Oskar Schindler: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox Person |
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| name = Oskar Schindler |
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| image = Oskar Schindler.jpg |
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| image_size = 150px |
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| caption = |
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| birth_date = 28 April 1908 |
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| birth_place = [[Svitavy]] ({{lang-de|Zwittau}}), [[Austria-Hungary]] (present-day [[Czech Republic]]) |
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|10|9|1908|4|28|df=y}} |
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| death_place = [[Hildesheim]], [[West Germany]] |
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| occupation = Industrialist |
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| spouse = [[Emilie Schindler]] |
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| parents = Hans Schindler<br>Franziska Luser |
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| religion = [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] |
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| party = [[National Socialist German Workers Party]] (NSDAP) |
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}} |
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'''Oskar Schindler''' (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a [[Sudeten Germans|Sudeten German]] [[industrialist]]. He is credited with saving almost 1,200<ref name=NYTobit>{{cite news|title=Oskar Schindler, Saved 1,200 Jews|date=13 October 1974|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=2&res=F10813FD3B591A728DDDAA0994D8415B848BF1D3|accessdate=2009-01-20}}</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7377765.stm BBC NEWS | Middle East | Schindler list survivor recalls saviour]. [http://www.auschwitz.dk/Schindlersglist.htm Other sources] vary, placing the number at 1,098 according to the list, along with an additional 100 people according to a letter signed by Isaak Stern, former employee Pal. Office in Krakow, Dr. Hilfstein, Chaim Salpeter, Former President of the Zionist Executive in Krakow for Galicia and Silesia.</ref> [[Jew]]s during [[the Holocaust]] by employing them in his [[enamelware]] and [[ammunition]]s factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively.<ref name=maple>[http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/steinhouse.html Herbert Steinhouse, "The Real Oskar Schindler", ''Saturday Night'' Magazine, April, 1994.]</ref> |
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He is the subject of the novel ''[[Schindler's Ark]]'', and the film based on it, ''[[Schindler's List]]''.<ref>Thomas Keneally, ''Schindler's Ark''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982 (ISBN 0-340-33501-7).</ref> |
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==Early life and career== |
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Oskar Schindler was born 28 April 1908 into an [[Ethnic Germans|ethnic German]] family in [[Svitavy]] ({{lang-de|Zwittau}}), [[Moravia]], then part of [[Austria-Hungary]], now in the Czech Republic. His parents, Hans Schindler and Franziska Luser, divorced when Oskar was 27. Oskar was very close to his younger sister, Elfriede. Schindler was brought up in the Catholic faith and remained a Roman Catholic throughout his life.<ref name= NYTobit/> After school he worked as a commercial salesman. |
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On 6 March 1928, Schindler married [[Emilie Schindler|Emilie Pelzl]] (1907–2001).<ref>{{cite news|title=Emilie Schindler, 93, Dies; Saved Jews in War| date=October 8, 2001|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE1DD133CF93BA35753C1A9679C8B63&scp=8&sq|accessdate=2009-01-20}} Schindler's wife [[Emilie Schindler|Emilie]] was born on 22 October 1907, the daughter of Josef and Maria Pelzl, and died on 5 October 2001, at age 93 in a hospital near Berlin. They did not have children.</ref> In the 1930s he changed jobs several times. He also tried starting various businesses, but soon went bankrupt because of the [[Great Depression]]. He joined the separatist [[Sudeten German Party]] in 1935. Though officially a citizen of [[Czechoslovakia]], ethnic German nationalist Schindler started to work for German military intelligence (the [[Abwehr]] under [[Wilhelm Canaris]]).<ref name=NYTobit /> He was exposed and jailed by the Czech government in July 1938, but after the [[Munich Agreement]], he was set free as a political prisoner. In 1939, Schindler joined the [[Nazi Party]]. One source (based on Nazi documents and postwar investigation) contends that he also continued to work for the Abwehr, allegedly paving the way for the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939.<ref name=grunt>Jitka Gruntová, ''Legendy a fakta o Oskaru Schindlerovi''. Naše vojsko, 2002 (ISBN 80-206-0607-6).</ref> |
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==World War II== |
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{{The Holocaust}} |
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As an opportunistic businessman, Schindler was one of many who sought to profit from the [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|German invasion of Poland]] in 1939. He gained ownership from a bankruptcy court of an idle [[enamelware]] factory in [[Kraków]],<ref name = maple /> and renamed the factory ''Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik'' or DEF.<ref name=DC>{{cite web|title=Oskar Schindler: An Unlikely Hero|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|url=http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/schindler/ |accessdate=2008-05-29 }}</ref> With the help of his German-speaking Jewish accountant [[Itzhak Stern]],<ref name=maple /> Schindler obtained around 1,000 Jewish forced labourers to work there.<ref name=NYTobit /> |
