Schindler, Oskar

(1908–1974)

   Although not a diplomat, Oskar Schindler contributed to the rescue of Jews at great personal risk. The subject of Steven Spielberg’s epic film, Schindler’s List, he was one of several German businessmen, including Julius Madritsch and Raimund Titsch, who aided Jews interned in the Plaszow labor camp by providing them with ample food rations and protection from the brutal whims of Amon Goeth, the camp commandant.

   Because of his connections with German officials, Schindler was able to acquire two firms that had previously been owned by Jews. The firms, which produced enamel kitchenware products, came under the jurisdiction of the German occupation administration in Krakow. Schindler employed mainly Jewish workers in his factories, thereby protecting them from deportation to Auschwitz. When the Krakow ghetto was liquidated in early 1943, many of its Jews were sent to the Plaszow labor camp, administered by Goeth. Schindler was able to arrange with Goeth for the transfer of about 900 Jewish workers from the camp to his factory. Some of the workers in Schindler’s factory were totally unfit for the tasks assigned to them; had this been discovered by the Germans, they would have been worked to death at the labor camp or deported to Auschwitz.

   For reasons that remain unclear, Schindler was determined to protect “his Jews.” When the Soviets approached Krakow in 1944, the Germans allowed him to reorganize his firm as an armaments production company in Brunulitz, located in the Sudetenland, and he was permitted to take his workers with him. Because the company produced shells for rocket casings, the Germans considered Schindler’s firm vital to the war effort. Schindler, therefore, was given permission to transfer about 1,100 Jewish men from the Gross Rosen camp and 300 Jewish women from Auschwitz. In Brunulitz, the 1,100 Jews were provided with food and medical care, and allowed to practice their religion. Schindler also rescued 100 Jews from the Goleszow camp, who were left stranded and nearly frozen to death in a railway car, and brought them to the Brunulitz factory, where he nourished them back to health. After the war, Schindler was impoverished and lived on the sufferance of the “Schindler-Juden (Jews),” as those he saved came to be known. In 1962, he was honored by Yad Vashem when a tree bearing his name was planted in the Garden of the Righteous.

   See also Forced labor; Righteous Gentiles.