Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was a man well known for his drinking and womanizing, so he was an unlikely candidate to one day earn the title of �hero.� Too many Jews during the Holocaust however, he was a hero because he saved over one thousand Jews from being killed in a gas chamber. Any poor choices Schindler made in his life were out weighed by his act of kindness to the Jew�s he help that he called his children or �Shindlerjuden.� His story has been told in books and at the movies which has made him not only a hero to the Jews but a hero to the human race.
Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908, in Zwittau, Austria-Hungary. Oskar�s early years were filled with trouble. In 1924 he was expelled from school for forging his grade report and when he returned to school, he had earned the name �Schindler the crook.� Although he did not attend University, Oskar Schindler did attend several trade schools. He worked for his father�s company for several years but it went bankrupt. Schindler then became a salesman for an electric company. In 1938, he joined the Nazi Party, not because he believed in their politics but because he thought being a member would help his sales. Soon after, Schindler was asked by the Nazi�s to be a spy and sent him to Poland. While in Poland, he met a Jewish By 1938, Schindler, who was a very In 1939 Oskar opened a small factory called �Emalia� factory. He acquired this factory through some connections he made through becoming friendly with the SS, Nazi police. His workers were Jews who were paid so little, they were considered slaves.
Initially, Oskar Schindler�s interest in his factory was to make money, even if that meant becoming a member of the Nazi party. He was successful in becoming rich.
The saving of the first Schindler Jews began in 1939, when he came to Krakow in the wake of the German invasion. In Krakow, he took over two previously Jewish owned companies that dealt with the manufacture and sales of enamel kitchenware products. In one of the businesses, however, Schindler was merely a trustee. Looking more for his own power, he opened up a small enamel shop right outside of Krakow near the Jewish ghetto. Here,...