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Schindler soon adapted his lifestyle to his income. He became a well-respected guest at [[Schutzstaffel|Nazi SS]] [[elite]] parties, having easy chats with high-ranking SS officers, often for his benefit.<ref name=DC /> Initially Schindler may have been motivated by money — Jewish labour was least costly — but later he began shielding his workers without regard for cost. He would, for instance, claim that certain unskilled workers were essential to the factory.<ref name=maple /> |
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While witnessing a 1943 raid on the [[Kraków Ghetto]], where soldiers were used to round up the inhabitants for shipment to the [[concentration camp]] at [[Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp|Płaszów]], Schindler was appalled by the murder of many of the Jews who had been working for him.<ref name = DC /> He was a very persuasive individual, and after the raid, increasingly used all of his skills to protect his ''[[Schindlerjuden]]'' ("Schindler's Jews"), as they came to be called. Schindler went out of his way to take care of the Jews who worked at DEF, often calling on his legendary charm and ingratiating manner to help his workers get out of difficult situations.<ref name=DC /> Once, says author Eric Silver in ''The Book of the Just'', "Two [[Gestapo]] men came to his office and demanded that he hand over a family of five who had bought forged Polish identity papers. 'Three hours after they walked in,' Schindler said, 'two drunk Gestapo men reeled out of my office without their prisoners and without the incriminating documents they had demanded'".<ref>{{cite book|author=Eric Silver|title=The book of the just – the silent heroes who saved Jews from Hitler|publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicholson|location=London|year=1992|isbn=0802113478 }}</ref> The special status of his factory ("business essential to the war effort") became the decisive factor for Schindler's efforts to support his Jewish workers. Whenever the "Schindler Jews" were threatened with deportation, he claimed exemptions for them. Wives, children, and even handicapped persons were shown to be necessary mechanics and metalworkers.<ref name= maple /> He arranged with [[Amon Göth]], the commandant of Plaszow, for 1000 Jews to be transferred to an adjacent factory compound, where they would be relatively safe from the depredations of the German guards. Schindler also reportedly began to smuggle children out of the ghetto, delivering them to Polish nuns, who either hid them from the Nazis or claimed they were Christian orphans.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} |
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| image1 = Oskar Schindler enamel factory in Kraków.jpg |
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| caption1 = Schindler's factory at [[Kraków]] in 2006 |
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| image2 = Schindlers factory Brnenec CZ 2004b.JPG |
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| caption2 = Schindler's factory at [[Brněnec]] in 2004}} |
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Schindler was arrested twice on suspicion of [[black market]] activities and complicity in [[embezzlement]]; Göth and other SS-guards used Jewish property (such as money, jewelry, and works of art) for themselves, although according to law, it belonged to the Reich. Schindler mediated such sales on black market and also preserved many stolen items. He managed to avoid being jailed after each arrest. Schindler typically bribed government officials to avoid investigation.<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=maple /> |
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As the Red Army drew nearer to [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] and the other easternmost concentration camps, the SS began evacuating the remaining prisoners westward. Schindler persuaded the SS officials to allow him to move his 1,100 Jewish workers to [[Brněnec]] ({{lang-de|Brünnlitz}}) in dismantled Czechoslovakia (then in the [[German-speaking]] [[Sudetenland]] province), thus sparing the Jews from certain death in the extermination camps. In Brněnec, he gained another [[Aryanization|former Jewish factory]], where he was supposed to produce missiles and hand grenades for the war effort. However, during the months that this factory was running, not a single weapon produced could actually be fired. Hence Schindler made no money; rather, his previously earned fortune grew steadily smaller as he bribed officials and cared for his workers.<ref name=maple /> |
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==After the war== |
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By the end of the war Schindler had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market purchases of supplies for his workers. Virtually destitute, he moved briefly to [[Regensburg, Germany]] and, later, [[Munich]], but did not prosper in postwar Germany. In fact, he was reduced to receiving assistance from Jewish organizations.<ref name=maple /> Eventually, Schindler emigrated to [[Argentina]] in 1948, where he went bankrupt. He left his wife Emilie and daughter Dawn Melody in 1957 and returned to Germany in 1958, where he had a series of unsuccessful business ventures.<ref name=maple /> Schindler settled down in a small apartment at Am Hauptbahnhof Nr. 4 in [[Frankfurt am Main]], West Germany and tried again – with help from a Jewish organization – to establish a cement factory. This, too, went bankrupt in 1961. His business partner cancelled their partnership. In 1968 he began receiving a small pension from the West German government. |
