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Talk:Władysław Szpilman

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Absolute fact?

[edit]

"Szpilman's survival is credited in part to Wilm Hosenfeld, a German captain who had grown ashamed of his country's Nazi policies. Hosenfeld discovered Szpilman when the latter was searching for something to eat. Hosenfeld asked Szpilman who he was and demanded proof that he was a pianist, leading him to an old piano. At this point, Szpilman had not touched a piano for two and a half years, yet out of fear for his life he played Chopin's Ballade No.1 in G minor, op. 23. Hosenfeld provided Szpilman with food and army clothes to keep him from freezing to death when the Germans evacuated Warsaw. When the Soviet Union's Red Army captured Warsaw and Szpilman went out to greet his rescuers, he was shot at and nearly killed. He called out "I'm Polish!" to the soldiers. When they asked why he was wearing a German officer's coat, he answered, "I was cold." Hosenfeld later died in Soviet captivity."

This sounds exactly like in the film. Can anyone confirm please, especially the quotes...