Oskar Schindler: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|German industrialist and humanitarian during the Nazi era (1908–1974)}}
{| class="infobox biography" style="width: 21em; text-align: center;"
{{for|the similarly-named racehorse|Oscar Schindler (horse)}}
|-'''KARI'''! colspan="2" style="font-size: larger;" | Oskar Schindler
{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
|-
{{Use British English|date=November 2024}}
| colspan="2" style="font-size: normal;" | [[Image:Oskar Schindler.jpg|none|Oskar Schindler|A photographic portrait of Oskar Schindler.]]
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
|-
{{Infobox person
! Born
| image = Schindler, Oskar (3x4 cropped).jpg
| [[April 28]], [[1908]] <br><small> [[Svitavy|Zwittau-Brinnlitz]], [[Austria]], now [[Czech Republic]]</small>
| caption = Schindler sometime after 1945
|-
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1908|04|28|df=yes}}
! Died
| birth_place = [[Zwittau]], [[Margraviate of Moravia]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| [[October 9]], [[1974]]<br> <small>[[Hildesheim]], [[Germany]]</small>
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|10|09|1908|04|28|df=yes}}
|}
| death_place = [[Hildesheim]], [[Lower Saxony]], [[West Germany]]
| resting_place = [[Mount Zion]] Catholic Cemetery, [[Jerusalem]], Israel
'''Oskar Schindler''' ([[April 28]], [[1908]] &ndash; [[October 9]], [[1974]]) was an [[Austria-Hungary|Austrian]] [[industrialist]] who saved his [[Jew]]ish workers from [[the Holocaust]]. He saved as many as 1,200 Jews by having them work in his enamelware and munitions factories located in [[Poland]] and what is now the [[Czech Republic]]. He was the subject of the film [[Schindler's List]].
| resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|31|46|12.5|N|35|13|49.4|E|type:landmark_region:IL}}
| occupation = {{Hlist|Industrialist|humanitarian}}
| known_for = Saving the lives of 1,200 [[Jews]] during [[World War II]]
| party = {{Plain list|
* [[SdP]] (1935–1938)
* [[NSDAP]] (1939–1945)
}}
| spouse = {{Marriage|[[Emilie Schindler|Emilie Pelzl]]|1928}}
| children = 2
| awards = [[Righteous Among the Nations]] (1993)
}}
 
{{Righteous Among the Nations}}
== Early life ==
Oskar Schindler was born on 28 April 1908 in Zwittau-Brinnlitz, [[Moravia]], Austria-Hungary (now [[Svitavy]], [[Czech Republic]]). He was born into a wealthy business family, but in the 1930s his family soon went bankrupt because of the [[Great Depression]]. As a teenager, Schindler joined the [[Nazi Party]]. His parents, Hans and Louisa, divorced when Oskar was 27, the source of his resentment towards his father.
 
'''Oskar Schindler''' ({{IPA|de|ˈɔskaʁ ˈʃɪndlɐ|lang|De-Oskar Schindler.ogg}}; 28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a German [[industrialist]], [[humanitarian]], and member of the [[Nazi Party]] who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 [[Jews]] during [[the Holocaust]] by employing them in his [[enamelware]] and [[ammunition]]s factories in [[occupied Poland]] and the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]]. He is the subject of the 1982 novel ''[[Schindler's Ark]]'' and its 1993 film adaptation, [[Schindler's List|''Schindler's List'']].
Oskar was very close to an older sister, Elfriede.
 
Schindler grew up in [[Svitavy|Zwittau]], [[Moravia]], and worked in several trades until he joined the ''[[Abwehr]]'', the military intelligence service of [[Nazi Germany]], in 1936. Before the beginning of the [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia]] in 1938, he collected information on railways and troop movements for the German government. He was arrested for espionage by the Czechoslovak government but was released under the terms of the [[Munich Agreement]] that year. He continued to collect information for the Nazis, working in Poland in 1939 before the [[invasion of Poland]] at the start of the [[Second World War]]. He joined the Nazi Party in 1939. That same year, he acquired [[Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory|an enamelware factory]] in [[Kraków]], Poland, which employed at its peak in 1944 about 1,750 workers, of whom 1,000 were Jews. His ''Abwehr'' connections helped him protect his Jewish workers from deportation and death in the [[Nazi concentration camps]]. As time went on, he had to give Nazi officials ever larger bribes and gifts of luxury items obtainable only on the [[black market]] to keep his workers safe.
== During World War II ==
An opportunistic businessman, he was one of many who sought to profit from the [[Polish September Campaign|German invasion of Poland]] in [[1939]]. Schindler gained ownership of a factory in Neywork from a Jewish industrialist named Nathaniel Wurzel. Schindler, on Wurzel's advice, renamed the factory Nats awsome factory, or DEF, to manufacture enamelware. He obtained around 1,300 Jewish slave labourers to work there with the help of his [[Jew]]ish accountant [[Itzhak Stern]]. When Stern and Schindler were first introduced to each other, Schindler held out his hand. Stern declined to take it. When Schindler asked why, he explained that he was a Jew and it was forbidden for a Jew to shake a German's hand. Schindler answered with a German expletive: "Scheiße" (a scatological term pronounced shy-seh). Stern could tell from the start that this was no Nazi. Initially Schindler may have been motivated by money &mdash; hiding wealthy Jewish investors, for instance &mdash; but later he began shielding his workers without regard to cost. He would, for instance, claim that unskilled workers were essential to the factory. Harming his workers would result in complaints and demands for compensation from the government. Schindler was arrested three times during the war, once even for just kissing a young Jewish girl on the cheek. His second arrest was by the [[Gestapo]] for black market activities. Today it is known that Schindler was an ''[[Abwehr]]'' agent.
 