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In 1971 Oskar Schindler moved to live with friends in [[Hildesheim]], Germany. Due to a heart complaint he was taken to the Saint Bernward Hospital in Hildesheim on 12 September 1974, where he died on 9 October 1974, at the age of 66. At the time of his death, he was surrounded by friends and family.<ref>http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/119912/Schindler-s-List/overview?scp=1&sq=schindler%27s%20list&st=cse</ref> The costs for his stay in the hospital were paid from social welfare of the city of Hildesheim.<ref name="Hildesheim">{{cite web|title=City of Hildesheim Archives (in German)|date=2 October 1999|url=http://www.stadtarchiv-hildesheim.de/publikationen/dok_35_schindler.htm|accessdate=2007-12-16}}</ref><ref>[http://www.dlddu.de/index.php?id=244941&middle=holidaycheck&anz=mb&bid=1155834312&ch=ub Photos of house and plaque] located at Göttingstr.30 in Hildesheim where Oskar Schindler lived from 1972 to his death in 1974. He was a guest of Dr. Staehr and his wife.</ref> |
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[[Image:Schindlergrave 20070324.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Oskar Schindler's grave]] |
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After a [[Requiem Mass]], Schindler was buried at the Catholic [[Franciscan Order|Franciscans']] cemetery<ref name="Deutsches Historisches Museum">[http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/SchindlerOskar/index.html Deutsches Historisches Museum] Article Oskar Schindler.</ref> at [[Mount Zion]] in [[Jerusalem]], the only member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way.<ref name=maple /> Schindler's grave is located near the Zion Gate, at {{Coord|31.770164|N|35.230423|E|type:landmark_region:IL}}. Stones placed on top of the grave are a sign of gratitude from Jewish visitors, according to Jewish tradition, although Schindler himself was not Jewish. On his grave, the German inscription reads 'The Unforgettable Lifesaver of 1200 Persecuted Jews'. |
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No one knows what Schindler's motives were. However, he was quoted as saying "I knew the people who worked for me... When you know people, you have to behave toward them like human beings."<ref>David M. Crowe, ''Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind The List''. Philadelphia: Westview Press, 2004 (ISBN 0-8133-3375-X).</ref> |
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The writer Herbert Steinhouse, who interviewed Schindler in 1948 at the behest of some of the surviving ''Schindlerjuden'' (Schindler's Jews), wrote: |
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<blockquote>Oskar Schindler's exceptional deeds stemmed from just that elementary sense of decency and humanity that our sophisticated age seldom sincerely believes in. A repentant opportunist saw the light and rebelled against the sadism and vile criminality all around him. The inference may be disappointingly simple, especially for all amateur psychoanalysts who would prefer the deeper and more mysterious motive that may, it is true, still lie unprobed and unappreciated. But an hour with Oskar Schindler encourages belief in the simple answer.<ref name=maple /></blockquote> |
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==Legacy== |
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In 1963, Schindler was honored at [[Israel]]'s [[Yad Vashem]] memorial to the victims of [[the Holocaust]] as one of the [[Righteous Among the Nations]], or "righteous Gentiles", an honor awarded by Israel to non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at great personal risk. Schindler was the first former member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party to be so recognized by the planting of a tree in his name at the Yad Vashem Memorial. Schindler was also honoured with the German [[Bundesverdienstkreuz|Federal Cross of Merit]] and with the Papal [[Order of St. Sylvester]] during the 1960s.<ref name="Hildesheim"/> The Order of St. Sylvester was personally awarded to him by [[Pope Paul VI|Paul VI]] in 1968.<ref name="Deutsches Historisches Museum"/> |
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Schindler's story, retold by Holocaust survivor [[Poldek Pfefferberg]], was the basis for [[Thomas Keneally]]'s book ''[[Schindler's Ark]]'' (the novel was later renamed ''Schindler's List''), which was adapted into the [[1993 in film|1993]] movie ''[[Schindler's List]]'' by [[Steven Spielberg]]. In the film, he is played by [[Liam Neeson]], who was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]] for his portrayal. The film went on to win seven [[Oscars]], including the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]]. The prominence of Spielberg's film introduced Schindler into popular culture. As the film is the sole source of most people's knowledge of Schindler, he is generally perceived much as Spielberg's film depicts him: as a man who was instinctively driven by profit-driven amorality, but who at some point made a silent but conscious decision that preserving the lives of his Jewish employees was imperative, even if requiring massive payments to induce Nazis to turn a blind eye. |
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In the autumn of 1999 a suitcase belonging to Schindler was discovered, containing over 7,000 photographs and documents, including the list of Schindler's Jewish workers. The document, on his enamelware factory's letterhead, had been provided to the SS stating that the named workers were "essential" employees. Friends of Schindler found the suitcase in the attic of a house in [[Hildesheim]], Germany, where he had been staying at the time of his death. The friends took the suitcase to Stuttgart, where its discovery was reported by a newspaper, the ''Stuttgarter Zeitung''. The contents of the suitcase, including the list of the names of those he had saved and the text of his farewell speech before leaving "his" Jews in 1945, are now at the Holocaust museum of [[Yad Vashem]] in [[Israel]].<ref>[http://www.oskarschindler.com/16.htm www.oskarschindler.com]</ref> |
