“If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car, wouldn’t you help him?”

 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

 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

 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 (non- Jew)”  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

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