Oskar Schindler

By: Alex Mock

Background

• German businessman Oskar Schindler became one of the most unlikely heroes when he saved hundreds of Jews in Poland and Czechoslovakia. He did so by employing them in his factory, and there for protected them from the wrath of the Nazi Party and preserved generations of Jewish Families.

Childhood

• Oskar Schindler was born 1908 in the industrial city of Zwittau, Moravia, then the German province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

• He attended a German-language school • Oskar’s father Hans Schindler, was a factory

owner and his mother, Louisa Schindler, was a homemaker.

Childhood

• Oskar had a younger sister named Elfriede despite the 7 year age difference he still maintained a close relationship with her.

• As a child Schindler was very popular but not an exceptional student. Two of his closest childhood friends happened to be two sons of a local rabbi.

Factory/Work

• During the 1920s Schindler worked for his dead selling farm equipment.

• However in 1928 Schindler’s marriage to a woman named Emilie cause problems between them and Schindler left the business to work as a sales manager for a Morvian electric company.

Factory/work• In January of 1940 Schindler purchased a

bankrupt kitchenware factory and reopened it.

• Soon after he met a Jewish accountant named Itzhak Stern.

• He hired Itzhak as a bookkeeper and soon developed a close relationship with him.

Employees

• Oskar relied on his willingness to bribe and his legendary flair to secure numerous German army contracts for his factory.

• To staff his factory, Schindler turned to Krakow's Jewish community.

• He did so because Stern advised him that it was a good source of cheap reliable labor.

• At the time, some fifty-six thousand Jews lived in the city, most living in ghettos

Employees

• Because of Schindler’s factory and his employment of Jews making them “essential” in the war effort he managed to save over eleven hundred Jews from concentration camps and eventually death.

After the War

• Schindler's postwar life was similar to that before the war, which was marked by a string of plenty of drinking, failed business ventures, overspending, and love affairs. In 1949 Schindler moved to Argentina and purchased a farm. By 1957, however, Schindler had gone bankrupt and was relying on the charity of the Jewish organization B'nai B'rith to survive.

• Schindler Died in 1974 due to heart and liver problems.

• He was later granted his wish to be buried in Israel.

Clip from Schindler’s List

Reactions

• I was horrified to learn about the unjust cruelty bestowed upon the Jews through the Nazi regime. I was also surprised at Schindler’s kindness and generosity to risk his own life to save strangers and I believe that Schindler is a great man and role model.

EQ

What inspired the change in Schindler that made him help the Jews?

• I believe that from the beginning Schindler wasn’t really on either side he just went along with whatever helped him more. But through witnessing first hand the cruelty to the Jews he could no longer stand by and watch he had to take action and help even if it put his own life in danger.