By July 1944, Germany was losing the war; the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS) began closing down the easternmost concentration camps and deporting the remaining prisoners westward. Many were murdered at the [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] and the [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp]]. Schindler convinced SS-''[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' [[Amon Göth]], commandant of the nearby [[Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp]], to allow him to move his factory to [[Brněnec]]/Brünnlitz in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, thus sparing his workers from almost certain death in the [[gas chamber]]s of Auschwitz. Using names provided by a [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] officer named Marcel Goldberg, Göth's secretary [[Mietek Pemper]] compiled and typed the list of 1,200 Jews who travelled to Brünnlitz in October 1944. Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent his workers' execution until the [[End of World War II in Europe|end of the Second World War in Europe]] in May 1945, by which time he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black market purchases of supplies for his workers.
While witnessing a [[1942]] raid on the [[Kraków Ghetto]], where troops were used to round up the inhabitants for shipment to the [[concentration camp]] at [[Plaszow]], Schindler was appalled by the murder of many of the Jews he had tried to hide. He was a very persuasive individual, and after the raid, increasingly used all of his skills to protect his ''[[Schindlerjuden]]'' (Schindler's Jews). Schindler went out of his way to take care of the Jews who worked at DEF, often calling on his legendary charm and ingratiating manner to help his workers get out of difficult situations. Once, says author Eric Silver in ''The Book of the Just'', "Two Gestapo men came to his office and demanded that he hand over a family of five who had bought forged Polish identity papers. 'Three hours after they walked in,' Schindler said, 'two drunk Gestapo men reeled out of my office without their prisoners and without the incriminating documents they had demanded'". Schindler also reportedly began to smuggle children out of the ghetto, delivering them to Polish nuns, who either hid them from the Nazis or claimed they were Christian orphans. He arranged with [[Amon Göth]], the commander of Plaszow, for 900 Jews to be transferred to an adjacent factory compound, where they would be relatively safe from the depredations of the SS guards.
 
Schindler moved to [[West Germany]] after the war, where he was supported financially by Jewish relief organisations. After receiving a partial reimbursement for his wartime expenses, he moved with his wife, [[Emilie Schindler|Emilie]], to Argentina, where they took up farming. When they went bankrupt in 1958 Schindler left his wife and returned to Germany, where he failed at several business ventures and relied on financial support from ''[[Schindlerjuden]]'' ("Schindler Jews")—the people whose lives he had saved during the war. He died on 9 October 1974 in [[Hildesheim]], Germany, and was buried in [[Jerusalem]] on [[Mount Zion]], the only former member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way. Oskar and Emilie Schindler were named [[Righteous Among the Nations]] by [[Yad Vashem]] in 1993.
[[Image:Schindlers factory Brnenec CZ 2004b.JPG|thumb|right|220px|Schindler's factory at [[Brněnec]] in 2004]]
{{TOC limit|2}}
Schindler was arrested twice on suspicion of [[conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]], but managed both times to avoid being jailed. Schindler would typically bribe government officials to avoid investigation. When the advance of the [[Red Army]] threatened to capture the concentration camps, almost all were ordered destroyed and a majority of the inmates were murdered. However, Schindler moved 1,200 "workers" to a factory at Brněnec-[[Brünnlitz]] in the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] in October [[1944]]. When one shipment of his workers was misrouted to [[Auschwitz]], he managed to have them returned to him with an extremely hefty bribe. Brněnec was captured by the Soviets in May [[1945]].
 
==Early life and education==
Schindler can be viewed as going through three stages: a first stage where he was primarily interested in making money, a middle stage where he wanted to make money, protect his workers, and be safe himself, and a third stage where he realized he would not be able to achieve all three of these goals, and chose to protect his workers.
Schindler was born on 28 April 1908, into a [[Sudeten German]] family in [[Zwittau]], [[Moravia]], [[Austria-Hungary]]. His father was Johann "Hans" Schindler, the owner of a farm machinery business, and his mother was Franziska "Fanny" Schindler (née Luser). His sister, Elfriede, was born in 1915. After attending primary and secondary school, Schindler enrolled in a technical school, from which he was expelled in 1924 for forging his report card. He later graduated but did not take the ''[[abitur]]'' exams that would have enabled him to go to university. Instead, he took courses in [[Brno]] in several trades, including chauffeuring and machinery, and worked for his father for three years. A motorcycle enthusiast since his youth, he bought a 250-cc [[Moto Guzzi]] racing motorcycle and competed recreationally in mountain races for the next few years.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=2–7}}
 
On 6 March 1928 Schindler married [[Emilie Schindler|Emilie Pelzl]], daughter of a prosperous Sudeten German farmer from [[Maletín|Maletein]].{{sfn|Schindler|Rosenberg|1997|pp=4–6, 26}} They moved in with Oskar's parents and occupied the upstairs rooms, where they lived for seven years.{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=13}} Soon after marriage, Schindler quit working for his father and took a series of jobs, including a position at Moravian Electrotechnic and the management of a driving school. After an 18-month stint in the Czech army, where he rose to the rank of [[lance corporal]] in the Tenth Infantry Regiment of the 31st Army, he returned to Moravian Electrotechnic, which went bankrupt shortly afterward. His father's farm machinery business closed around the same time, leaving Schindler unemployed for a year. He took a job with Jaroslav Šimek Bank of [[Prague]] in 1931, where he worked until 1938.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=7–8}}
== After the war ==
[[Image:Schindlergrave.jpg|thumb|right|Oskar Schindler's grave.]]
At the end of the war, Schindler emigrated to [[Argentina]]. He went bankrupt and returned to Germany in [[1958]], to a series of unsuccessful business ventures. Schindler settled down in a little apartment at Am Hauptbahnhof Nr. 4 in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany and tried—again with help from the Jewish organization—to establish a cement factory. This went bankrupt in 1961. His business partner cancelled their partnership, saying, “''…now it is clear that you are a friend of Jews and I will not work together with you anymore…''”
 
Schindler was arrested several times in 1931 and 1932 for public drunkenness. Also around this time, he had an affair with Aurelie Schlegel, a school friend. They had a daughter, Emily, in 1933, and a son, Oskar Jr, in 1935. Schindler later claimed the boy was not his son.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=8–9}} Schindler's father, an alcoholic, abandoned his wife in 1935. She died a few months later after a long illness.{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=13}}
Oskar Schindler died in [[Hildesheim]], Germany, on [[9 October]] [[1974]], at the age of 66. He was buried at the Christian Cemetery at [[Zion|Mount Zion]] in [[Jerusalem]]<ref>Schindler's grave is located near the bus parking lot near Zion Gate. At the bottom of the ramp leading to the parking lot, across the street is a gate to the graveyard with a small sign indicating the way to his grave. It is on the lowest terrace, to the right of the entrance. The GPS ___location is UTM 711223 East, 3517126 North. The grave is easy to spot since it is the only one with many stones piled on top of it, each one placed there as a token of gratitude by one of the people he saved or their loved ones.</ref>, [[Israel]].
 
