"I am the conscience of all those who knew something - but did nothing."
- Oskar Schindler

Questioning the Story:

Why did Oskar Schindler do what he did?
Schindler never gave a clear explanation for why he protected and saved the lives of as many Jews as he did. Some might say that his humane actions and sacrifices need no explanation. Schindler attempted to explain his actions by saying the following, "I knew the people who worked for me. When you know people, you have to behave towards them like human beings." Another time, Schindler described his behavior differently, "There was no choice. If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car, wouldn't you help him?"


Below, Schindlerjuden (Schindler's Jews) offer their own explanations of Schindler's motives:
Johnathan Dresner: "He was an adventurer. He was like an actor who always wanted to be centre stage. He got into a play, and he couldn't get out of it."

Mosche Bejski: "Schindler was a drunkard. Schindler was a womanizer. His relations with his wife were bad. He often had not one but several girlfriends. Everything he did put him in jeopardy. If Schindler had been a normal man, he would not have done what he did."

Danka Dresner: "We owe our lives to him. But I wouldn't glorify a German because of what he did for us. There is no proportion."

Abraham Zuckerman: "The movie didn't show all the little things he did; he came around and greeted you. I had food, protection, and hope."

Salomon Pila: "I don't know why he was so good to us, but I would say, `Thank you very much,' because he saved my life."

Helen Beck, one of the women rescued from Auschwitz: "I will never forget the sight of Oskar Schindler standing in the doorway (at Brunnlitz). I will never forget his voice - `Don't worry, you are now with me.' We gave up many times, but he always lifted our spirits . . . Schindler tried to help people however he could. That is what we remember."

Ludwik Feigenbaum: "I don't know what his motives were, even though I knew him very well. I asked him and I never got a clear answer and the film doesn't make it clear, either. But I don't give a damn. What's important is that he saved our lives."

What happened to Oskar Schindler after the war?
After the war, Schindler went to Argentina with his wife, his mistress, and a group of former Schindlerjuden where they bought a farm. In 1958, for seemingly no reason at all, Oskar Schindler left Argentina, his wife, and his mistress to return to Germany. He spent the remaining years of his life traveling between Germany and Israel, where after several failed business ventures, he lived primarily on handouts from his Schindlerjuden. Oskar Schindler died in Hildesheim in 1974. At his side was his current mistress, the wife of his doctor.

Why did he leave his wife and never return?
Even Emilie Schindler was not sure why Oskar never returned to her. In a passage from her A Memoir Emilie wrote of visiting Oskar's tomb over 37 years after he left:
"At last we meet again .. I have received no answer, my dear, I do not know why you abandoned me .. But what not even your death or my old age can change is that we are still married, this is how we are before God. I have forgiven you everything, everything .."

How was Schindler viewed by Germans in post-war Germany?
Schindler was deprived of his nationality immediately after the war. His former business partner refused to work with him, people denounced him in the streets, and he received threats from former Nazis.

Does evidence of the actual list still exist?
In 1999, the list of Jewish employees drawn up by Oskar Schindler to save them from the Nazi death camps was discovered in a suitcase that was found while a couple was cleaning the home of their late parents. The family had been close friends of Schindler. This finding was reported by the german newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung.

Was the little girl in the red coat a real person?
Steven Spielberg did not knowingly base the girl on an actual person. However, after seeing the film, holocaust survivor Roma Ligocka (pictured left - click to enlarge) identified with some of the film's characters. In the Krakow ghetto, Ligocka was known to everyone by the strawberry-red coat she always wore. This encouraged her to write a memoir of her experiences. The memoir is available to read on the right.

Oskar Schindler Mini-Bio:
An aspiring German industrialist, Oskar Schindler was born April 28, 1908, in Zwittau, Austria-Hungary, what is now Moravia in the Czech Republic. Schindler was born a Catholic, and raised with all of the privleges that money could by. However, in his young adult life, he found himself lured by sin. He was known for his exploits with women and his hard drinking.

He married Emilie Pelzl on March 6, 1928 after a six week courtship. They had met when Schindler came to her father's farmhouse in Alt Moletein selling electric motors. Schindler was not a loyal husband, and he almost always had a mistress or two.

In his thirties and unemployed, he joined the Nazi party and eventually moved to Crakow, where he took over a Jewish family's apartment. Bribes in the form of money and illegal black market goods flowed abundantly from Schindler and gave him control of a Jewish-owned enameled-goods factory, Deutsch Emailwaren Fabrik, close to the Jewish ghetto. He primarily employed Jews at the factory, being that they were the cheapest labor.

As the Nazis began their extermination of the Jews, Schindler vowed to protect his 1,300 workers. He built them their own barracks on the grounds of the factory to reprieve them of life in the camps. He made sure that they were fed and that the sick had nourishment. “He negotiated the salvation of his 1,300 Jews by operating right at the heart of the system using all the tools of the devil—bribery, black marketeering and lies,” said author Thomas Keneally.

Schindler's "Emalia" factory produced enamel goods and munitions for the German front. In order to get the factory going, Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern introduced Schindler to a group of wealthy Krakow Jews. They invested their capital in the factory, provided that they would be able to work there as well, and thus be under Schindler's protection.

With the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, many Jews were transfered to the Plaszow concentration camp. Schindler used his influence to set up a branch of the camp for 900 of his workers in his factory compound in Zablocie. His most difficult decision came when he had to choose which 900 workers would be spared. This is what the now famous list refers to.

After the war, Schindler went to Argentina with his wife, his mistress, and a group of former Schindlerjuden where they bought a farm. In 1958, for seemingly no reason at all, Oskar Schindler left Argentina, his wife, and his mistress to return to Germany. He spent the remaining years of his life traveling between Germany and Israel, where after several failed business ventures, he lived primarily on handouts from his Schindlerjuden. Oskar Schindler died in Hildesheim in 1974. He was buried at the Catholic cemetary in Jerusalem.

Source: Susan Pottinger and the Life Magazine Hall of Heroes and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Based on material appearing in the Jewish Virtual Library.

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Link to Learn More:
The List
Amon Goeth
Itzhak Stern
Jewish Virtual Library: Oskar Schindler
Schindler's List Teaching Guide
Emilie Schindler
Sounds From the Movie (.wav quotes)
Steinhouse: The Real Oskar Schindler
Roger Ebert's Review

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