Wilhelm Hosenfeld

Wilhelm Hosenfeld was a German army captain stationed in Warsaw who, despite serving in the Wehrmacht, worked covertly to help Polish Jews and Polish soldiers. He hid Poles in German buildings, helped Jewish people escape the ghetto (including pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who later wrote The Pianist, the book and film). Hosenfeld used his position to save people — issuing false documents, smuggling food, warning resistance fighters of raids. After the war, the Soviets captured him and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. He died in a Soviet prison camp in 1952. Szpilman tried to get him released but was unable. Hosenfeld's final act was writing in his diary: I am guilty. I am part of a people that has committed crimes we can never forgive.