Transcript Oskar Schindler - reflectionsandrevolutions

1908-1974
“If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car,
wouldn’t you help him?”
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Ethnic German
Born on April 28, 1908 in Zwittau, Austria-Hungary
Catholic; had two childhood friends that were Jewish
Very sinful; womanizing, gambling, money-hungry
Father: Hans Schindler was a business owner
Mother: Louise Schindler was a homemaker
Sister: Elfriede was very close to Oskar
Married Emilie at 20 which severed his relationship with his
father
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Schindler used the war as an opportunity to make a fortune
He followed the SS into Poland and became friends with
leaders of the Gestapo
Operated a factory that created enamel kitchenware and hired
Jews since they were the cheapest labor; started to earn a lot
of money by supplying Hitler’s army
 In
June, 1942, the Nazis were relocating the
Jews in the Krakow ghetto where Schindler’s
factory was being run
 Schindler bribed and threatened an SS soldier
and stated that his workers were “essential”
 Liquidation of the Krakow ghetto began early
in 1943 but Schindler again bribed Amon
Goeth, who was in charge of the process, to
set up a mini camp within the ghetto for
Schindler’s Jewish workers
Nazis decided to send all the Jews in the Krakow
Ghetto to death camps
 Schindler bribed Goeth with the idea of moving his
factory to Czechoslavakia to supply the Third Reich
with vital war supplies
 Schindler came up with about 1,200 names of Jewish
workers he would take with him
 In the first seven months of the factory’s operation,
the workers never produced a single useful shell
(Schindler called it “start-up difficulties” when in
reality he purposefully weakened the factory’s
manufacturing process
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 War
ended on May 8, 1945
 Schindler apologized to his workers for what was
done to them and asked them not to seek revenge
 Schindler went bankrupt by 1957 due to
overspending, drinking, and gambling; he relied on
the Jewish organization B’nai B’rith for funds to
survive
 Schindler left his wife in 1958 and went to West
Germany where he was looked down upon by his
neighbors for helping Jews; lived on retirement
money and funds from the Schindlerjuden
(Schindler’s Jews)
 Went to Israel and was greeted with open arms
 When
he turned 54, Schindler was
declared a “Righteous Gentile (nonJew)”
 He planted a tree on the Avenue of
the Righteous which leads up to
Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Museum
(Holocaust memorial)
 Died
of heart and
liver problems
 Buried in a Catholic
cemetery on Mount
Zion in Israel
 Over 500
Schindlerjuden
attended his funeral
 In
the 1990s there were
over 6,000 Holocaust
survivors and their
descendents alive who
were alive because of
Oskar Schindler
 “I hated
the brutality, the sadism, and the insanity of
Nazism. I just couldn’t stand by and see people
destroyed. I did what I could, what I had to do, what
my conscience told me I must do. That’s all there is to
it. Really, nothing more.” -Oskar Schindler
 Director:
Steven Spielberg
 Schindler was played by
Liam Neeson
 Released December 15,
1993 (USA)
 Tagline: Whoever saves
one life, saves the world
entire.
 Won 7 Oscars, another 63
wins and 21 nominations
 www.jewishvirtuallibrary.com
 www.ushmm.org
 www.notablebiographies.com
 www.oskarschindler.com
 www.imdb.com