From a thoughtful friend:

Dear Rowland

I love these kind of intelligent conversations – one of the reasons why I have so far enjoyed your “talks”!

Might I add FYI also. The director of this film, Roman Polanski was himself a victim of the Holocaust (as were most of his family, the vast majority of whom perished). Many film critics believe this offering to be partly autobiographical and suggest that he is using Szpilman’s life experience as an opportunity to speak of the horror of the Holocaust from the position of a survivor, without actually having to personally divulge his own specific trauma which he repeatedly declines to do. Vicarious living so to speak. This provides a possible explanation for the lack of credit given to Hosenfeld’s faith as the motivational tool for his actions because there is some suggestion that the film is deliberately representational only, rather than historically perfect. How accurate that opinion is remains a matter for debate. In addition, any viewing of Polanski’s work more broadly would suggest he is a man who appears more repelled from God than drawn to him as a result of his horrific life experience. Perhaps this also offers a reasoning for the lack of credit given to Hosenfeld’s true faith.

All that additional perspective taken into account, I do concur that the misrepresentation creates a false sense of the truth of Hosenfeld as person. This is at least undesirable in a work of historical film-making and at worst a deliberate altering of fact to skew the audiences’ view of historical events.

I just like to have a context into which to place my critique in order to be balanced and fair before drawing a final conclusion.

Cheers! Tiffany