serviceyears death_place death_date birth_place allegiance px|caption unit awards battles birth_date rank image article_title name
1914 -- 1917,1939 -- 1945 stalingrad , russian sfsr , soviet union 13 august 1952 mackenzell , hesse-nassau , prussia , german empire german empire german empire nazi germany captain wilm hosenfeld wach-bataillon -lrb- guard battalion -rrb- 660 iron merit cross 2nd class with swords cross of honour sa cross sport badge order of polonia restituta second class wound badge in black war world war i world war ii 2 may 1895 captain wilmhosenfield.jpg wilm hosenfeld
 wilm hosenfeld
wilm hosenfeld

wilhelm adalbert hosenfeld -lrb- ; 2 may 1895 -- 13 august 1952 -rrb- , originally a schoolteacher , was a german army officer who by the end of the second world war had risen to the rank of `` hauptmann '' -lrb- captain -rrb- .
he helped to hide or rescue several polish people , including jews , in nazi-occupied poland , and helped polish-jewish pianist and composer władysław szpilman to survive , hidden , in the ruins of warsaw during the last months of 1944 .
he was taken prisoner by the red army and died in soviet captivity seven years later .
in june 2009 , hosenfeld was posthumously recognized in yad veshem -lrb- israel 's official memorial to the victims of the holocaust -rrb- as one of the righteous among the nations .