==Spy for the ''Abwehr''==
No one really knows what Schindler's motives were. However, he was quoted as saying "I knew the people who worked for me... When you know people, you have to behave toward them like human beings."
Schindler joined the separatist [[Sudeten German Party]] in 1935.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=16}} Although a citizen of [[Czechoslovakia]], Schindler became a spy for the ''[[Abwehr]]'', the military intelligence service of [[Nazi Germany]], in 1936. He was assigned to ''Abwehrstelle II Commando VIII'', based in [[Breslau]].{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=17}} He later told Czech police that he did it because he needed the money; by this time, Schindler had a drinking problem and was chronically in debt.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=19}}
 
His tasks for the ''Abwehr'' included collecting information on railways, military installations and troop movements, as well as recruiting other spies within Czechoslovakia in advance of Nazi Germany's planned invasion.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=22, 24–25}} He was arrested by the Czech government for [[espionage]] on 18 July 1938 and immediately imprisoned; he was released as a political prisoner under the terms of the [[Munich Agreement]], the instrument under which the Czech [[Sudetenland]] was annexed by Germany on 1 October.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=40–41}}{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=674}} Schindler applied for membership in the [[Nazi Party]] on 1 November and was accepted the following year.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=46–47}}
== Schindler commemorated ==
[[Image:Schindler1.jpg|frame|right|[[Liam Neeson]] portraying Schindler.]]
 
After some time off to recover in Zwittau, Schindler was promoted to second in command of his ''Abwehr'' unit and relocated with his wife to [[Ostrava]] (Ostrau), on the Czech-Polish border, in January 1939.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=48, 51}} He was involved in espionage in the months leading up to Hitler's seizure of the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March. Emilie helped him with paperwork, processing and hiding secret documents in their apartment for the ''Abwehr'' office.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=53–54}} As Schindler frequently travelled to Poland on business, he and his 25 agents were in a position to collect information about Polish military activities and railways for the planned [[invasion of Poland]].{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=18, 54, 63}} One assignment called for his unit to monitor and provide information about the railway line and tunnel in the [[Jablunkov Pass]], deemed critical for the movement of German troops.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=56}} Schindler continued to work for the ''Abwehr'' until as late as fall 1940, when he was sent to Turkey to investigate corruption among the ''Abwehr'' officers assigned to the German embassy there.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=291–292}}
In 1963, he was honoured at [[Israel]]'s [[Yad Vashem]] memorial to [[the Holocaust]] as one of the [[Righteous Among the Nations]], only the third Christian so recognized. He was given an honour to plant a tree at the [[Avenue of the Righteous]].
Schindler's story, retold by Holocaust survivor [[Poldek Pfefferberg]], was the basis for [[Thomas Keneally|Tom Keneally]]'s book ''[[Schindler's Ark]]'' (the novel was later renamed ''Schindler's List''), which was adapted into the [[1993 in film|1993]] movie ''[[Schindler's List]]'' by [[Steven Spielberg]]. In the film, he is played by [[Liam Neeson]]. The film went on to win the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]].
 
==World FootnotesWar II==
===Emalia===
Schindler first arrived in [[Kraków]] (Krakau) in October 1939 on ''Abwehr'' business and took an apartment the following month. Emilie maintained the apartment in Ostrava and visited Oskar in Kraków at least once a week.{{sfn|Schindler|Rosenberg|1997|p=43}}{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=87}} In November 1939, he contacted interior decorator Mila Pfefferberg to decorate his new apartment. Her son, [[Poldek Pfefferberg|Leopold "Poldek" Pfefferberg]], soon became one of his contacts for [[black market]] trading. They eventually became lifelong friends.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=88–91}}
 
The same month, Schindler was introduced to [[Itzhak Stern]], an accountant for Schindler's fellow ''Abwehr'' agent Josef "Sepp" Aue, who had taken over Stern's formerly-Jewish-owned place of employment as a ''treuhänder'' (trustee).{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=100}} Property belonging to Polish Jews, including their possessions, places of business, and homes, were seized by the Germans beginning immediately after the invasion, and Jewish citizens were stripped of their [[civil rights]].{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=147}} Schindler showed Stern the balance sheet of a company he was thinking of acquiring, an [[Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory|enamelware factory]] called Rekord Ltd{{efn|The full name of the company was Pierwsza Małopolska Fabryka Naczyń Emaliowanych i Wyrobów Blaszanych "Rekord".{{sfn|Brzoskwinia|2008}} }} owned by a consortium of Jewish businessmen that had filed for bankruptcy earlier that year.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=107–108}} Stern advised him that rather than running the company as a trusteeship under the auspices of the ''[[Haupttreuhandstelle Ost]]'' (Main Trustee Office for the East), he should buy or lease the business, as that would give him more freedom from the Nazis' dictates, including freedom to hire more Jews.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=101}}
<references />
 
With the financial backing of several Jewish investors, including one of the owners, [[Abraham Bankier]], Schindler signed an informal lease agreement on the factory on 13 November 1939 and formalised the arrangement on 15 January 1940.{{efn|He bought the business outright on 26 June 1942.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=109}} }} He renamed it ''Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik'' (German Enamelware Factory) or DEF, and it soon became known by the nickname "Emalia".{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=111}}{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=39}} He initially acquired a staff of seven Jewish workers (including Bankier, who helped him manage the company{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=102}}) and 250 non-Jewish Poles.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=114}} At its peak in 1944, the business employed around 1,750 workers, a thousand of whom were Jews.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=136}} Schindler also helped run Schlomo Wiener Ltd, a wholesale outfit that sold his enamelware, and was leaseholder of Prokosziner Glashütte, a glass factory.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=120, 136}}
==See also==
* [[Emilie Schindler]]
* [[Raoul Wallenberg]]
* [[Albert Göring]]
* [[Corrie ten Boom]]
* [[Frank Foley]]
* [[Ala Gertner]]
* [[Wilm Hosenfeld]]
* [[Karl Plagge]]
* [[John Rabe]]
* [[Ho Feng Shan]]
* [[Chiune Sugihara]]
* [[Nicholas Winton]]
* [[Henri Reynders (Dom Bruno)|Henri Reynders]]
* [[Schindlerjuden|Schindler Jews]]
* [[Itzhak Stern]]
* [[Dimitar Peshev]]
* [[Nat]]
* [[Nick sanders]]
* [[Jamie Larson]]
 
