Cicha Noc. Piosenka Walc. [Silent Night. Waltz Song.]

Władysław "Władek" Szpilman (1911-2000) was a Polish-Jewish pianist, composer and memoirist. He is renowned by Roman Polanski's film "The Pianist" which is based on his memoirs, recounting how he survived the Holocaust.

Szpilman studied as a pianist in Warsaw and Berlin between 1926-1933. He made his first stage debut in 1932 and started composing popular music in 1935. He was working for the Polish radio until the outbreak of World War II. Szpilman got imprison in the Warsaw ghetto in 1940 where he played in its cafes and concert halls to support his family. In 1943 he managed to escape from the ghetto and he was hiding until the last months of 1944 when he was discovered by a Wehrmacht officer, Captain Wilhelm Hosenfeld who helped him to find better places to hide and provided him with food and cloth. After the end of the war Szpilman wrote his memoir about his survival and published it in 1946 under the title "Śmierć Miasta" (Death of a City). It was published again in 1998 in many countries with variant title "Pianista" (The Pianist) and it was adapted to screen in 2002 by Roman Polanski.

Szpilman is also famous for his popular songs, he composed approximately 500 of such songs and 150 became hits, among them the tango "Dziewczyno" (Girl) and one of the most well known hits the "Chica noc" (The Silent Night).

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