Andrzej Szpilman, son of Wladyslaw Szpilman, made famous by Roman Polanski’s movie The Pianist, says that allegations his father collaborated with Nazis during WW 2 occupied Poland are delusions “made into fact by the media”.
Andrzej Szpilman is retaliating to allegations made in a new biography of war-time singer Wiera Gran written by Agata Tuszynska, in which the memory of Wladyslaw Szpilman is infringed upon in a “scandalous way,” says Andrzej Szpilman, who is determined to defend the reputation of his late father, a popular composer and pianist.
The biography of Wiera Gran contains quotations from the war-time singer, who performed in the Warsaw Ghetto and was herself accused of collaborating with the Nazi regime after the war.
The biography alleges that Wladyslaw Szpilman was a policeman in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II and helped the Nazi occupiers round up Jews to the Umschlagplatz, from where they were transported to the Treblinka death camp.
“These are just delusory comments of an ill woman which have been turned into facts by the media,” Andrzej Szpilman told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
“My father was never a policeman in the Ghetto. He was a prisoner in the Ghetto. The whole family on my father’s side was murdered, and he himself miraculously avoided death,” the son of Wladyslaw Szpilman stated.
“I find the advertising campaign of the publishing house [Wydawnictwo Literackie, which published the biography] outrageous,” Andrzej Szpilman underlines.
“[The campaign] entices readers with the promise that the book presents a history as yet unknown about the life Wladyslaw Szpilman, which simultaneously presents lies and is libellous,” he adds.
Defamation
“In order to make the book more presentable to the reader, by quoting it and copying its scandalous statements about Wladyslaw Szpilman, [the publishing house] is party to defamatory promotion. The attack on Wladyslaw Szpilman in such a way tries to prove that Jews harmed themselves during the war, and that the role of the Nazis was merely auxiliary. In this way, [the book] creates a false image of Nazi crimes, which in turn affects the public perception of the most important matters of World War II,” Andrzej Szpilman states.
Wladyslaw Szpilman and Weronika Grynberg; photos: east news
“Wladyslaw Szpilman never worked for the police in the Ghetto. He also never co-operated with the Gestapo. My father never would have received any help from the Zegota Polish underground organisation that helped save Jews during the war if any doubt would have been cast on his past history in the Ghetto.
Libel trial
The biography also makes allegations that Wladyslaw Szpilman collaborated with communist secret services after World War II in Poland – allegations his son also totally rejects.
“After the war my father never knowingly took part in any ‘operational talks’ with functionaries of the UB communist intelligence. According to the files at the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Szpilman was interrogated and persecuted by the communist security services. He published his memoirs, when around 27,000 Ghetto survivors still lived in Poland. Every one of them was a potential witness of my father’s behaviour during the Nazi occupation. Later, after the global success of The Pianist, if there would have been any grounds [for misconduct], there would have been a storm of protests,” the son of Wladyslaw Szpilman maintains.
In his statement, Andrzej Szpilman says that after searching though all the available archives in Warsaw, he found no proof that would confirm the allegations made by singer Wiera Gran. Szpilman believes that maybe she wanted to throw the weight of her own guilt about her collaboration onto others.
Andrzej Szpilman refers to a statement made in April 1983 by Irena Sendler - the Pole who saved 2,500 Jewish children during WW II - to the Jewish Historical Institute for a book it was preparing on Polish Jews, in which she says that: “Wiera Gran, a cabaret actress who also performed on the so-called Aryan side in the German ‘Mocca’ café on Marszalkowska Street, worked for the Gestapo alongside Leon Skosowski. […] It hurt me a great deal that among the list of great people of the Jewish Nation, Wiera Gran was among them – a criminal, who sold out her own people,” adding that the singer lost a case to clear her name in a court case in Israel.
“[Biographer] Agata Tuszynska misses out whole reams of information that pertain to this matter, as well as readily available materials from the Jewish Historical Institute. I have heard from many sources in Paris [where Wiera Gran eventually moved] that after the year 2000 she succumbed to Alzheimer’s. One cannot take statements made by people [with the disease] seriously. I will demand to be able to listen to the recordings of the interview between Tuszynska and Gran in court, and above all we shall see whether such tapes exist, because their credibility will allow to discern the real motives of the author,” Szpilman concludes.
The Pianist
Wladyslaw Szpilman was an all-round musician – a pianist performing both solo and in chamber ensembles, as well as the composer of symphonic pieces and popular songs. He first studied the piano in Warsaw and Berlin, and worked at Polish Radio for four years until the outbreak of war.
He miraculously avoided capture by the Nazis. In the final months of the war, he found shelter in the ruins of Warsaw and survived thanks to the help from his friends and a German Army officer, Wilm Hosenfelt.
After the war, he resumed his professional contacts with Polish Radio, serving as director of its Music Department for 18 years. He then founded the Warsaw Piano Quintet, which toured around the world for more than two decades. His compositional output includes around 500 songs and several symphonic works which have remained in the concert repertoire till today. (jb/pg/mk)