Schindler's ties with the ''Abwehr'' and his connections in the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' and its Armaments Inspectorate enabled him to obtain contracts to produce enamel cookware for the military.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=86}} These connections also later helped him protect his Jewish workers from deportation and death.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=79}} As time went on, Schindler had to give Nazi officials ever larger bribes and gifts of luxury items obtainable only on the black market to keep his workers safe.{{sfn|Schindler|Rosenberg|1997|p=61}} Bankier, a key black market connection, obtained goods for bribes as well as extra materials for use in the factory.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=104}} Schindler enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and pursued extramarital relationships with his secretary, Viktoria Klonowska, and Eva Kisch Scheuer, a merchant specialising in enamelware from DEF.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=203–204}} Emilie Schindler visited for a few months in 1940 and moved to Kraków to live with Oskar in 1941.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|pp=40–41}}{{sfn|Schindler|Rosenberg|1997|p=49}}
==Books==
* Crowe, David M. ''Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind The List''. Philadelphia: Westview Press, 2004. ISBN 081333375X
* Keneally, Thomas. ''Schindler's Ark''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. ISBN 0-3403-3501-7. Republished as ''Schindler's List'' in 1993, ISBN 0-6718-8031-4.
== External links ==
* [http://www.oskarschindler.com/ The Schindler Story]
* [http://www1.yadvashem.org.il/visiting/temp_visiting/temp_index_schindler.html Oskar and Emilie Schindler in Yad Washem Memorial]
* [http://auschwitz.dk/Schindlerslist.htm Oskar Schindler's list at Auschwitz.dk]
* [http://www.hearthasreasons.com/bibliography.php Holocaust Rescuers Bibliography]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4724 Oskar Schindler's grave at www.findagrave.com]
* [http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/schindler.html Oskar Schindler]
* [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/schindler/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Special Topics: Oskar Schindler]
 
[[File:Schindler’s factory, Kraków, 2011.jpg|thumb|Schindler's factory in [[Kraków]], 2011]]
[[Category:1908 births|Schindler, Oskar]]
[[Category:1974 deaths|Schindler, Oskar]]
[[Category:People who helped Jews during the Holocaust|Schindler, Oskar]]
[[Category:Righteous Among the Nations|Schindler, Oskar]]
[[Category:Nazi Germany|Schindler, Oskar]]
[[Category:German World War II people|Schindler, Oskar]]
[[Category:Roman Catholics|Schindler, Oskar]]
[[Category:Humanitarians]]
 
Initially, Schindler was mostly interested in the business's money-making potential and hired Jews because they were cheaper than Poles—the wages were set by the occupying Nazi regime.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=138}} Later, however, he began shielding his workers without regard for cost.{{sfn|Steinhouse|1994}} The status of his factory as a business essential to the war effort became a decisive factor in enabling him to protect his Jewish workers. Whenever ''[[Schindlerjuden]]'' (Schindler Jews) were threatened with deportation, he claimed exemptions for them. He claimed wives, children, and even people with disabilities were necessary mechanics and metalworkers.{{sfn|Steinhouse|1994}} On one occasion, the ''[[Gestapo]]'' came to Schindler demanding that he hand over a family that possessed forged identity papers. "Three hours after they walked in," Schindler said, "two drunk Gestapo men reeled out of my office without their prisoners and without the incriminating documents they had demanded."{{sfn|Silver|1992|p=149}}
[[ca:Oskar Schindler]]
 
[[cs:Oskar Schindler]]
On 1 August 1940, Governor-General [[Hans Frank]] issued a decree requiring all Kraków Jews to leave the city within two weeks. Only those who had jobs directly related to the German war effort would be allowed to stay. Of the 60,000 to 80,000 Jews then living in the city, only 15,000 remained by March 1941. These Jews were then forced to leave their traditional neighbourhood of [[Kazimierz]] and relocate to the walled [[Kraków Ghetto]], established in the industrial [[Podgórze]] district.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=161}}{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=41}} Schindler's workers travelled on foot to and from the ghetto each day to their jobs at the factory.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=49}} Enlargements to the facility in the four years Schindler was in charge included the addition of an outpatient clinic, co-op, kitchen, and dining room for the workers, in addition to expansion of the factory and its related office space.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=175}}
[[da:Oskar Schindler]]
 
[[de:Oskar Schindler]]
===Płaszów===
[[es:Oskar Schindler]]
In the autumn of 1941, the Nazis began transporting Jews out of the ghetto. Most of them were sent to the [[Bełżec extermination camp]] and murdered.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=56}} On 13 March 1943 the ghetto was liquidated, and those still fit for work were sent to the new concentration camp at Płaszów.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=376}} Several thousand not deemed fit for work were sent to extermination camps and murdered; hundreds more were murdered on the streets by the Nazis as they cleared out the ghetto. Aware of the plans because of his ''Wehrmacht'' contacts, Schindler had his workers stay at the factory overnight to protect them from harm.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|pp=60–61}} He witnessed the ghetto's liquidation and was appalled. From that point, says ''Schindlerjude'' Sol Urbach, Schindler "changed his mind about the Nazis. He decided to get out and to save as many Jews as he could."{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=62}}
[[eo:Oskar Schindler]]
 
[[fr:Oscar Schindler]]
The [[Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp|Płaszów concentration camp]] opened in March 1943 on the former site of two Jewish cemeteries on Jerozilimska Street, about {{convert|2.5|km}} from the DEF factory.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=112; map, plate 3}} In charge of the camp was [[SS]]-''[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' [[Amon Göth]], a sadist who shot inmates at random.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=62}} Płaszów's inmates lived in constant fear for their lives.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=195}} Emilie Schindler called Göth "the most despicable man I have ever met."{{sfn|Schindler|Rosenberg|1997|p=59}}
[[id:Oskar Schindler]]
 
[[it:Oskar Schindler]]
[[File:Chujowa Gorka.JPG|thumb|[[Hujowa Górka]] ("Prick Hill"), the execution place in [[Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp]] (2007) ]]
[[he:אוסקר שינדלר]]
 
[[hu:Oskar Schindler]]
Göth's plan was that all the factories, including Schindler's, should be moved inside the camp gates.{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=20}} But with a combination of diplomacy, flattery, and bribery, Schindler not only prevented his factory from being moved, but convinced Göth to allow him to build (at Schindler's own expense) a subcamp at Emalia to house his workers and 450 Jews from other nearby factories. There they were safe from the threat of random execution, well fed and housed, and permitted to undertake religious observances.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|pp=63–65}}{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=139}}
[[nl:Oskar Schindler]]
 
[[ja:オスカー・シンドラー]]
Schindler was arrested twice on suspicion of black market activities and once for breaking the [[Nuremberg Laws]] by kissing a Jewish girl, an action forbidden by the Race and Resettlement Act. The first arrest, in late 1941, led to him being kept overnight. His secretary arranged for his release through Schindler's influential contacts in the Nazi Party. His second arrest, on 29 April 1942, was the result of his kissing a Jewish girl on the cheek at his birthday party at the factory the previous day. He remained in jail five days before his influential Nazi contacts could obtain his release.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|pp=53–54}} In October 1944 he was arrested again, accused of black marketeering and bribing Göth and others to improve the conditions of the Jewish workers. He was held for nearly a week and released.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=75}} Göth had been arrested on 13 September 1944 for corruption and other abuses of power, and Schindler's arrest was part of the ongoing investigation into Göth's activities.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=331}} Göth was never convicted on those charges.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=95}}{{sfn|Rzepliñski|2004|p=2}}
[[no:Oskar Schindler]]
 
