Czesław Lewicki

Czesław Lewicki (26 April 1906 – 16 March 1979) was a Polish composer. He has been recognized as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations for his efforts to rescue the Polish-Jewish composer Władysław Szpilman during the Holocaust in Poland.

Biography

Before the war Lewicki was born in Mołczany on 26 April 1906. In 1935 he graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory, where he studied under .

From 1935 to 1938 he worked in Wilno (today Vilnius, Lithuania) as an orchestra conductor and lecturer at Karłowicz's Wilno Conservatory (Konserwatorium Wileńskie im. Karłowicza), as well as an conductor of the symphony orchestra of the Council of Artistic Associations (Rada Zrzeszeń Artystycznych) and the Vilnius Symphony Orchestra (Wileńskia Orkiestra Symfoniczna). Lewicki regularly visited the apartment, bringing food and other necessities for Szpilman.

Lewicki was also active in the Polish resistance (Armia Krajowa) and became wanted by Gestapo. He carried a suicide pill in his teeth. In June he advised Szpilman to leave the apartment due to fear that Germans might come looking for him in that apartment (Szpilman chose to stay there until the situation forced him to leave it on 12 August). although another source states that Lewicki did not get married until after the war.

In 1944 Lewicki participated in the Warsaw Uprising.

In the 2002 movie The Pianist, some of Lewicki's story was merged into that of the character Marek Gębczyński.

Lewicki died on 16 March 1979 in Warsaw.