Born in 1941, Wladyslaw Szpilman was a rising star in Poland’s music scene. He was playing Chopin live on Polish radio when the Nazis bombed Warsaw. Being a Jew, Szpilman’s life was shattered overnight. He and his family were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1942, his entire family was deported to Treblinka. He never saw them again.

Szpilman escaped. He hid for years in the ruins of Warsaw – starving, freezing, all alone. He had one thing left: music. A German officer found him in hiding and asked him to play a piece. Szpilman played a work by Frederic Chopin which lasted about nine minutes. It was probably the longest nine minutes of his life.

In a remarkable twist of fate, the officer let Szpilman live. Szpilman lived to tell his remarkable story in his memoir which became the Oscar-winning film, The Pianist (2002). The piece of music that saved Szpilman’s life is Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, composed when Chopin was just 26 years old. It is a complex work for solo piano that evokes a range of sentiments, from tumultuous turmoil to moments of tenderness.

Here is a clip from The Pianist showing the scene when Szpilman (played by Adrian Brody) played the song that saved his life.