p7-Nia



Oskar Schindler (Rescuer)

Oskar Schindler was born on April 28th, 1908 into an ethnic German family. He died on October 9th, 1974 at age sixty-six. In the 1930’s he attempted to start numerous business and finally went bankrupt do to The Great Depression. Although he was a citizen of Czechoslovakia, he soon started working for the German military intelligence. In 1938 he was caught, and arrested by the Czechoslovakia government. After the Munich Agreement Schindler was set free as a political prisoner and in 1939 he joined the Nazi Party. He organized the German invasion of Poland and came back with over 1,000 Jewish forced labor workers to work for him in his enamelware factory. He soon became a well respected guest at the //Nazi SS elite,// and had tons of money. Jewish labor was cheap, and with the money he was getting with his new company he had more than enough to get away and adapt his lifestyle to his income. In 1942 during the raid of Krak ó w Ghetto, soldiers were ordered to gather inhabitants to ship to a concentration camp in Plaszc ów. Schindler was appalled by the amount of his Jewish workers were being killed. Being the persuasive and powerful man he was, he began using all his powers to protect his Schindlerjuden (Schindler’s Jews). Schindler fits under the //rescuer// category because, although he started off as a money hungry Nazi, who smoked and drank a lot and cheated on his wife with numerous women, what’s really important is what he ended up doing, Which was blowing off every last cent of his money in order to save his Schindlerjuden. Thanks to him, there was over 1,200 less Jews killed in the Holocaust. -Nia Thomas

Works Cited :

"Oskar Schindler." __Wikipedia.org__. 5 May 2009. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 7 May 2009 []. "Scindler List timeline." __historyfilm.com__. 7 May 2009 . Path: www.google.com.