1908 - 1974
Oskar Schindler
was a Sudeten German industrialist credited
with saving almost 1200 Jews during the
Holocaust, by having them work in his
enamelware and ammunitions factories located
in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic
respectively. He was the subject of the book
Schindler´s Ark and the film based on it,
Schindler´s List.
• Oskar Schindler was born28 April 1908 v the town Svitavy
German Zwittau), Moravia, then part of Austria Hungary.
• Schindler, joined the separatist Sudeten German party in
1935. Though a citizen of Czechoslovakia, Schindler started to
work for German military intelligence (the Abwehr).
• He was exposed and jailed 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 with work for the Abwehr, paving the way for a
German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939.
• An opportunistic businessman, he was one of many who
sought to profit from the German invasion of Poland in 1939.
Schindler gained ownership of a Jewish industrialist named
Nathan Wurzel, under Nazi Germany´s Aryanization policies.
• He left Czechoslovakia and his wife Emily and moved to
Krakow.
• Schindler, on Wurzel´s advice, renamed the factory Deutche
Emaillewaren-Fabrik, to manufacture enamelware. He
obtained around 1,000 Jewish slave labourers to work there
with the help of his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.
• Jewish workers were a cheap workers but on the other hand
he saved their lives.
• In 1942, he witnessed a raid by the Germany military
on the Krakow Ghetto and was horrified by the
treatment of the Jews. As the Jews wererounded to
be sent to the Plaszov concentration camp, he met
with Amon Goth, the commander of the camp, to
arrange for nine hundred of the Jews to be sent to
work at a factory instead.
• Schindler took the control over the Jewish workers
and was looking after them, he bought them food
and clothes. He registrated old Jews as young ones,
otherwise they would be killed. Jewish doctors,
lawyers and artists were registrated by Schindler as
mechanics, only because he wanted to save their
lives.
• The fact is, that all the money he had made, he
practically invested to Jew´s lives. He had to bribe
Nazi commanders when he wanted to save the Jews.
From the commercial point of view it is possible to
say that he was buying Jewish lives like goods, but
he did not have to, he wanted.
• Schindler´s activities began to make him suspicious
to the Germans and he was twice charged with
conspiracy. However, he managed to avoid being
jailed by bribing government officials. As the Red
Army advanced, he had all of his 1200 workers
transferred to Brunnlitz in October of 1944.
• Unfortunately, a portion of them were accidentally
shipped to Auschwitz but he was able to save them
and have them returned.
The end of the WWII
• In May 1945 he told his
Jewish workers, they
are free and parted. He
said, "My children are
saved, Germany lost
the war!“ – magic
words giving hope and
joy to peoples´ souls.
Schindler´s life after the war
• After the end of World War 2, Oskar
Schindler moved to Argentina, where he
ended up going bankrupt. He returned to
Germany in 1958 and pursueded several
business ventures, all of which ultimately
failed.
• Schindler died on October 9 1974 in
Hildesheim, Germany and was given an
honorable burial at the Christian cemetery at
Mount Zion in Jerusalem, Israel.
Oskar Schindler
• Oskar Schindler
in1970 in front of the
tree, which he
planted in 1962 in
the Alley offairminded among
nations in
Jerusalem´s Yad
Vashem.
Schindler´s Jews
• Kuba a Helena Becks – No. 18 a No. 611 in Schindlers ´s list –
both sent as teenagers to Plazow. After the war Helena found
out she had lost 6 from 9 relatives including her parents
• Helena Brzeska was 15, when she was sent to Goethe´s camp
• Anna Duklauerová – her life is the living testament of Schindler
• Bronia Gunz –said: „This generous man came with a piece of
paper and said: you are saved and will never be tortured – he
was like a GOD for us.“
• Ignacy Liebermann – he and his family were moved to Krakow.
He was forced to work there as a tailor, later on he was saved
by Schnindler, who tokk him to be his own tailor.
• And these are only five of 1 097 Jews who were saved by
SCHINDLER ...
„Who saves one life, saves the
whole world“
This presentation has been
created by Slovak students
from Business Academy,
Levice, Slovakia