Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1928 in Moravia,Austria-Hungary. In 1939, Schindler joined the nazi party. He gained profit from the invasion by buying a factory in Krakow. He was a well respected guest at SS elite parties. He is a man credited with saving 1,100 Jews during the holocaust. He owned an ammunition and enamelware factories. He employed Jews because it was the cheapest labor around at the time and he got them with the help of his German speaking Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern. When he witnessed a raid and saw soldiers beat and round up innocent Jews to take them to concentration camps, he was appalled. He let his workers have a Minyan and learn Chumash at night. He treated his workers the best he could. He fed them, no one was beat or yelled at, and nobody was killed unlike what was going on next door at a concentration camp called Płaszów. Schindler set up a branch at his Zablocie factory. In this branch, the workers were making defective bullets for the German army. As the Red Army drew closer, the nazis were going to close any factory not contributing to the war. This included Schindler's factory. He had moved his workers to a factory in Brunnlintz where they were supposedly producing hand grenades and parts to a V-2 rocket. When the war was over, he emigrated to Argentina and bought a farm but it went bankrupt. He abandoned his wife and went back to Germany. He went to Frankfurt and tried to start up a cement factory but it also went bankrupt. In 1971, he moved to Heldesheim to live with friends. Due to a heart complaint, he was rushed to the hospital and died on October 9, 1974. He requested to be buried in Jerusalem because he said "that's where my children are". There is a novel about what he did called Schindler’s ark by Thomas Keneally and there is also a movie about him called Schindler's list which is directed by Steven Spielberg. This man showed moral courage by risking his life to save hundreds of other people. He stopped hundreds of Jews from being exterminated in concentration camps by sending them to work in his factory. He did this because he believed it was the right thing to do after seeing what he saw. He impacted many people by saving their lives. He received a ring from his workers after the war. There is an inscription on the ring that says "He who saves a single soul, saves the entire world". Thousands of people have been born because of him. The core values that motivated him were freedom, community, and believing in the right thing.
1937-Schindler joins the nazi party.
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1941-Schindler was arrested for Black Market activities. He bribed his way out and he had friends of high authority.
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1942-He was arrested for kissing a Jewish girl. He bribed his way out again.
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1942-deportation to Belzek has started, Schindler saves his office manager and other workers from getting on the train.
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1942-Schindler goes to Budapest,Hungary to inform Jewish Leaders about exterminations that are going on in Germany. They don't believe him.
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1943-Schindler makes Jewish Sub camp at his Emalia factory.
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1944-Sprays a car full of Jews with water as an act of kindness.
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1944-Schindler writes a list of his Jewish workers that he declares essential and moves them to a factory in Brunnlintz,Czechoslovakia.
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1945- Schindler is given a ring by his former workers. In the ring, the words "He who saves a single life, saves the entire world".
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1974- Schindler passes away in Heldesheim.
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