it is a good name for a pianist or musician in general.
@@commadogsbrother I don´t think so. Spielmann is also an old term for troubadour in german. A man who travels and plays instruments or conducts in acrobatics to entertain crowds of people.
@@fritzy.I’m sorry but this is objectively not true, it is a myth made by those who sought to scurry away from their complicity like the cowards they were. The Wehrmacht and its leadership were some of the main driving forces behind the worst atrocities of the war. 45% of the deaths in the holocaust were by bullet, and they all benefitted from slave labor and mass extermination. They stole and pillaged and worse because of how dysfunctional their economy and logistics were. You can be a good individual, sure, but fascism is so odious and anti human that you sign a death sentence once you pledge allegiance to it. The goodness of the individual cannot over come that extreme evil, and unfortunately that ideology can only be smashed through unyielding and overwhelming force for the sake of all of humanity.
The German officer who helped the pianist was Captain Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld. He helped to hide and rescue several Polish people, including Jews, in Nazi-German occupied Poland. He was captured by Soviet army at the end of the war and was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor for alleged war crimes, just on account of his unit affiliation. He wrote a letter to his wife stating the name of Jews who he had helped during the war. The Pianist (Spilzmann) tried to rescue him but it was too late as the captain was already taken to Soviet Union for forced labour (Soviet army were so cruel and filled with a rage to revenge, so they wouldn't listen to anyone trying to release a captive German soldier). Sadly, he died in Soviet prison camp on 13 August 1952, from a rupture of the thoracic aorta, possibly sustained during torture.
Lol the same people who cry about all russians being war criminals 😂 Alleged german warcrimes. Soviets lost 27 mln people. You should thank us there are germans still in existence.
God the Second World War was such a horrifying and cataclysmic event. Between extermination camps, starvation, imprisonment, and combat, all on a global scale. It must be insane to actually survive it.
Even in he looked harder it was pretty much impossible to get him out of gulag Szpilman would have to personally know some pretty high ranking Polish or Soviet politicians or army generals/marshals and even that would probably not be enough to get out a German Officer out of Siberia during Stalin's reign
he did try, other jews did too as szpilman wasn't the only one he saved but it was all for nought. the soviets didn't give a shit, there was no such thing as a good german soldier in their eyes. ok, hosenfeld helped a few jews but he also fought against soviets and was apparently involved in espionage against them. in their eyes he was their enemy, plain and simple as that.
My great grandfather did the same for almost 15 Jewish people before he was found out and executed by one of his superior officers in the German Army. I still have his diaries today that I like to browse his entries a few times a year.
@@jacoboreyes3160 I’m in the process of creating a short story about him with more to come later on. I’m not the best writer but I will try. Might take me a while before I post but you’ll be one of the first few to know.
I do not usually comment, but do what you can to get your Great Grandfather's story out there. Quite sad - but inspirational at the same time. He knew he was risking his life - but made the decision to help despite the costs. Quite heroic in my book, my friend. Quite a legacy. Godspeed to you and your family.
Lmao ignorant comments below. Here's how you differentiate between SS and Wehrmacht troops in WW2. Look at the collar. See the bars on his collar? Those are what they call Kragenpatte or collar patch. The Shutzstaffel however had black square collar ranks with clearly defined SS insiginia on their right collar and then their rank signified by sqaure pins and white lines on their left collar. Google SS ranks and you'll see what I mean. Learn history people...
You're talking to Americans. They don't know even the barely over 100 years of their own history, let alone the world's. They don't even remember how their last cheeseburger tasted. And it was 30 minutes ago.
@@rodrigovaccari7547 no.. if you think that German treatment of soviet POWs was terrible then get to know how it looked like in Soviet Russia. Soviet POWs were dying faster but Germans were tortured for years in the colddest regions of Russia.
@@ausername7470wiki says he was in Guard Battalion 660 whitch was the guard unit of the Polish capital city of Warsaw and he was the battalion sports officer and was personality responsible for sport activities at the Warsaw army stadium basically just a regular army battalion stationed to look after civilians/pow's and occupied territories, this captain through being disolutioned by the nazi party sought to help the Polish people and some jews he met along the way.
Well in 45 several SS officers helped Jews - because they hoped they could avoid trial. Don’t know if there maybe were 2 or 3 honest people amongst them, but in reality they were at least indoctrinated enough to hate Jews no matter if they hated them on a „nationalist“ level or the combination antisemitism and racism. Eichmann btw, and most important his adjutant are examples for Nazi officials who also tried it - they kept “negotiating” with an Jewish association helping Jewish refugees to flee from Nazi held territory. They also exchanged quite a few Jewish prisoners against dollars and hoped guarantees would be given. The prisoners they exchanged should testify that he helped them. These prisoners were mostly from smaller Zwischenlager - don’t know the English equivalent, it’s a smaller camp to collect the deported Jews from occupied territories and from where they were sent to the several CCs and DCs - the reason was simple they hadn’t seen the brutality of the CCs and therefore couldn’t tell anything about it (it was during the operational beginning of the so called final solution). I don’t know if Eichmann ever really thought they would help him - he was pathetic but not dumb. If I remember correctly, he even mentioned it during the trial against him - he knew he would be killed, so apart of the mentioning he mostly talked like the SS official he was and used phrases to harm witnesses on a psychological level.