[[pl:Oskar Schindler]]
In 1943, Schindler was contacted by Zionist leaders in [[Budapest]] via members of the Jewish resistance movement. He travelled to Budapest several times to report in person on Nazi mistreatment of the Jews. He brought back funding provided by the [[Jewish Agency for Palestine]] and turned it over to the Jewish underground.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=151}}{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=19}}
[[pt:Oskar Schindler]]
 
[[sk:Oskar Schindler]]
===Brünnlitz===
[[sl:Oskar Schindler]]
[[File:Schindlers factory Brnenec CZ 2004b.JPG|thumb|Schindler's factory at the former site of [[Brünnlitz labor camp]] in 2004]]
[[fi:Oskar Schindler]]
As the [[Red Army]] of the [[Soviet Union]] drew nearer in July 1944, the SS began closing down the easternmost concentration camps and evacuating the remaining prisoners westward to [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp]]. Göth's personal secretary, [[Mietek Pemper]], alerted Schindler to the Nazis' plans to close all factories not directly involved in the war effort, including Schindler's. Pemper suggested to Schindler that production be switched from cookware to anti-tank grenades in an effort to save the Jewish workers' lives. Using bribery and his powers of persuasion, Schindler convinced Göth and the officials in Berlin to allow him to move his factory and his workers to [[Brněnec|Brünnlitz]] ([[czech language|Czech]]: ''Brněnec''), in the Sudetenland, thus sparing them from certain death in the [[gas chamber]]s. Using names provided by [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] officer Marcel Goldberg, Pemper compiled and typed the list of 1,200 Jews—1,000 of Schindler's workers and 200 inmates from [[Julius Madritsch]]'s textiles factory—who were sent to Brünnlitz in October 1944.{{sfn|Mietek Pemper obituary}}{{sfn|Thompson|2002|pp=21–23}}{{sfn|Roberts|1996|pp=72–73}}{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=316}}
[[sv:Oskar Schindler]]
 
[[zh:奧斯卡·辛德勒]]
On 15 October 1944, a train carrying 700 men on Schindler's list was initially sent to the concentration camp at Gross-Rosen, where the men spent about a week before being rerouted to the factory in Brünnlitz.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=383–387}} Three hundred female ''Schindlerjuden'' were similarly sent to Auschwitz, where they were in imminent danger of being sent to the gas chambers. Schindler's usual connections and bribes failed to win their release. Finally, after he sent his secretary, Hilde Albrecht, with bribes of black market goods, food and diamonds, the women were sent to Brünnlitz after several harrowing weeks in Auschwitz.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=391, 401}}
 
In addition to workers, Schindler moved 250 wagonloads of machinery and raw materials to the new factory.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=326}} Few if any useful artillery shells were produced at the plant. When officials from the Armaments Ministry questioned the factory's low output, Schindler bought finished goods on the black market and resold them as his own.{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=23}} The rations provided by the SS were insufficient to meet the workers' needs, so Schindler spent most of his time in Kraków obtaining food, armaments, and other materials. His wife Emilie remained in Brünnlitz, surreptitiously obtaining additional rations and caring for the workers' health and other basic needs.{{sfn|Schindler|Rosenberg|1997|pp=85–89}}{{sfn|Roberts|1996|pp=78–79}}
 
Schindler also arranged for the transfer of as many as 3,000 Jewish women out of Auschwitz to small textiles plants in the Sudetenland in an effort to increase their chances of surviving the war.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=333}}{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=24}} In January 1945, a trainload of 250 Jews who had been rejected as workers at a German mine in [[Goleszów|Goleschau]] in occupied Poland arrived at Brünnlitz. The boxcars were frozen shut when they arrived, and Emilie waited while an engineer from the factory opened them with a soldering iron. Twelve people were dead in the cars, and the remainder were too ill and feeble to work. Emilie took the survivors into the factory and cared for them in a makeshift hospital until the end of the war.{{sfn|Schindler|Rosenberg|1997|pp=89–91}}{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=24}} Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent the slaughter of his workers as the Red Army approached.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=78}} On 7 May 1945 he and his workers gathered on the factory floor to listen to British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] announce over the radio that [[Surrender of Nazi Germany|Germany had surrendered]] and that [[End of World War II in Europe|the war in Europe was over]].{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=83}}
 
==After the war==
[[File:Oskar Schindler Regensburg AltStadt 21 Feb 2015.jpg|thumb|Memorial plaque on the house where Schindler lived in [[Regensburg]]. As seen in 2015 ]]
As a member of the Nazi Party and the ''Abwehr'' intelligence service, Schindler was in danger of being arrested as a war criminal. Bankier, Stern, and several others prepared a statement he could present to the Americans attesting to his role in saving Jewish lives.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=453–454}}
 
After the liquidation of the Płaszów camp, the ''Schindlerjuden'' decided to give Schindler a memento. The original investors in the enamel factory canvassed the workers for ideas. Knowing there were several jewelers among their group, a man named Simon Yeret, formerly a prosperous timber merchant, offered a gold bridge from his own mouth. The bridge was removed and its metal melted with a few scavenged silver coins.{{sfn|Yad Vashem|2010}} A jeweller named Jozef Gross cut a section of lead pipe and created a master signet ring out of which the gold version would be cast. Gross shaved two [[cuttlebone]]s flat and squeezed the lead master between them until an impression had been pressed into the mould. This was filled with the gold from Yeret's bridge. Gross then filed and polished the gold ring. He engraved a paraphrase from the Talmud in Hebrew on the ring that said, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire."{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=453–454}}{{efn|The inscription is a compressed version of a [[precept]] in the [[Talmud]]; see [[:wikiquote:Talmud#Saving a life|Talmud § Saving a life at Wikiquote]].}} Despite his mixed feelings about Schindler's character, Gross kept the cuttlebone mold and lead master for the rest of his life. They are currently housed at the [[Melbourne Holocaust Museum]]. The whereabouts of the actual ring have long been unknown, nor is it clear what Schindler did with it after the war.{{sfn|Rawlinson|2016}}
 
=== Escape to the American lines ===
To escape capture by the Soviets, Schindler and his wife departed westward in their vehicle, a two-seater [[Horch]], initially with several fleeing German soldiers riding on the running boards. A truck containing Schindler's mistress Marta, several Jewish workers, and a load of black market trade goods followed. Soviet troops confiscated the Horch at the city of [[České Budějovice]], which the Soviets had already captured. The Schindlers were unable to recover a diamond Oskar had hidden under the seat.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=467}} They continued by train and on foot until they reached the American lines at [[Lenora (Prachatice District)|Lenora]] and then travelled to [[Passau]], where an American Jewish officer arranged for them to travel to [[Switzerland]] by train. They moved to [[Bavaria]] in Germany in late 1945.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=469–473}}
 
