A Yad Vashem committee reached a controversial decision to posthumously recognize German army officer Wilm Hosenfeld as a Righteous Gentile for saving the life of Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman.
Hosenfeld was recruited into the German army shortly before the war broke out. At first he was assigned to a city in Poland and was transferred to Warsaw in 1940. He spent most of his time in service as a sports and culture officer and was promoted from sergeant to captain. During the Polish revolt in the summer of 1944, he was assigned to interrogating captives. He was known to have been involved in interrogating Jews as well during the period of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but an inquiry by Yad Vashem revealed that he did cause the death of any of the people he interrogated.
After the war he was tried by the Soviets and sentenced to life imprisonment. Despite efforts by Poles and Jews he had saved to intervene on his behalf, the Soviets refused to believe he did not carry out war crimes. Eventually his sentence was reduced to 25 years, but he died in prison in 1952.
According to a report in Ha'aretz, some Holocaust survivors criticized Yad Vashem's decision, saying that Hosenfeld's deeds cannot be compared to others who were honored as Righteous Gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews. They claim Hosenfeld showed fundamental human decency, but that does not merit the title. Irena Steinfeld, director of the Righteous Gentiles Department at Yad Vashem, replied that Hosenfeld's selection was initiated by two Jews he saved and it met the criteria.
