Oskar Schindler

During the Nazi reign in Europe, almost six million Jews were brutally murdered by the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler's orders. This is an immense number of human lives that cannot be fully fathomed. During the late 1930's and into the early 1940's the senseless slaughter of the Jewish people was the reality for many people. During this time is when Oskar Schindler, a wealthy German business man, joined the Nazi party to capitalize on free labor, the Jews. Hitler joined forces with Japan and Italy to form the Axis Power and Hitler, believing he was an unstoppable force, engaged in war against many dominant countries such as Russia, England, and the United States. This is what ultimately led to his defeat. Sadly, the war lasted six long years which allowed for the great massacre of an entire race. Schindler was an unlikely war time hero being that he was of the killing party and since all his life he was a wealthy business man, joining the Nazi party to make a profit using free labor. Luckily, his drive to make money changed once he encountered the destructive reality of the war. He realized that he needed to no longer make money for himself, but use the money to rescue the Jewish people from the torment they were encountering. Oskar Schindler, through his extensive commitment and generosity toward the salvation of the Jewish race demonstrated his bravery, dedication, and selflessness.

Oskar Schindler was a brave man who worked relentlessly to ensure the safety of the Jewish population from the Nazi rein after realizing the true brutality of this genocide. Schindler proves that war truly changes people because of his change from a wealthy business man to a wartime hero. This change allowed him to take drastic and brave measures to ensure the safety of those in danger: "In February 1939, five months after the German annexation of the Sudetenland, he joined the Nazi Party. An opportunist businessman with a taste for the finer things in life, he seemed an unlikely candidate to become a wartime rescuer" (Crowe). During World War II, Schindler rescued more than 1,000 Jews from deportation to Auschwitz, Nazi Germany's largest killing center. It takes undying courage to save over 1,000 people especially when danger is on the horizon and his business and life were at stake. Aside from the fact that he was a wealthy business man, Schindler demonstrates change. It takes undying courage to make such a drastic change, from the driven business man focused on making money to the humble and brave hero using his life-long profit to purchase Jewish people and set them free under the threat of death by the Nazi government. Bravery is a form of self sacrifice. In another instance, Schindler decided to devote his previous profession to a non profitable but ethnical one which had to be done to ensure the safety and preservation of the race. This brave decision was observed even long after he passed away. This quality of bravery is very important and is revealed through his change: "At first he seemed like every other usurping German industrialist, driven by profit and unmoved by the means of his profiteering. But somewhere along the line, something changed. In December 1939, as occupied Poland was being torn apart by the savagery of the Holocaust, Schindler took his first faltering steps from the darkness of Nazism towards the light of heroism. 'If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car,' he said later of his wartime actions, 'wouldn't you help him?" (Pottinger). The heroic trait revealed though the German business man is once again bravery; bravery even when all he knows is to make money and he changes for the good seeing beyond greed. This bravery is demonstrated though his actions because when he turns his life around to go against the corrupt authority of the Nazi party he easily could have been killed. The most heroic actions can only be achieved though bravery as shown by Schindler; giving fully of one self. He shows us that all heroic actions are only achieved though the quality of giving one's own life for the life of another. 

Oskar Schindler is more than anything a selfless man. Schindler's extreme selflessness, putting others before him, just goes to show how selfless he truly is: "In late summer 1944, through negotiations and bribes from his war profits, Schindler secured permission from German army and SS officers to move his workers and other endangered Jews to Brunnlitz, near his hometown of Zwittau. Each of these Jews was placed on 'Schindler's List.' Schindler and his workforce set up a bogus munitions factory, which sustained them in relative safety until the war ended" ("Oskar Schindler: An Unlikely Hero"). The fact that Schindler went through all the trouble to pay away all his money and all his time to save the people is immensely selfless. He had to negotiate and bribe his way through the war for six years giving up his time so that others may live. "In 1942 and early 1943, the Germans decimated the ghetto's population of some 20,000 Jews through shootings and deportations. Several thousand Jews who survived the ghetto's liquidation were taken to Plaszow, a forced labor camp run by the sadistic SS commandant Amon Leopold Goeth. Moved by the cruelties he witnessed, Schindler contrived to transfer his Jewish workers to barracks at his factory" ("Oskar Schindler: An Unlikely Hero"). Although the quote does not directly demonstrate how Schindler is selfless, it demonstrates how selfless he is to go up against such evil as the Nazi regime. He could have easily been killed or tortured. Knowing this he still decided it was right for him to be the one to put his life on the line for others. He shows utter and complete selflessness disregarding the safety of himself. 

Oskar Schindler was an extremely determined man in which through his actions shows that no one is able to survive near death tragedies without being in a completely and utterly determined mindset. Oskar Schindler demonstrates the heroic trait of dedication to all aspects of life for good or evil:  "Though classified as an armaments factory, the Brunnlitz plant produced just one wagonload of live ammunition in just under eight months of operation. By presenting bogus production figures, Schindler justified the existence of the sub-camp as an armaments factory and thus facilitated the survival of over 1,000 Jews, sparing them the horrors and brutality of conventional camp life. Schindler left Brunnlitz only on May 9, 1945, the day that Soviet troops liberated the camp" (Pottinger). Through the action of tricking the Nazi forces to keep his camp open, he demonstrates dedication. He had to plead multiple times to the Nazi S.S. for the salvation of the Jewish workers. This life-risking action demonstrates true dedication to saving of lives. Schindler does many life altering and dangerous and illegal bargains with the Nazis to ensure the safety of his workers: "In June of 1942, the Nazis began deporting Krakow's Jews to labor camps. Some of Schindler's workers, including his office manager, were among the first group of people ordered to report to the train station. Furious at what he regarded as unwelcome S.S. interference in his business affairs, Schindler raced to the station and argued with an S.S. officer about how essential his workers were to the war effort. (It became his standard argument when dealing with similar situations over the next few years.) By dropping the names of some of his Nazi friends and making a couple of threats, he was finally able to rescue the workers and escort them safely back to his factory" (Oskar Schindler, Encyclopedia of the World). Schindler demonstrates his undying dedication to the survival of his workers by the bargaining with the Nazi Secret Service. Schindler had to lie and to bribe which then used  all his money, leaving him broke. For six years until the end of the war, Schindler manages to get all his 1,600 workers to safety. A man who was once all consumed with money that he could not look beyond it to see the people who he was hurting; to a man who bribed all his money away to save the innocent.  This is a true hero.

Oskar Schindler is truly a brave, determined, and selfless man. He sacrificed all of his money and time toward the salvation of the Jewish people. He demonstrates qualities of selflessness because at any time he could have been killed by the Nazi S.S. My hero is an inspiration to others because as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states "In late summer 1944, through negotiations and bribes from his war profits, Schindler secured permission from German army and S.S. officers to move his workers and other endangered Jews to Brunnlitz, near his hometown of Zwittau. Each of these Jews was placed on "Schindler's List." Schindler and his workforce set up a bogus munitions factory, which sustained them in relative safety until the war ended" ("Oskar Schindler: An Unlikely Hero"). Through Schindler, I learned that making a profit is only noble if you use it to help others in times of need.  Like Schindler, charitable acts may present themselves and it is up to the brave, dedicated and selfless to make the most of that opportunity.