It's been 100 years to the day since one of the most noble and
courageous of men of the 20th century was born. Lets take a moment
to remember and respect Oskar Schindler.
The man himself was born 28 April, 1908, in Svitavy, Moravia, then
part of Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic. In 1939, he joined the
Nazi Party.
An opportunistic businessman, he was one of many who sought to
profit from the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Schindler gained
ownership of a factory in Kraków from a Jewish industrialist named
Nathan Wurzel, under Nazi Germany's Aryanization policies.
Schindler, on Wurzel's advice, renamed the factory Deutsche
Emaillewaren-Fabrik, or DEF, to manufacture enamelware. He obtained
around 1,000 Jewish slave labourers to work there with the help of
his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.
Schindler soon adapted his lifestyle to his income. He became a
well-respected guest on SS parties, having easy chats with
high-ranking SS officers, often for his benefit. Initially
Schindler may have been motivated by money — hiding wealthy Jewish
investors, for instance — but later he began shielding his workers
without regard for cost. He would, for instance, claim that
unskilled workers were essential to the factory. Harming his
workers would result in complaints and demands for compensation
from the government.
While witnessing a 1942 raid on the Kraków Ghetto, where soldiers
were used to round up the inhabitants for shipment to the
concentration camp at Płaszów, Schindler was appalled by the murder
of many of the Jews who had been working for him. He was a very
persuasive individual, and after the raid, increasingly used all of
his skills to protect his Schindlerjuden ("Schindler's Jews"), as
they came to be called.
Schindler went out of his way to take care of the Jews who worked
at DEF, often calling on his legendary charm and ingratiating
manner to help his workers get out of difficult situations. Once,
says author Eric Silver in The Book of the Just, "Two Gestapo men
came to his office and demanded that he hand over a family of five
who had bought forged Polish identity papers. 'Three hours after
they walked in,' Schindler said, 'two drunk Gestapo men reeled out
of my office without their prisoners and without the incriminating
documents they had demanded'".
The special status of his factory ("business essential to the war
effort") became the decisive factor for his efforts to support his
Jewish workers. Whenever the "Schindler Jews" were threatened with
deportation he could claim exemptions for them. Wives, children and
even handicapped persons were showed to be necessary mechanics and
metalworkers. He arranged with Amon Göth, the commandant of
Plaszow, for 700 Jews to be transferred to an adjacent factory
compound, where they would be relatively safe from the depredations
of the German guards. Schindler also reportedly began to smuggle
children out of the ghetto, delivering them to Polish nuns, who
either hid them from the Nazis or claimed they were Christian
orphans.
As the Red Army drew nearer to Auschwitz and the other easternmost
concentration camps, the SS began evacuating the remaining
prisoners westward. Schindler persuaded the SS officials to allow
him to move his 1,100 Jewish workers to Brněnec in Nazi-occupied
Czechoslovakia, thus sparing the Jews from certain death in the
extermination camps. In Brněnec, he gained another former Jewish
factory, where he was supposed to produce missiles and hand
grenades for the war effort. However, during the months that this
factory was running, not a single weapon produced could actually be
fired. Hence Schindler made no money; rather, his previously earned
fortune was getting steadily smaller from bribing officers and
caring for his workers.
Oskar Schindler's motives for the great humanity and courage he
displayed, have been the subject of much discussion. There has
often been speculation as to whether there was a deeper motivation.
He was once quoted as saying:
"I knew the people who worked for me... When you know people, you
have to behave toward them like human beings."
The writer Herbert Steinhouse, who interviewed Schindler in 1948 at
the behest of some of the surviving Schindlerjuden, said:
"Oskar Schindler's exceptional deeds stemmed from just that
elementary sense of decency and humanity that our sophisticated age
seldom sincerely believes in. A repentant opportunist saw the light
and rebelled against the sadism and vile criminality all around
him. The inference may be disappointingly simple, especially for
all amateur psychoanalysts who would prefer the deeper and more
mysterious motive that may, it is true, still lie unprobed and
unappreciated. But an hour with Oskar Schindler encourages belief
in the simple answer."
Whatever his motives, there is no denying that 1200 people would
very well have not survived past WW2, and the subsequent
descendants of these 1200 Schindlerjuden would not exist in this
world today.
So heres my tribute, my bit of respect and admiration for a man who
had the courage to keep his humanity when people all around him
were losing theirs. Mr Schindler, Sir, you have my deepest
respects. I salute you.
