Poles Who Helped Szpilman

Poles That Helped Szpilman

Immediately after the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto, Władysław Szpilman, a famous Jewish composer and pianist, was interned in it. When the January 1943 Uprising took place, Szpilman was in his workplace outside the ghetto together with a group of Jewish workers. The German policemen who guarded the group allowed one of the workers into town to purchase food for the others. Szpilman, taking advantage of this arrangement, asked the worker to inform his actor friend, Andrzej Bogucki, and his wife, the singer Janina Bogucka (née Godlewska), of his situation. His friends did not let him down. On February 13, 1943, Bogucki turned up at Szpilman’s workplace and took him to an apartment of common acquaintances, where his wife, Janina, was waiting for them. The Boguckis looked after Szpilman for about two weeks, after which he moved into a bachelor’s apartment belonging to Czesław Lewicki, a former composer with the Warsaw radio, where he stayed for about five months. After he was betrayed by neighbors, Szpilman was forced to find a new hiding place. He survived the Warsaw Uprising, and was liberated by the Soviet Army in January 1945. Szpilman considered Andrzej and Janina Bogucki, as well as Czesław Lewicki, as his saviors, who, guided by a true friendship that triumphed over adversity, had risked their lives to save his.

On May 23, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Janina and Andrzej Bogucki and Czesław Lewicki as Righteous Among the Nations.

Source: https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous/4014008