{"id":3336,"date":"2016-04-19T03:52:27","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T03:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=3336"},"modified":"2026-02-15T11:43:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:43:36","slug":"oskar-schindler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/oskar-schindler\/","title":{"rendered":"Oskar Schindler: A Detailed Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist, businessman, and member of the Nazi Party<\/a> during the time of World War II<\/a> and the Holocaust<\/a>. He is credited with saving over 1,200 Jewish people from the Nazi gas chambers and was celebrated in the 1993 movie ‘Schindler\u2019s List’. As such, he is remembered for his acts of courage and kindness during a time of brutality and hate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

OSKAR SCHINDLER – EARLY LIFE AND NAZI PARTY MEMBER<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Born on April 28th, 1908 in Austria-Hungary, Schindler did a range of jobs throughout his early life until finally working as a spy for the Nazis in the years before\u00a0World War II.\u00a0 Although he was a citizen of Czechoslovakia, Schindler began supplying the Abwehr, which was the Nazi intelligence service, with information in 1936.\u00a0 He provided Germany with information on Czechoslovakian military movements, and railways stations ahead of a planned German invasion of the country.\u00a0\u00a0Adolf Hitler<\/a>\u00a0eventually gained control over the country following the Munich Conference<\/a> and Germany\u2019s invasion in 1938.\u00a0 Schindler became a member of the Nazi Party in 1939 and continued to complete work for the Abwehr until 1940 when he sifted his focus to business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

OSKAR SCHINDLER – BUSINESSMAN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Following\u00a0Germany\u2019s invasion of Poland\u00a0in 1939<\/a>, Schindler moved to the city of Krakow, Poland.\u00a0 There he acquired a previously Jewish-run enamelware business and renamed it the German Enamelware Factory (DEF).\u00a0 His connections with the Nazis allowed him to gain contracts to produce cookware for German soldiers while on the front lines of World War II.\u00a0 Initially he was concerned with making as much money for himself as possible.\u00a0 For example, he hired Jewish workers in his factory because he could pay them less then Polish workers.\u00a0 However, as the events of the Holocaust progressed, Schindler ended up using his vast wealth to shelter and protect his workers from the atrocities of the death camps.\u00a0 In fact, while he had amassed a small fortune at the start of the Holocaust, but was essentially broke by the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

OSKAR SCHINDLER – SCHINDLER’S LIST<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In order to protect his workers Schindler often bribed Nazi officials with alcohol, cash, and luxury gifts.\u00a0 While tens of thousands of Jewish people were moved from the Krakow Ghetto<\/a> to nearby camps, in the early 1940s, Schindler was able to protect his Jewish workers.\u00a0 He claimed that his workers, even children, were necessary to the production of his goods, which were ultimately aimed at assisting the Nazi war effort.\u00a0 As a result, local Nazi officials allowed him to keep his workers in relative safety.\u00a0 For example, in March of 1943, when the P\u0142asz\u00f3w concentration camp<\/a>\u00a0opened near Schindler\u2019s factory, and Jewish workers from the area were moved to the camp, he convinced the head of the camp to have his workers protected.\u00a0 The P\u0142asz\u00f3w camp was headed by Amon G\u00f6th, an\u00a0SS<\/a>\u00a0officer who was known for his intense brutality.\u00a0 For instance, G\u00f6th would often shoot the prisoners of the camp randomly, causing a constant sense of fear for the inmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Concentration
P\u0142asz\u00f3w concentration camp in 1942. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

By 1944, the Nazis were losing ground to the Allied powers and were forced to close many of their labor camps.  Using bribes and his influence, Schindler convinced G\u00f6th to allow him to move his Jewish workers to Br\u00fcnnlitz in the Sudetenland, which is a section of Czechoslovakia that Germany was given as part of the Munich Conference.  This action by Schindler proved to be important for his workers, because if he had not had them relocated they would have been killed in the gas chambers, which is what happened to many other Jewish workers in the area.  It was at this point that the list of 1,200 names of Jewish workers was famously created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Br\u00fcnnlitz, Schindler changed his manufacturing from enamelware products to artillery shells, because the Nazis had ordered the closure of all non-essential manufacturing.  However, the new factory struggled to produce useful artillery shells, and when questioned by SS officials, Schindler bought artillery shells on the black market in order to supply them to the Nazis.  As well, because the SS did not provide enough food and other resources to guarantee the survival of his workers, Schindler often used his contacts in the black market to buy these goods so that his workers did not suffer.  Therefore, Schindler spent much of his time and money in Br\u00fcnnlitz, securing operational artillery shells or food and other items for his workers.  For the remainder of the war he continued to bribe SS officials in order to save his workers from execution.  When World War II ended in Europe in May 1945, he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market purchases of supplies for his workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Oskar
Mugshot of Amon Goth in 1945. (Colorized by historycrunch.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

OSKAR SCHINDLER – LATER LIFE AND DEATH<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since Schindler was a member of the Nazi Party, he fled at the end of the war, fearing capture by Soviet forces.  Before fleeing, several of his workers prepared a letter which he could present to the Allies to prove his role in saving their lives.  As well, the workers presented him a ring, made from gold taken from one of the worker\u2019s dental work, which was inscribed with \u201cWhoever saves one life, saves the world entire.\u201d  After fleeing the area, Schindler and his wife headed west in an attempt to be captured by the Americans and avoid Soviet forces.  At the end of the war, Schindler was broke, having spent his fortune on protecting and providing for his workers.  As a result, he struggled financially in the post-war years and often had to rely on assistance from Jewish organizations and later the Jewish workers that he protected during the Holocaust.  He failed at several businesses in both Germany and Argentina, where he moved to in the 1949.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schindler died on October 9th, 1974 and was buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion.  He was the only member of the Nazi Party to be honored in this way.  He was further honored, in 1963, when he was named Righteous Among the Nations. This is an award from the State of Israel on non-Jews who played a role in helping and protecting Jewish people during the events of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Oskar<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oskar Schindler used his influence in the Nazi Party to save over 1,200 Jewish people in the time of the Holocaust. This article details the life and significance of Oskar Schindler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":23,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,100,51,47],"tags":[18,61,15,101,56,22],"class_list":["post-3336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holocaust","category-biography","category-genocide","category-nazi-germany","tag-biography","tag-genocide","tag-history","tag-holocaust","tag-nazi-germany","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3336"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5295,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions\/5295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}