My Hero: Oskar Schindler

By: Alexa Wegman

Background

• b. April 28, 1908- Zwittau, Austria-Hungary• Born into a rich family, but very troubled and

rebellious– Expelled from technical school (1924); raced motorcycles;

arrested once in 1931 and once in 1932 for public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and assault; was a well-known womanizer (had two kids with a woman who was NOT his wife- 1933 & 35), arrested in 1941 for dealing on the black market

• Married Emilie Pelzl on March 6, 1928• 1935- joined the German Party as a way to boost his

business sales• 1939- joined the Nazi Party (for the same reason

mentioned above)

A Hero In the Making…

• Sept. 1939- Schindler went to Krakow to open his own factory where he would manufacture mess kits & field kitchenware

• Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik (D.E.F. or Emalia) opened in Dec. 1939

• 1941: 200 Jews worked in the factory, later that year the number increased to 550 Jews

• Schindler hired Jews b/c he didn’t have to pay them as much-maximizing his profit

• The more money Schindler made, the less likely the Nazis were to shut down the factory and ship off the workers

• After seeing the cruelty of the Nazis (shot and killed a mother & her eight-year-old son), Schindler began protecting his workers by making the kids 4-5 years older and the elders years younger on their work/I.D. cards

• Schindler began participating w/ an Anti-Nazi organization (1942)

A Hero In The Making cont…

• Amon Goeth came to the nearby Plaszow labor/concentration camp– Decided to finally “remove” all the Jews from

the Krakow Ghetto (March 13, 1943)– Schindler kept “his” Jews at the factory all night

in order to spare their lives, and he succeeded. However, they still had to go to Plaszow

Why He’s a Hero: Fact Based• Schindler soon realized that in order to protect the

Jews, he would have to have control of them at all times; so he built his own camp for his Jewish workers, and it was attached to the factory– He spent a large amount of money in bribery to

get the camp approved, and all the while he risked exposing his real, unNazi-like intentions

• However, Emalia had to close b/c the war was getting too close. Schindler chose to move the factory so the workers wouldn’t be sent to other camps and to an almost guaranteed death

• Moved the factory to Zwittau, and made a list of the workers he would be taking with him. “Schindler’s List” consisted of 800 males and 300 females

• All of those on the list survived the war and the Holocaust, all thanks to Oskar Schindler

• Schindler is accredited with saving over 1,200 lives during the Holocaust– This is the largest number of people saved by a

single person during that time

“I could have done more…”Exhibiting Schindler’s flaws and heroic traits

Explanation of the Clip

• The war ended on May 8, 1945 at midnight• The Soviets were quickly approaching the factory, and if Oskar was caught

he would surely be killed on spot without a chance to explain what he had done. Oskar and his wife had to head west

• Oskar freed the factory’s Jews, and divided up things he had, like cloth, alcohol, and cigarettes, and gave them to the Jews for something to trade on the black market, and as a sign of peace and thanks

• “His” Jews felt so incredibly indebted and thankful to Oskar, that they gave him a letter explaining everything that he had done for them during the war. They hoped if he was caught, the letter would spare his life; every worker signed that letter. They also gave him a gold ring, inscribed with the saying “whoever saves a single soul, it is as if he saved the world entire.”

Why He’s a Hero: My Opinion• In my opinion, a hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice oneself for

his/her cause, but they can also seem relatable, and not like some God-like persona

• Schindler is a hero because he risked his life for what he felt was right• He had many flaws, which made him a REAL person with his own demons

and flaws to overcome. However, the flaws didn’t hold him back from making an impact

• Oskar gave up his entire fortune to help a group of people that had been turned against and treated in the most inhumane ways imaginable

• Instead of acting in the same ways as the rest of the Nazi Party, Oskar took the suicidal chance of defying their ideals and incentives. He took a stand for what he felt was right, and his stand saved over 1,200 peoples’ lives

• He did many things for bragging rights, but this wasn’t one of those things. If he so much as mentioned what he was doing, he would have been executed. He was a man who loved danger, but he was also a man who loved people; and the latter gave him more strength than anything, I believe

• His story is so inspiring because it is unlike any other out there. He was the last person you would think of to do something as courageous and heroic as this. However, in the end he broke away from all the stereotypes that plagued him, and he became his own person- a protector of Jews, a savior

Schindler’s own comment on what he did

"The persecution of Jews in occupied Poland meant that we could see horror emerging gradually in many ways. In 1939, they were forced to wear Jewish stars, and people were herded and shut up into ghettos. Then, in the years '41 and '42 there was plenty of public evidence of pure sadism. With people behaving like pigs, I felt the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them. There was no choice.“

-Oskar Schindler, 1964

After the war…

• Oskar Schindler was completely broke after WWII• He and his wife, Emilie, moved around some, but

Oskar ended up leaving her in 1957 and went back to Germany

• He survived financially by depending on checks given to people who had lost everything in the war, and those given to Oskar from the Schindlerjuden (a.k.a. Schindler Jews)

• Today 7,000 descendants of Schindler Jews live in the US and Europe, many of them are in Israel.

• Before WWII, Poland was home to 3.5 million Jews, today less than 4,000 Jews inhabit Poland

AWARDS•Plaque in Israel’s “Park of Heroes”•Declared a “Righteous Gentile” in Israel•Tree planted w/ his name along the “Avenue of the Righteous,” which leads to the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem, Israel

The End of a Hero•d. Oct. 9, 1974 in Frankfurt, Germany at age 66

•Cause of death: heart attack

•Last wish was to be buried in Jerusalem. He said, “My children are here…”•He was buried in Jerusalem, and on his tombstone it says, “The unforgettable savior of 1,200 Jews.”

Works Cited• http://www.schindlerjews.com/• http://www.oskarschindler.com/• Williams, John. “Remembrances.” Schindler’s List

Original Soundtrack. MCA, 1993. CD.• Schindler’s List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Liam

Neeson. Universal Pictures, 1993. Film.• Wukovits, John F. Oskar Schindler. San Diego: Lucent

Books, 2003.