1) Early Life
Catholic house-hold. The Schindler family was the richest in Zwitlaw bacause they owned a machinery business.
2) Pre-war
alchohol. During The Great Depression of 1929, the family machinery business went bankrupt. His parents devorced, and his mother died later. Oskar went to
Poland in seach of a job as machinery salesman.
3)War
enamel kitchenware. In his search for power, he opened a factory outside the ghetto. He hired Jewish workers, saving them from being sent to concentration
camps. In 1942, Oskar heard his worker saying in Krakow, Jews were being sent to Plazow, one of the most brutal concentration camps. Oskar persuaded the
SS and the Armaments Administration to make his factory part of Plazow. He hired those even those unfit for work and saved 900 Jews. In his factory, no one
could enter without permission from Oskar himself. He spent every night in his office in case the Gestapo came. He also registered the elderly as 20 years younger
than they really were and children were registered as adults. Artists, docters, and lawyers were registered as mechanics and steel workers, just so they could stay
alive. One of his workers, Eva Scheuer, said," He took sides with the underdog. When someone was in trouble he tried to help." Another one of his workers,
Zev Kadem, said, "If he was a righteous, honest guy, no one in a corrupt, greedy system like the SS would accept him. Schindler used the corrupt ways, creativity
, and inginuity against the monster machine dedicated to death." He also said, "It's not enough to be good. One has to act against evil." Schindler cared very much
for his Jewish workers.He spent every pfennig he had, even his wife Emilie's jewels were sold, to buy cloths, medicine, and food for his workers. To get more
workers, he used bribes like money and illegal black market goods. In October 1944, Oskar was told to relocate his factory to Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia and
was changed to an armaments factory. He hired 800 men from Gross-Rossen and 300 women from Auschwitz saving a total of 1,100 Jews. The 300 women
from Auschwitz were the only ones to make it out of Auschwitz during the war. Later in the war, Oskar was recruited to get information on Poland by the German
Intelligance Agency and did a good job doing so. This helped later when he needed contacts and to help protect his Jews. In January 1945, Oskar and Emilie
saved 107 of 120 Jewish men (13 had frozen to death in a cattle car with no food or water.) Oskar persuaded the commandant at Brunnlitz that he needed the
prisoners for work. The 107 men had been badly frostbitten and emaciated. He nursed them back to health and never made them work. As the war was coming
to an end, Oskar prepared duffle bags for his workers. the bags contained items so the Jews could start new lives. One bag contained a blanket, sewing
equiptment, and a bottle of vodka among other items. Some used the blankets to make clothes and traded the vodka for food. On May, 1945, the Russians took
Brunnlitz. Schindler said he was free and he was a fugitive and the Jews shouldn't seek revenge.
4) Postwar
couldn't stand by and see people get destroyed. I did what I could, what I had to do, what my coscience told me I must do. Thats all there is to it. Really, nothing
more." After the war, Oskar's life was dependant on gifts and money from his old workers. oskar was hated very much in Germany. He had rocks thrown at him,
he was persecuted, and was called names like "Jew kisser". He had his German citizenship taken away. Since he was a former Nazi, he couldn't go to the U.S.
So,in 1949, Oskar and Emilie moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina and started a farm, which later went bankrupt. In 1957, Oskar returned to Europe, while Emilie
stayed in Argentina. They never saw eachother again. On July 18, 1967, Yad Vashem recognized Oskar as "Fighteous Among the Nations". On October 9,
1974, Oskar died in Frankfurt, Germany of liver failure. A list of his Jewish employees was found in a suitcase in 1999.