I Only See the Person in Front of Me

Nearly 70 years after his death, Wilm Hosenfeld stands today as a shining example of humanity and kindness. In the darkest moments of World War II, he strove to help suffering people, including the Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman.

A German army captain, Hosenfeld initially welcomed Adolf Hitler and the rise of the Nazi Party. But while stationed in Poland during the war, he witnessed the savage treatment the Nazis imposed on people who were Jewish, Polish, Russian, etc. Hosenfeld’s moral conscience led him to reject this brutality and become a rescuer, often at the risk of his own life.

Wilm Hosenfeld’s heroism was not known outside of Poland until Szpilman’s bestselling memoir The Pianist revealed an amazing man whose compassion saved more than 60 people from the Nazis’ clutches. (Hosenfeld, unnamed, appears in a short scene in the Academy Award-winning film of the same name.) In 2007, Hosenfeld was posthumously awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of Poland’s highest honors. One year later, Yad Vashem named him a “Righteous Among the Nations.” A story of courageous transformation, I Only See the Person in Front of Me is the first comprehensive biography of Wilm Hosenfeld available in English.