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Czech
businessman who protected Jews during the
Holocaust. Schindler was designated as
Righteous among the Nations by Yad
Vashem,
and made famous by Steven Spielberg's award-winning film,
Schindler's List.
Oskar Schindler was born
in Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. After Germany invaded
Poland in 1939,
Schindler went to
Cracow
to take over two enamelware factories which had previously
been owned by Jews. Both were successful ventures, and he
operated one as an agent for the German occupiers. Schindler
later opened a third factory outside Cracow, in which he
employed mainly Jews, saving them from deportation.
The Cracow
Ghetto was
liquidated in early 1943 - many of its Jews were sent to the
Plaszow labor camp
nearby. Schindler, greatly affected by the Jews' plight,
used his good connections with important German officials in
the Armaments Administration to establish a branch of the
Plaszow camp inside his factory compound. 900 Jewish
workers, some unfit for hard labor, were employed in the
factory. They were thus rescued from the conditions at
Plaszow.
By October 1944,
Schindler's factory was no longer in use, and the Russian
army was advancing towards Poland. Schindler acquired
permission to move his factory to Sudetenland and
reestablish it as an armaments production company. Once
again, Schindler used his contacts to arrange to take his
Jewish workers with him. He successfully transferred
700--800 men from the concentration camp at
Gross-Rosen and about 300 women from
Auschwitz.
The names of these workers were recorded on a list, earning
the name "Schindler's List."
Schindler's Jews were
treated in the most humane way possible. He and his wife,
Emilie, provided them with food and medical care. Those Jews
who died were buried in proper Jewish funerals. Schindler
consistently used his charming personality and good
connections to befriend and extract favors from important
SS
officials in Poland (they even got him out of jail
several times when the Gestapo accused him of corruption).
In
all, Schindler saved some 1,100 Jews from almost certain
death. He is buried in a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem
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