Born in 1908, to a catholic family in a small Czechoslovakian town, Oskar Schindler had a hard youth. Growing up with an uneducated father who was an alcoholic and a mother that had died young was influential to why he was an alcoholic. Although, his family was Czechoslovakian, the German heritage was greatly emphasized at home where they also spoke the German language. When he was about 20, in 1927, he met his soon to be wife, Emilie, while selling electric motors. They got married in 1928. Oskar Schindler was working in the family business for quite some time, selling electric motors. Then he took a job as a sales manager for an electrical engineering firm. Many Germans at the time were joining the Nazi party and the pressure to conform was intense. This is when Oskar Schindler had joined the Nazi party. Hitler quotes, “Whoever is with me will be able to live in a great Germany. But whoever is against me will find instant death.” This even more influenced his decision because he wanted the best life he could have.
It is not exact how Schindler began to sympathize for the Jews. When being a Nazi, he came to the realization at some point that everyone should have the opportunity to have a life of their own. He respected the lives of the Jews in the bloody Holocaust and decided to give them a second chance at living. Some that knew him described him as a sentimentalist and one who loved the simplicity of doing good.
He had different techniques of how he would keep his factory a secret. First, he would get close to the SS guards. He would go to dinner with them, be nice to them, and attend events with them. This way he could intake all of the information he could so that he could keep the factory in secrecy. Also, when he figured out that the Jews were ready to be transferred and needed to be moved out of his factory, he relocated it to a different town where they could still be safe. The list that the Jews in his factory were put on was a way to trick the other Nazis and SS guards into thinking that they are actually going through hard labor. Accomplishing these smart tricks enabled Schindler to save over 1000 Jews in the Holocaust.
Map of Krakow with Schindler’s Factory
Hearing the stories of real life Holocaust survivors makes the Holocaust seem much more real. For Example, Murray Pantirer was one of Schindler’s Jews that was saved. He lived on to tell his story. He, along with many other Jews, was being transported to another camp in a cattle car when the sun was as hot as an oven. Schindler had to convince the German Nazi to send the Jews to his factory. So Murray and others were sent to Oskar’s factory where they worked and were also very well taken care of. Murray saw Oskar not as a Nazi, but as an angel. Secondly, a letter was written by Schindler’s former workers. At one time in their letter, they said how about 100 Jews had just arrived from the Auschwitz camp and were so frozen they could barely move. Schindler personally took care of each and every one of them until they were restored back to health. All of Schindler’s Jews were just as impacted as these few that told the stories. He changed their lives.
Emilie Schindler
Oskar Schindler’s wife, Emilie Schindler, was a very kind hearted, but strong lady. She described her husband as a very kind, charitable, and big hearted man, but at the same time he had his flaws. He would act immature and lie, but then come back seeking forgiveness that he did not deserve. Because Emilie was such a kind heart, she would accept his sorrow. This cycle would repeat and repeat, leaving an unhealthy relationship. When Oskar joined the Nazi party and was saving Jews, Emilie also played a huge role in this procedure. To keep the Jews alive and from being sick, together, they would sell the jewels and precious items of their belongings to support them. In another case, Emilie saw that a Nazi was trying to transport Jews to a death camp, but she persuaded him all by herself to transport them to their factory. Emilie has obviously done so many things to help the Jews as much as Oskar, but she does not get the recognition that she deserves.
One day Oskar Schindler overheard on the radio that the Germans had surrendered and the war was over so Schindler closed his factory. He let all of the workers go and do what they want with their lives and to share their stories. Oskar and his wife Emilie then fled the country in hope to come to America. They were rejected to come to America because Schindler was once a Nazi, so they went to Argentina. There, they worked as caretakers (of homes) and were raising chickens and hens. In 1958, the German government passed a law providing for payments to victims of the Nazis who had lost their property during World War II. That spring, Schindler departed from Argentina, leaving his wife behind. When in Germany he made more money and the couple never reunited. Emilie Schindler then wrote a book about how Oskar had worked to keep the Jews out of concentration camps because he was greedy and needed their cheap labor. Many of the people Oskar Schindler saved said his motives did not matter; it was the result that counted. Oskar Schindler died on 1974 in Germany while undergoing surgery.