Oskar Schindler Research Paper

Oskar Schindler born (April 28th 1908 to October 9th 1974) in the city of Svitavy (Zwittau) in the Sudetenland, which is now part of the Czech Republic. The oldest of two children, Oskar’s father, Hans Schindler, was a farm equipment manufacturer. His mother Louisa, was a homemaker. Oscar and his sister, Elfriede, attended a German-language school where he was popular but not an exceptional student. Forgoing the opportunity to attend college, he went to trade school instead, taking courses in several different areas. He was also a German industrialist, spy, and member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. He saved them by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which was located in Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Schindler tried to reflect his life as an opportunist initially motivated by profit who came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity and dedication to save the lives of his Jewish employees. Oskar Schindler left school in 1924, taking odd jobs and trying to find some type of a direction in life. In 1928 he met and married

Emilie Pelzl and soon after was called into military service. After, he worked for his father’s company until the business failed in the economic depression of the 1930s. When not working, Schindler excelled at drinking and philandering, a lifestyle he would soon be maintaining throughout much of his life.

With the unfortunate rise of Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi Party, Schindler joined a local pro-Nazi organization and began collecting intelligence for the German military.

He was arrested by Czech authorities in 1938, charged with spying and sentenced to death but was released shortly after, when Germany annexed the Sudetenland. in September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II. Schindler decided to leave his wife and travel to Krakow, hoping to gain from the impending war. Looking for business opportunities, he immediately became involved in the black market. By October, Schindler used his charm and doled out “gifts of gratitude” (contraband goods) to bribe high-ranking German officers. Wanting to expand his business interests, Schindler accessed a former Jewish enamelware factory to produce goods for the German

military.

Not many would have believed it possible, Schindler succeeded. He was granted permission to move the whole of his factory from Plaszow to Brunnlitz in occupied Czechoslovakia and got the permission to take all his workers with him, that way the 1,098 workers who had been written on Schindler’s list in connection with the removal avoided sharing the fate of the other 25,000 men, women and children of Plaszow who were sent without mercy to be murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz…

Oskar Schindler used all his options and resources possible to ensure the safety of his “Schindler-Jews”. He spent every cent he had, and even his wife’s jewels were sold, to buy food, clothes, and medicine for the Jews he was trying to save. Apparently he even went to the extent of setting up a secret sanatorium in the factory with medical equipment that was purchased on the black market. Here Emilie Schindler looked after the sick. Those who did not survive were given a fitting Jewish burial in a hidden graveyard - established and paid for by Schindler.

Later accounts have revealed that Schindler spent something like 4 million German marks keeping his Jews out of the death camps - an enormous sum of money for those times.