On the 23rd September 1939, the last live broadcast on Polish radio came from a young pianist named Wladyslaw Szpilman. German shelling put a stop to the transmission. The Pianist is Szpilman's best-selling account of his war years, his survival against all odds. Whilst his family was deported to Treblinka and exterminated, Szpilman escaped, thanks to a music loving policeman who recognised him. This was only the first in a series of lucky escapes that littered his life as he hid among the rubble and corpses of the Warsaw Ghetto. The most remarkable was the rescue that came at the hands of a German officer, Wilm Hosenfeld, who brought food to Szpilman's derelict hideout. Hosenfeld died in a Stalingrad labour camp but portions of his diary survived, telling of his outrage at the madness and evil he witnessed.