[[File:Schindlergrave2010.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Schindler's grave in Jerusalem. The Hebrew inscription reads: "[[Righteous Among the Nations]]"; the German inscription reads: "The Unforgettable Lifesaver of 1200 Persecuted Jews". ]]
 
By the end of the war, Schindler had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black market purchases of supplies for his workers.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=455}} Virtually destitute, he moved briefly to [[Regensburg]] and later [[Munich]] but did not prosper in postwar Germany. He was reduced to receiving assistance from Jewish organisations.{{sfn|Steinhouse|1994}} In 1948, he presented a claim for reimbursement of his wartime expenses to the [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee]] and received US$15,000.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=482, 487}} He estimated his expenditures at over $1,056,000, including the costs of camp construction, bribes, and black market goods, including food.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=409}}
 
In 1949, Schindler emigrated to Argentina, where he tried raising chickens and then [[nutria]] (coypu), a small animal raised for its fur. When the business went bankrupt in 1958, he left his wife and returned to Germany, where he had a series of unsuccessful business ventures, including a cement factory.{{sfn|Roberts|1996|pp=86, 88}}{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=25}} He declared bankruptcy in 1963 and suffered a heart attack the next year, which led to a monthlong hospital stay.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=510}} Remaining in contact with many of the Jews he had met during the war, including Stern and Pfefferberg, Schindler survived on donations sent by ''Schindlerjuden'' from all over the world.{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=25}}{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=510–511}}
 
For his work during the war, on 8 May 1962, [[Yad Vashem]] invited Schindler to a ceremony in which a [[carob]] tree was planted in his honour on the [[Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations|Avenue of the Righteous]].{{Sfn|Crowe|2004|p=528}} Schindler received awards for his efforts, including the German [[Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany|Order of Merit]] in 1966.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=566}} Schindler died of liver failure on 9 October 1974.{{sfn|Biography|2017}} He is buried in [[Jerusalem]] on [[Mount Zion]], possibly the only member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way.{{sfn|Steinhouse|1994}}{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=25}} On 24 June 1993, he and his wife were named [[Righteous Among the Nations]], an award the [[Israel|State of Israel]] bestows on non-Jews who took an active role in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=604}} Schindler, along with [[Karl Plagge]],{{sfn|Good|2005|p=179}} [[Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz]],{{sfn|Saphir|2018}} [[Helmut Kleinicke]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Kleinicke, Helmut |url=https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=12821427&ind=0 |publisher=Yad Vashem |access-date=7 July 2023 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404075315/https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=12821427&ind=0 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Hans Walz]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?search=Hans%20Walz&searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4018152&ind=0 |title=Walz, Hans |publisher=Yad Vashem |access-date=7 July 2023 |archive-date=7 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707220226/https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?search=Hans%20Walz&searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4018152&ind=0 |url-status=live }}</ref> are among the few Nazi Party members to be given this award.
 
The writer Herbert Steinhouse, who interviewed Schindler in 1948, wrote: "Schindler's exceptional deeds stemmed from just that elementary sense of decency and humanity that our sophisticated age seldom sincerely believes in. A repentant opportunist saw the light and rebelled against the sadism and vile criminality all around him."{{sfn|Steinhouse|1994}} In a 1983 television documentary, Schindler is quoted as saying: "I felt that the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them; there was no choice."{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=91}} In the former Czechoslovakia, his reputation is mixed, as he is negatively remembered for his service in the ''Abwehr'' and for his support of German separatism in the Sudetenland.{{sfn|Tait|2016}}
 
==Legacy==
===Films and book===
[[File:Steven Spielberg by Gage Skidmore.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Steven Spielberg]], director of ''[[Schindler's List]]'']]
 
In 1951, Poldek Pfefferberg approached the Austrian filmmaker [[Fritz Lang]] and asked him to consider making a film about Schindler. Also on Pfefferberg's initiative, in 1964 Schindler received a US$20,000 ({{Inflation|US|20000|1964|r=-3|fmt=eq}}) advance from [[MGM]] for a proposed film treatment titled ''To the Last Hour''. Neither film was made, and Schindler quickly spent the money he received from MGM.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=194, 511}}{{sfn|Roberts|1996|p=88}} He was also approached in the 1960s by MCA of Germany and [[Walt Disney Productions]] in Vienna, but again nothing came of these projects.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=542–543}}
 
In 1980, the Australian author [[Thomas Keneally]] by chance visited Pfefferberg's luggage store in [[Beverly Hills, California]], while en route home from a film festival in Europe, and Pfefferberg told him Schindler's story. He gave Keneally copies of some materials he had on file, and Keneally decided to make a fictionalised treatment of the story. After extensive research and interviews with surviving ''Schindlerjuden'', he wrote his historical novel ''[[Schindler's Ark]]'' (published in the United States as ''Schindler's List''), which was released in 1982.{{sfn|Keneally|2007|pp=1–29}}
 
The novel was adapted as the 1993 movie ''[[Schindler's List]]'' by the American film director [[Steven Spielberg]]. Although Spielberg had acquired the film rights ten years earlier, he did not feel he was emotionally or professionally ready to tackle it, and he offered the project to several directors.{{sfn|McBride|2010|p=426}} Later, after reading a script for the project prepared by [[Steven Zaillian]] for [[Martin Scorsese]], he decided to trade him ''[[Cape Fear (1991 film)|Cape Fear]]'' for the opportunity to do the Schindler biopic.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=603}} In the film, the character Itzhak Stern (played by [[Ben Kingsley]]) is a composite of Stern, Bankier and Pemper.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=102}} [[Liam Neeson]] was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]] for his portrayal of Schindler,{{sfn|Mulraney|2016}} and the film won seven [[Academy Awards|Oscars]], including [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]].{{sfn|Weinraub|1994}}
 
Other film treatments include a 1983 British television documentary produced by [[Jon Blair]] for [[Thames Television]], ''Schindler: His Story as Told by the Actual People He Saved'' (released in the US in 1994 as ''Schindler: The Real Story''),{{sfn|Crowe|2004|p=213}}{{sfn|Bellafante|1994}} and a 1998 [[A&E Biography]] special, ''Oskar Schindler: The Man Behind the List''.{{sfn|Goodman|1998}}
 
