Marcin Masecki invokes the memory of the last broadcast by playing the same music played on September 23, 1939. Piotr Nowak/PAP

On September 23, 80 years ago the last live concert broadcasted by interwar Polish Radio was silenced by the German bombs falling on Warsaw. In the midst of war, Władysław Szpilman was performing a Frederic Chopin recital.

In his autobiography Szpilman wrote: "I played Chopin that day. As it turned out later, it was the last broadcast of live music on Polish Radio. Bombs were falling every now and then in close proximity to the studios, and the surrounding houses were on fire. (...) On this day, a few minutes after two, the station went silent."

The 1939 concert was interrupted by German bombs and the radio went off the air.Piotr Nowak/PAP

On Monday, September 23 this year, that final musical broadcast was commemorated by the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews with the concert “Szpilman/Woronowicz/Masecki”. Just like that day eight decades ago, Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor was played, filling the space of POLIN Museum’s main hall. Performed by Marcin Masecki, the piece was preceded by excerpts from Władysław Szpilman’s memoir read out by Adam Woronowicz.

In his autobiography, Szpilman a musician of Jewish origins, whose life was portrayed in Roman Polański’s movie ‘The Pianist’, recalled a chance meeting on the same day with another key figure of the time, Stefan Starzyński, Warsaw’s mayor.

Władysław Szpilman after the war. Having survived the Holocaust and he returned to Polish Radio as a musician and composer.Stanisław Dąbrowiecki/PAP

"On September 23, I played for the last time before the microphones of The Polish Radio,” wrote the pianist. “I don’t know myself how I got to the station. I met President Starzyński at the door. He was casually dressed, unshaven, and had an expression of fatal fatigue on his face. He hadn’t slept for many days, as he was the soul of defence and a hero of the city. He shouldered the responsibility for the fate of Warsaw.”

The Polish Radio building before the war. Although the station was shut down by the Germans the service went underground using clandestine broadcasts to reach the public.NAC

Despite Starzyński’s relentless work and the efforts of Warsaw’s defenders, the city fell on September 28, just five days after the final concert. Polish Radio was taken over by the Nazi two days later. The Germans confiscated the receivers and other equipment and forbade Poles to listen to their own radio station. It didn’t stop them though, as on October 1, Polish Radio started operating in secret.