Oskar Schindler

The Nazis killed 6 million Jews in total by the time the Holocaust was over. There would have been many more deaths if Oskar Schindler hadn't been brave enough to save more than 1,200 Jews. He took the Jews underneath his own wing and protected and rescued them from the horror of gas chambers, being cremated alive, and babies being thrown into the air and shot down by Nazis. He is a hero and many survivors owe their lives to him. Today there are at least 7,000 descendants of the Jews that Schindler saved.

Oskar Schindler was granted permission to move his factory to Brunnlitz from Plaszow. He also took 1,098 Jews that were working in the factory and were on the removal list of 25,000 men, women, and children with him. From there he spent every pfennig, over 4 million, to keep his workers out of the death camps. His wife Emilie Schindler also supported her husband's efforts and sold all of her jewelry for money to buy food, medicine, and clothes for the rescued Jews. During the Holocaust, Schindler created a medical sanatorium where Emilie helped the sick. People who didn't make it were buried in an unmarked Jewish grave so their remains were never found. He also arranged for Polish nuns to smuggle Jewish children out of the ghettos for him.

He did all he could to save the Jews from the Holocaust. Unfortunately one event went wrong and 300 women were suddenly sent to Auschwitz, the death camp. One of the survivors claimed that their hair was shaved off and that they were sent to the showers. They were in the camp for a few days, when Oskar Schindler showed up and rescued them from certain deaths. Out of the 2-3 million Jews that were killed, 300 women were rescued from the death camp Auschwitz.

Unfortunately Oskar Schindler went bankrupt and in 1957 he traveled back to Europe. When he returned to Germany people cursed him and stones were thrown at him. He overcame public hatred and he won an award in 1960 for saving the Jews from the Holocaust. Every year people of Israel would invite him to their country for a few months, pay for his trip in full, and many Jews warmly welcomed him.

When Oskar Schindler died in 1974, he was buried in Jerusalem. Before he was buried, his lead coffin was carried through the streets. Many Jews attended his funeral in sadness. After he passed, in every town or city that was built, there would be at least on street named after Oskar Schindler. No one or no Jew would ever forget the heroic man that saved 1,200 Jews named Oskar Schindler. He means so much to me because he did not care of what religion you were. And to know that he went through the dangers of the Holocaust to save many lives, that means to me that he is a hero.