Check out Edward Lubusch an SS officer who worked at Auschwitz concentration camp. He helped many people in there. He even helped people escape risking his life.
''And remember, when the russians arrive, take the coat off, they might think you're part of the German Army and try to blow you into pieces or something'' - no one
Reading the comments...how is possible that people in 2024 don't know the difference between Wermacht and SS. Or even between Waffen SS, Totenkopf SS, Allgemeine SS.
It’s Sad but there are people in 2024 who can’t point to the United States on a map . you think they’re gonna know the idiosyncrasies of a foreign army From 80 years ago?
Honest question, are you taught that in school? Because here you obviously learn about WW II, but those details get lost in the big picture. Unless you search about it out of your own curiosity, you'd never know the difference in Chile, at least.
My neighbor was a WWII Ranger, his best friend was a German paratrooper. When my grandpa passed away his friend followed a month after. The Party were monsters, the men had minds of their own.
It's sad for what happened to him after the war. He was one of those guys that just didnt make it out at the right time. Rip to the officer and the pianist.
Thats what a mad leader can create to the common man of a country...... Dear countryman..be wise in choosing your leader amd never ever fear to raise your voice if u see any injustice to happening to u..your neighbour...even to your enemy...coz that same will happen to you and no one will be left to raise voice😢
@@azuaraikrezeul1677hes a soldier? It's so stupid how people shit on the nazis that fought on the front line. They had nothing to do with the death camps, the massacres and random killing of Jews. If you were in a war and your job was to defend a point would you not try?
@@Vaxiious the hell were they defending? they invaded russia you expect russians to welcome them with open arms? now you complain that russiams murdered innocent german soldiers? no german soldier was innocent in russia.the russians gave them 10 fold for what they did to them.
@@azuaraikrezeul1677Russians allegedly tortured him to death even though he was a lawful combatant who went above and beyond to hide and help the jewish population. His imprisonment and death is a war crime, the likes of which was all too common in the Soviet Union.
Это христианский поступок, кто умер за други своя. О них Иисус упоминает в знаменитой нагорной проповеди, что такие люди будут Блаженны в Царствии небесном вместе с Христом😊😊😊❤❤❤
Wilm Hosenfeld. Died in 1957 of internal bleeding in a gulag after being captured and tortured by the soviets. And they even tried to save him but the Soviet’s didn’t let them. Sad.
C'est triste qu'on parle de toutes les horreurs qui on eu lieu pendant la seconde guerre mondiale mais pas de celles qui ont suivies. Toutes les purges qui ont suivies auront laisser bien plus de morts que le gens ne le réalisent😢
In reality Hosenfeld helped multiple Jews and Polish as did some of his fellow Wehrmacht officers. They had been helping them for a while even before the Russians were coming. Remember Werhmacht is not SS
@@TheFunnyDictator Apparently from what I can tell Wehrmacht officer Hosenfeld was indeed a good man who genuinely wanted to help the suffering Poles and Jews.
@@TheFunnyDictator Good question. Maybe he was brainwashed into believing that Nazis were the good guys, as a lot of Germans were. Wanted to make a difference by joining the army, only to realize his superiors are in fact monsters, but i may be mistaken.
@@HAPPYFUNTIMEx2Certainly followed the natzee orders well enough, even if the order was about burning down villages and killing all the inhabitants for example.
During the war, Poles saved many Jews, Polish citizens and the rest. Poland was the only country in Europe that welcomed Jews with open arms after World War I. That's why Hitler, among other things, attacked Poland as the first country. But we don't talk about it because why? Half of the Jews were born in Poland and are actually Poles.
@@j.c4007 tell me, what’s the average weight gain of prisoners in Guantanamo? Answer: 20 lbs. What’s the average weight gain of the prisoners in the Gulag? I’ll let you research 😂. Even our worst prisons are hotels compared to…
Obviously USA, but the war was not fought on US territory and they didn’t lose 25 mil people. The Soviets barely had food to feed themselves, let a lone to feed a labor force of millions of German pow’s. You gotta put it in context. If this had happened on US soil, situation would have been much different.
not necessarily. SS officers only wore black when in police duty, they wore grey in combat tours. The main difference is the SS have the letters SS written on the right collar.
Later Soviet polish soldiers want shot he because he wear Wavven SS uniform Coat very funny he cold he say because polish soldier ask Why he wearing germán officer Coat??
Es gab auch gute Deutsche Landsmänner laut diesen Film....ich bin der Meinung das wir Deutsche uns nix mehr vorwerfen können außer beten das Vaterstaat uns nicht zu Grunde wirtschaftet....ich kann nichts dafür hier geboren zu sein😢 Deutschland meine Heimat
So messed up that captain Hosenfeld died in a Russian “POW” camp after all he risked, all he did, he died in a Russian jail because the Russians refused to let him go even after he explained to them what he had done, they wouldn’t verify the story.
people get this scene wrong this is not done out of german officers good will the point of this was to illustrate the germans would do anything to escape punishment its one of my favorite arcs for this
