BERLIN — German officer Wilhelm “Wilm” Hosenfeld saved two Jews from the Nazi Holocaust, including Wladyslaw Szpilman, whose story was the basis of the Oscar-winning film “The Pianist.” But he died in obscurity in a Soviet prison after World War II.

More than 60 years later, Israel’s Yad Vashem honored him Friday with the “Righteous Among the Nations” distinction — presenting members of his family with a medal in tribute to the actions he took in Warsaw.

“He exercised a very, very human kind of behavior and he had to hide this from the unit he was part of, and do it on his own — it was quite dangerous,” Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said by telephone before the ceremony, which he was unable to attend due to other commitments.

“He really is the kind of person who should be honored and decorated as a unique human being.”

Hosenfeld’s son Detlev welcomed the recognition for his father. “It is so important to me today to make clear to young people, who have a totally different perspective on life, that the Holocaust for us Germans is a moment in time that must not be forgotten,” he said during the ceremony at Berlin’s Jewish Museum.