Oskar Schindler

Can you believe that a member of the Nazi party was known as the most “Right on Gentile” and saving 1,200 Jews from dying? This businessman originally only cared about money, but after witnessing the injustices, he embraced compassion while risking everything. If you were thinking of Oskar Schindler, you would be absolutely right. Schindler changed “Nazism” into “Heroism” using his skills as a businessman and courage to stand up for what is right of Jewish people.  

Schindler was born April 28, 1908, in Zwittau, Austria-Hungary. He grew up in a rich Catholic family and when he was 19, he married Emilie Schindler. Schindler was the oldest of two children, born to Hans Schindler, and Franziska Luser. The Schindlers were ethnically German. After leaving school in 1924, Schindler sold farm equipment for his father, which was during the time he met Emilie.

In 1935 Schindler joined the pro-Nazi Sudeten German Party, and begin working for the German Intelligence agency. In 1939, Germans invaded and occupied Poland and Schindler became active in the black market. Later, he leased a formerly Jewish-owned enamelware factory. He renamed the facility Fabryka Oskara Schindlera - Emalia and started business with a small staff. Three months later he had several hundred employees, seven of whom were Jewish but in 1942, almost half of his workers were Jewish. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oskar-Schindler

Later in 1944, he opened another factory were his workers made defective bullets for German guns. In 1945, the war ended and he, his wife, and many workers fled the country because he was wanted for war crimes in Czechoslovakia.

In conclusion, Oskar Schindler was a brave man and one of most powerful quotes were, “I had to help them. There was no choice.”