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Birth and early life
Oskar Schindler was born in April of 1908. An ethnic German and a Catholic, he remained in Svitavy during the interwar period and held Czech citizenship in 1918. -
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Marriage and early jobs
After attending a series of trade schools in Brno and marrying Emilie Pelzl in 1928, Schindler had a variety of jobs, such as, working in his father's farm machinery, opening a driving school, and selling government property. In February 1939, five months after the German annexation of the Sudetenland, he joined the Nazi Party. -
Poland for a new life
Oskar moves to Poland hoping to profit from the conflict between the polish and the Nazi's. He quickly became friends with high raking Nazi officers. -
It begins...
Nazis began relocating Krakow's Jews to labor camps. Some of Schindler's workers, were among the first group of people ordered to report to the train station. Schindler raced to the station and argued with an SS officer. He dropped the names of some of his Nazi friends and he made a couple of threats. The workers returned safely to his factory -
His work
His workers were being forced on a train and he dropped some higher up Nazi party members names. -
His work part 2
He bribed some higher up to turn his factory into a camp, but more efficient than the others, such as making stuff for the war. -
His list
He had to make a list of those people he wanted to take with him. He was now faced with the task of choosing those he wanted to save. He came up with a list containing about eleven hundred names, including all the employees of Emalia Camp. -
His list part 2
He moved his factory to Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia. About eight hundred men were sent to him in box cars, the women and children however got rerouted to Auschwitz. He immediately went to save them and take them back to his factory. -
The end of the war
He told his Jewish workers not too be vengeful, and the SS officers to not cause blood shed. He then fled the country with his wife hoping to avoid the Russians. -
After the war
He went bankrupt multiple times, drank quite a lot, and left his wife. -
Death
He died of heart and liver problems in 1974. He was buried in a Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. 500 Shindlerjuden attended his funereal.