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[[Image:Enamel factory.JPG|thumb|upright|Oskar Schindler's enamel factory in 2009]] |
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In early April 2009, a second list was discovered at the [[State Library of New South Wales]] by workers combing through boxes of materials collected by the author Keneally. The 13-page document, yellow and fragile, was filed between research notes and original newspaper clippings. This list, given to Keneally in 1980 by [[Leopold Pfefferberg]], who was listed as worker number 173, differs slightly from the other list, but is nonetheless considered to be genuine and authentic. It is believed that several lists were made during the war as the protected population changed. This particular list, dated 18 April 1945, was given to Keneally by Pfefferberg when he was persuading Keneally to write Schindler's story. In the last months of the war, German Nazi camps stepped up their extermination efforts. This list is believed to have saved the lives of 801 people from death in the gas chambers. It was this list, taken with the surrounding events of the time, that inspired Keneally to write his novel.<ref>{{citation | url = http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090406/ts_afp/australiagermanyhistorywwiiholocaustschindler | publisher = Yahoo! | work = News | title = Schingler | date = 2009-04-06}}</ref> |
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==See also== |
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<!--editors, please do not add individual names of Holocaust rescuers here, instead, consider adding them to these Lists, if not already there--> |
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* [[List of individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust]] |
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* [[Righteous among the Nations]] |
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* [[List of Righteous among the Nations by country]] |
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* [[John Rabe]] |
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* [[Leo Rosner]] |
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==Notes== |
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{{reflist}} |
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==External links== |
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{{wikiquote}} |
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{{Commons category}} |
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* [http://www.oskarschindler.com/ The Schindler Story] |
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* [http://www1.yadvashem.org.il/visiting/temp_visiting/temp_index_schindler.html Oskar and Emilie Schindler in Yad Vashem Memorial] |
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* [http://auschwitz.dk/Schindlerslist.htm Oskar Schindler's list at Auschwitz.dk] |
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* [http://www.hearthasreasons.com/bibliography.php Holocaust Rescuers Bibliography] |
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* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4724 Find-A-Grave profile for Oskar Schindler] |
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* [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/schindler/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Oskar Schindler] |
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*[http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20090226 ''Voices on Antisemitism'' Interview with Helen Jonas] from the [http://www.ushmm.org/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] |
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* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/nyregion/thecity/02schi.html Interview with Mimi Reinhard, Schindler's secretary] |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schindler, Oskar}} |
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[[Category:People from Svitavy District]] |
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[[Category:Sudeten Germans]] |
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[[Category:Moravian Germans]] |
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[[Category:German humanitarians]] |
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[[Category:German businesspeople]] |
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[[Category:German people of World War II]] |
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[[Category:German Righteous Among the Nations]] |
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[[Category:Catholic Righteous Among the Nations]] |
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[[Category:German Roman Catholics]] |
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[[Category:Nazis]] |
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[[Category:Rescue of Jews in the Holocaust]] |
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[[Category:Members of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]] |
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[[Category:Burials in Jerusalem]] |
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[[Category:Knights of St. Sylvester]] |
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[[Category:1908 births]] |
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[[Category:1974 deaths]] |
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