German
Businessman
Born: April 28, 1908
Zwittau, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian
Empire
(Now Czech Republic)
Death: October 9, 1974
Frankfurt, Germany
Mother: Louisa – homemaker
Father: Hans – factory worker
Siblings: Elfriede
School: Sudetenland
Oskar Schindlers wife
 Married on March 6, 1928
 Wedding and celebration
were in an inn on the
outskirts of Zwittau

Schindler
employed Jews in
his factory to
protect them from
the Nazis during
World War II
1993 – 9 million Jews lived in Europe
2 out of 3 European Jews had been killed
by 1945
 1.5 million children were murdered
 3.5 million Jews occupied Poland before
WWII


› Now there are between 3,000-4,000

The Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg has
said: "There were not six million Jews
murdered; there was one murder, six million
times."

Hitler began stirring up feelings among
the Sudeten Germans
› They were supposed to be with Germany not
Czechoslovakia

1935 - Schindler joined the pro-Nazi
Sudeten German Party
› For business move not out of love
September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland
 Schindler arrived and made friendships with
the Wehrmacht (the German army) and
the SS (the special armed Nazi unit)
 Oskar bought a kitchenware factory and
employed Itzhak Stern, a Jewish
accountant as the bookkeeper
 He searched Krakow’s Jewish communities
to employ workers so they didn’t have to
leave the city

Nazi’s sent Krokow’s Jews to labor camps
 Some of his worker’s were on the first list
so he mentioned names of his Nazi
friends to the SS at the train station
 He said they were “essential workers to
the war effort”

The “liquidation” of the Krakow ghetto
was ordered
 Amon Goeth, SS officers, the
commandant of the Plaszow forced
labor camp was put in charge
 Schindler bribed Goeth to allow him to
run a mini-labor camp inside his factory
and employ his own workers

Plaszow's destination was changed
› Now sent to concentration camps
 Auschwitz
 Schindler’s factory ordered to close so he
went to Goeth and once again bribed him
 His factory was going to move to
Czechoslovakia to continue to supply the
Third Reich (Hitler’s army)
 He was to make a list of who he wanted to
take with him

Matter of life or death
 1,100 names

› All employees of the Emalia
camp and others
Moved his factory to Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia by
making bribes
 Pazlow camp liquidation began in October
 800 men shipped in boxcars to Brunnlitz
 300 women and children were sent to Auschwitz by
mistake
› Schindler rescued them and sent them to Brunnlitz
also


His factory never produced a single shell over
the next 7 months
› Purposefully sabotaged the machines so they would
fail quality tests

May 8, 1945
› Germany surrenders

Called meeting with workers in factory to
tell them the war had ended
› Moment of silence for the dead
Him and his wife fled west to avoid
Russian troops
 The 1,200 or more Schindlerjuden
("Shindler's Jews") were freed from the
factory by a Russian officer






Failed businesses
Overspending
Drinking
Love affairs
1949 moved to Argentina and went
bankrupt
› Relied on B'nai B'rith, Jewish charity, to survive

1958 abandoned wife and moved back to
West Germany
Started a cement business in Frankfurt,
Germany but it failed in 1961
 Visited Israel every year for a couple of
weeks to visit the Schindlerjuden and
their families

54 birthday
 Declared a “Righteous Gentile”

› Non-Jew

Planted a tree on the Avenue of the
Righteous
› Led to Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Museum
 Memorial to the Holocaust
 Name of the liquidation by Germans during
World War II

Oskar Schindler died from heart and liver
problems
› Hildesheim, Germany

Wanted to be buried in Israel
› Mount Zion, Jerusalem
About five hundred Schindlerjuden were
present
 Saved more than 6,000 people including
Holocaust survivors and their future
ancestors


www.notablebiographies.com

http://www.oskarschindler.org

www.auschwitz.dk

www.ushmm.org

www.historyplace.com