===Schindler's suitcase===
[[File:Svitavy oskar schindler memorial - cz.jpg|thumb|Schindler's memorial in Svitavy, Czech Republic, his birthplace]]
[[File:SchindlerDenkmal2.jpg|thumb|Schindler's memorial in [[Hildesheim]], where he died in 1974]]
In 1997, a suitcase belonging to Schindler containing historic photographs and documents was discovered in the attic of the apartment of Ami and Heinrich Staehr in [[Hildesheim]]. Schindler had stayed with the couple for a few days shortly before his death in 1974. Staehr's son Chris took the suitcase to Stuttgart, where the documents were examined in detail in 1999 by Wolfgang Borgmann, science editor of the ''[[Stuttgarter Zeitung]]''. Borgmann wrote a series of seven articles that appeared in the paper from 16 to 26 October 1999 and were eventually published in book form as ''Schindlers Koffer: Berichte aus dem Leben eines Lebensretters; eine Dokumentation der Stuttgarter Zeitung'' (''Schindler's Suitcase: Reports from the Life of a Lifesaver''). The documents and suitcase were sent to the Holocaust museum at [[Yad Vashem]] in Israel for safekeeping in December 1999.{{sfn|Crowe|2004|pp=586, 609–613}}
 
===Copies of the list===
In early April 2009, a carbon copy of one version of the list was discovered at the [[State Library of New South Wales]] by workers combing through boxes of materials collected by Keneally. The 13-page document, yellow and fragile, was filed among research notes and original newspaper clippings. The document was given to Keneally in 1980 by Pfefferberg when he was persuading him to write Schindler's story. This version of the list contains 801 names and is dated 18 April 1945; Pfefferberg is listed as worker number 173. Several authentic versions of the list exist, because the names were retyped several times as conditions changed in the hectic days at the end of the war.{{sfn|BBC News|2009}} One of four existing copies of the list was offered at a ten-day auction starting on 19 July 2013 on [[eBay]] at a reserve price of US$3 million.{{sfn|Smith|2013}} It received no bids.{{sfn|Abramson|2013}}
 
=== Museum ===
Attempts to convert the factory site in Brněnec to a museum initially failed due to a lack of financial support.{{sfn|Tait|2016}} However, after receiving additional funds from the regional government in Brněnec and from the European Union, the site opened as a museum in 2025 on the 80th anniversary of [[Victory in Europe Day|VE day]].{{sfn|Janicek|2025}}
 
===Other memorabilia===
In August 2013, a one-page letter signed by Schindler on 22 August 1944 sold in an online auction for US$59,135. The letter noted Schindler's permission for a factory supervisor to move machinery to Czechoslovakia. The same unknown auction buyer had previously purchased 1943 construction documents for Schindler's Kraków factory for $63,426.{{sfn|Kepler|2013}}
 
==See also==
 
<!--editors, please do not add individual names of Holocaust rescuers here, instead, consider adding them to these lists, if not already there-->
* [[Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust]]
* [[List of Righteous Among the Nations by country]]
* [[List of Germans who resisted Nazism]]
* [[Schindlerjuden#List|List of ''Schindlerjuden'']]
 
