Oskar Schindler

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland; after a few days, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Second World War had begun. The Second World War lasted for six years; millions of people died in the war and several countries were destroyed. However, there were also a lot of people who would help the Jews and fought against the Nazis, people needed them. The Nazis forced all the Jews in Poland to live in the crowded Krakow ghetto, and later on the Nazis transferred the Jews to Plaszow concentration camp to work for the Nazis. Then a man stepped up for the Jews, he was Oskar Schindler.

Schindler with GermansSchindlerOskar Schindler was born in a wealthy and Catholic family. He couldn’t control his desire for money; he made millions of dollars from the war and continued to work with “Schutzstaffel” party to make more money. Schindler was famous among SS officers, he was a charming, generous, and funny man. But Schindler was not a faithful man toward his wife, he hung out with girls and drank alcohol. People could never picture him as a hero back then. In October 1939, Schindler purchased the Rekord Ltd, it was a factory owned by the Jews before the war (USHMM). At first, Schindler wasn’t trying to rescue the Jews, he hired them to work in the factory because they were cheap . He was partying with German officers, so when he decided to employ these Jewish workers, it didn’t cost him a lot. First group of the Jews arrived, Schindler really didn’t care for them until a German soldier killed one of his worker. Schindler wasn’t a friend  of  the Jews, but he loved humanity. He disagreed with the Nazi party’s way of get rid of the Jews. No one during that time period would stop a German soldier from killing the Jews on the street, but Schindler did it, he was a brave man. He dared to communicate with SS officers, he sat down with them and convinced them these Jewish workers were essential to him and the war. The SS officer agreed, Schindler started letting people move to his factory so they no longer needed to live in the ghetto. Then Schindler used his money to bribe some SS officers to let them kept the secret from Hitler. (Eastern Illinois University)

Schindler with his workersSchindler in middleOskar Schindler's factory SchindlerSchindler’s factory became more and more popular in the area. The Jews wished to move into the factory to escape from the Nazis. One day, an old man came to Schindler’s office and told Schindler how thankful he was. The old man only had one arm which meant he could not work as efficiently as the others. After the old man left, Schindler got mad; he thought this was dangerous for his workers and himself, because he promised to the SS officer all of his workers were essential workers. But Schindler’s assistant, Itzhak Stern, reminded Schindler how miserable these Jewish people’s lives were and calmed Schindler down.

After a while, a new German officer came to town, his name was Amon Goeth. The Jews saw him as a demon. Amon Goeth had an unpredictable temper, he would randomly kill the Jews on the street. The second day he came in, he was introduced to Schindler. Amon Goeth didn’t believe in saving lives, he only believed in killing. Schindler was afraid that one day Amon Goeth’s behavior would affect his business, so he tried to convince him to control his temper. Schindler soon became a friend of Goethe. When they talked about power, Amon Goethe thought power was to kill someone without any punishment, but Schindler said “Power is when you have every justification to kill someone, and then you don’t.” This sentence made Amon start thinking about his behavior. Schindler was a wise man, he knew how to please the SS officers, he knew how to convince them, and he knew how to protect his own profits and workers. Amon and Schindler were very different, but eventually Schindler convinced Amon to stop killing innocent people. One day, Schindler got news from the German office that all the Jews were going to be transferred to a German concentration camp; Schindler immediately rushed to Amon and asked him to establish Plazow as a subcamp of the concentration camp. Then Schindler made his famous list called “Schindler’s list”, he put about 1,200 Jews on the list to save them from being transferred to the camp. Schindler changed the factory to ammunition factory but they had only made one workable bullet in several months.

After the war, a reporter found one of the “Schindler Jews”. When the reporter asked him why Schindler did this to them, the Jew told the reporter he asked the same question to Schindler before, Schindler responded “If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car, wouldn’t you help him?” Schindler did all these not because they were Jewish people, he did it because they were human beings. When Schindler left the factory and sent the Jews away, the Jews used their golden teeth to forge a ring for Schindler. On the ring, it says “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.”

Oskar Schindler was a true hero, he risked his life for strangers, for people he never met. He knew if one day something went wrong, he would be killed by the Nazis, but he took the risk. He was a hero of the human race.

Citations: 

“Oskar Schindler” Jewish Virtual Library https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/oskar-schindler

 “Oskar Schindler.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005787#

 “The Holocaust Oskar Schindler” Eastern Illinois University   https://www.eiu.edu/eiutps/holocaust_schindler.php

 “Oskar Schindler: The Man and the Hero (Holocaust Essays).” The Holocaust History - A People's and Survivor History by April N. Aberly   https://remember.org/imagine/schindler