Anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Hollender

101 years ago, Wilhelm Hollender, producer of many well-known films from the 1970s and 1980s, who worked with Jerzy Hoffman and Agnieszka Holland, among others, was born in Czarny Dunajec. His father Chaim (Henryk) Holländer had two ironmonger's and agricultural goods shops in the market square in Czarny Dunajec, and was also a town councillor from 1919. Entries from the birth book of his sister and brother Wilhelm, who was called Wilek in his youth, have been preserved in the archives. His older brother Poldek (Leopold) was born in 1911 (birth book entry pictured) and his sister Chaja Soshe in 1920.

In the accounts of local people who described the pre-war Czarny Dunajec, it was reported that Holländer's son had a girlfriend, Alfreda, daughter of the butcher Chaim Bachner. Wilek and Frieda had been a couple before the war (she was a year older than him), but the turmoil of war separated them. On the day the war broke out, he was 17 and she was 18.

They both survived the Holocaust, but their fates took completely different courses. Alfreda survived Auschwitz and immediately after the war moved with her husband to Germany, where she died at the age of 99 (her story is described, but so far only available in Polish), while Wilhelm began a career in the film industry in Warsaw. In the database of the filmpolski.pl website, we can find information that already in 1948 he was the production manager of the documentary movie "Kwitną jabłonie..." about the apple festival in Łącko. In the following years, he was a production manager for Andrzej Munk (e.g. on the film Zezowate szczęście [Bad luck]), he also worked with Wojciech Has, Janusz Majewski and Agnieszka Holland, but for the longest time with Jerzy Hoffman. Hollender was production manager on nine of Hoffman's films, including "Pan Wołodyjowski", "Potop", "Trędowata" and "Znachor". The last film in which Wilhelm served as production manager was 'Podróże Pana Kleksa', directed by Krzysztof Gradowski. Wilhelm Hollender was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1983 and the Auschwitz Cross in 1986. He was the husband of writer Barbara Seidler and father of journalist Barbara Hollender. He died on 28 May 1994 in Warsaw.