==Notes==
{{Notelist}}
 
==References==
{{Reflist}}
 
==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite web |last=Abramson |first=Alana |title='Schindler's List' Receives Zero Bids on eBay |publisher=ABC News |date=29 July 2013 |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/schindlers-list-receives-bids-ebay/story?id=19804310 |access-date=30 July 2013 |archive-date=31 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731011753/https://abcnews.go.com/US/schindlers-list-receives-bids-ebay/story?id=19804310 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite AV media |people=[[Moshe Bejski|Bejsji, Moshe]] |date=2010 |title=Rescued by Oskar Schindler – Righteous Among the Nations: Moshe Beyski's story |language=Hebrew |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX5lU-8ZY2U |access-date=7 July 2023 |publisher=Yad Vashem |ref={{sfnRef|Yad Vashem|2010}} |archive-date=7 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707201243/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX5lU-8ZY2U |url-status=live}}
*{{cite journal |last=Bellafante |first=Ginia |author-link=Ginia Bellafante |title=Schindler: The Real Story |journal=The New York Times |year=1994 |url=http://tv.nytimes.com/show/60358/Schindler-The-Real-Story/overview |access-date=20 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610212948/http://tv.nytimes.com/show/60358/Schindler-The-Real-Story/overview |archive-date=10 June 2012}}
*{{cite journal |last=Brzoskwinia |first=Waldemar |title=Zabłocie: chłodnia i fabryki |journal=Gazeta Wyborcza |publisher=Agora SA |___location=Kraków |language=pl |date=19 June 2008 |url=http://krakow.gazeta.pl/krakow/1,90719,5328861,Zablocie__chlodnia_i_fabryki.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418215752/http://krakow.gazeta.pl/krakow/1%2C90719%2C5328861%2CZablocie__chlodnia_i_fabryki.html |archive-date=18 April 2010 |access-date=28 June 2013 |url-status=dead}}
*{{cite book |last=Crowe |first=David M. |title=Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List |year=2004 |publisher=Westview Press |___location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0-465-00253-5}}
*{{cite book |last=Evans |first=Richard J. |author-link=Richard J. Evans |year=2005 |title=[[The Third Reich in Power]] |publisher=Penguin |___location=New York |isbn=978-0-14-303790-3}}
*{{cite book |last=Good |first=Michael |title=The Search For Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews |___location=Fordham |publisher=[[Fordham University Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=0-8232-2440-6}}
*{{cite journal |last=Goodman |first=Walter |title=Oskar Schindler: The Man Behind the List |journal=The New York Times |year=1998 |url=http://tv.nytimes.com/show/57324/Oskar-Schindler-The-Man-Behind-the-List/overview |access-date=20 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610213013/http://tv.nytimes.com/show/57324/Oskar-Schindler-The-Man-Behind-the-List/overview |archive-date=10 June 2012}}
*{{Cite web |last=Janicek |first=Karel |date=12 May 2025 |title=A museum opens at a former factory in the Czech Republic where Oskar Schindler saved 1,200 Jews |url=https://apnews.com/article/czech-schindler-factory-museum-brnenec-holocaust-jewish-b64fae35a2ea48bfbacbd849314ae7ae |access-date=12 May 2025 |website=AP News |language=en}}
*{{cite book |last=Keneally |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Keneally |title=Searching for Schindler: A Memoir |year=2007 |publisher=Nan A. Talese |___location=New York |isbn=978-0-385-52617-3}}
*{{cite journal |last=Kepler |first=Adam W. |title=Schindler Letter Sells for Nearly $60,000 |journal=The New York Times |date=16 August 2013 |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/schindler-letter-sells-for-nearly-60000/ |access-date=19 August 2013 |archive-date=22 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022064912/http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/schindler-letter-sells-for-nearly-60000/ |url-status=live}}
*{{cite book |last=Longerich |first=Peter |title=Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-280436-5 |publisher=Oxford University Press |___location=Oxford; New York}}
*{{cite book |last=McBride |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph McBride (writer) |title=Steven Spielberg: A Biography |year=2010 |orig-year=1997 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |___location=Jackson |isbn=978-1-60473-836-0}}
*{{cite web |last=Mulraney |first=Frances |url=https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/entertainment/looks-like-2017-is-going-to-be-liam-neesons-oscar-year |title=Looks like 2017 is going to be Liam Neeson's Oscar year |date=10 August 2016 |access-date=25 December 2018 |work=Irish Central |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225225048/https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/entertainment/looks-like-2017-is-going-to-be-liam-neesons-oscar-year |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite news |last=Rawlinson |first=Clare |date=2 May 2016 |title=Schindler's ring: Unassuming piece of Holocaust history almost thrown away |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-02/schindlers-ring-model-donated-to-jewish-museum/7375796 |access-date=7 July 2023 |archive-date=7 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707201246/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-02/schindlers-ring-model-donated-to-jewish-museum/7375796 |url-status=live}}
*{{cite book |last=Roberts |first=Jack L. |title=The Importance of Oskar Schindler |series=The Importance of biography series |year=1996 |publisher=Lucent |___location=San Diego |isbn=1-56006-079-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/importanceofoska00robe}}
* {{cite web |last=Rzepliñski |first=Andrzej |title=Prosecution of Nazi Crimes in Poland in 1939–2004 |work=First International Expert Meeting on War Crimes, Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity |publisher=International Criminal Police Organization – Interpol General Secretariat |___location=Lyon, France |date=25 March 2004 |url=http://www.gotoslawek.org/linki/FirstInternationalExpertMeetingOnWarCrimes.pdf |access-date=31 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222313/http://www.gotoslawek.org/linki/FirstInternationalExpertMeetingOnWarCrimes.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 }}
*{{cite news |last=Saphir |first=Alexander Bodin |title=The tip-off from a Nazi that saved my grandparents |date=21 October 2018 |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45919900 |access-date=22 April 2019 |archive-date=22 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422214402/https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45919900 |url-status=live}}
*{{cite book |last1=Schindler |first1=Emilie |author-link1=Emilie Schindler |last2=Rosenberg |first2=Erika |author-link2=Erika Rosenberg |title=Where Light and Shadow Meet |year=1997 |orig-year=1996 |publisher=Norton |___location=New York; London |isbn=0-393-04123-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/wherelightshadow00schi}}
*{{cite book |last=Silver |first=Eric |title=The Book of the Just: The Silent Heroes Who Saved Jews from Hitler |publisher=Grove Press |___location=New York |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-297-81245-6}}
*{{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Emily |title=Schindler's list will be publicly auctioned – one of only four existing copies in the world |journal=[[New York Post]] |date=19 July 2013 |url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/survivors_gilt_6QMc5OJCFgvpTGogdNNy4N |access-date=19 July 2013 |archive-date=20 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130720005618/http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/survivors_gilt_6QMc5OJCFgvpTGogdNNy4N |url-status=live}}
*{{cite news |author=Staff |title=Mietek Pemper |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=15 June 2011 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8578020/Mietek-Pemper.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8578020/Mietek-Pemper.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=7 July 2013 |ref={{sfnRef|Mietek Pemper obituary}}}}{{cbignore}}
*{{cite news |author=Staff |title=Schindler's List found in Sydney |date=6 April 2009 |work=[[BBC Online]] |publisher=BBC News |agency=[[Agence France-Presse]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7985004.stm |access-date=17 July 2013 |ref={{sfnRef|BBC News|2009}} |archive-date=2 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902235321/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7985004.stm |url-status=live}}
*{{cite news |author=Staff |title=Oskar Schindler's Life After World War II |date=24 April 2017 |work=Biography.com |publisher=Biography |agency=The Arena Group |url=https://www.biography.com/news/oskar-schindler-after-the-war |access-date=6 February 2022 |ref={{sfnRef|Biography|2017}} |archive-date=6 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206120142/https://www.biography.com/news/oskar-schindler-after-the-war |url-status=live}}
*{{cite journal |last=Steinhouse |first=Herbert |title=The Real Oskar Schindler |journal=Saturday Night |date=April 1994 |publisher=Andela Publishing |url=http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/steinhouse.html |access-date=28 June 2013 |archive-date=6 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306035255/http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/steinhouse.html |url-status=live}}
*{{cite web |last=Tait |first=Robert |title=Fate of former Schindler's list factory is met with Czech ambivalence |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/11/former-schindlers-list-factory-plans-czech-museum-nazi-industralist |date=11 October 2016 |work=The Guardian |access-date=13 March 2023 |archive-date=13 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313123630/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/11/former-schindlers-list-factory-plans-czech-museum-nazi-industralist |url-status=live}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Thompson |editor1-first=Bruce |title=Oskar Schindler |series=People Who Made History |year=2002 |publisher=Greenhaven Press |___location=San Diego |isbn=0-7377-0894-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/oskarschindler00bruc}}
*{{cite news |last=Weinraub |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Weinraub |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/10/arts/schindler-nominated-for-12-oscars.html |title='Schindler' Nominated for 12 Oscars |date=10 February 1994 |access-date=25 December 2018 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |archive-date=28 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028115127/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/10/arts/schindler-nominated-for-12-oscars.html |url-status=live}}
{{refend}}
 
==External links==
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{{Commons category}}
*[https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/oskar-schindler Oskar Schindler] at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website
*[https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/schindler.html Oskar and Emilie Schindler – Righteous Among the Nations] at the Yad Vashem website
*[http://schindlersfactory.com/ Gallery of images of Oskar Schindler's Factory in Kraków]
*[http://mhk.pl/oddzialy/fabryka_schindlera Oskar Schindler's Factory] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130707145441/http://mhk.pl/oddzialy/fabryka_schindlera |date=7 July 2013 }} – a branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków
*[http://auschwitz.dk/Schindlerslist.htm Oskar Schindler's list] at Auschwitz.dk
*[https://www.yadvashem.org/from-our-collections/aerial-evidence-for-schindlers-list.html "Aerial Evidence for Schindler's List"] at the Yad Vashem website
*[http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/spielberg.html#schindler Spielberg's bibliography for the film ''Schindler's List''] at the UC Berkeley Library website
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090506000632/http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20090226 ''Voices on Antisemitism – A Podcast Series'']: an interview with [[Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig]] at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website
 
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