‘The Pianist’ accused of Nazi collaborations

5th November 2010

The son of Wladyslaw Szpilman, the Jewish musician whose story of Holocaust survival was immortalised in Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning film ‘The Pianist’, has threatened to sue the publisher of a book that claims his father was a Nazi collaborator.

In a letter to the publishers Andrzej Szpilman’s lawyers have demanded an apology, that the book should be recalled and sections allegedly defaming his father’s name cut.

Written by journalist Agata Tuszynska, the book covers the life of Wiera Gran, a Polish Jewish singer, who, like Mr Szpilman senior, was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto during the years of Nazi occupation.

It claims that Gran, who died in 2007, saw Szpilman he ...