Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974)
As a member of the Nazi Party, Schindler ran an enamel-works
factory in Krakow during the German occupation of Poland,
employing workers from the nearby Jewish ghetto. When the
ghetto was liquidated, he persuaded Nazi officials to allow the
transfer of his workers to the Plaszow labor camp, thus saving
them from deportation to the death camps. In 1944, all Jews at
Plaszow were sent to Auschwitz, but Schindler, at great risk to
himself, bribed officials into allowing him to keep his workers
and set up a factory in a location in occupied Czechoslovakia.
By the war’s end, he was penniless, but he had saved 1,200
Jewish people.
Schindler died of liver failure on 9 October 1974. He is buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi Party to
be honored in this way.
Schindler’s grave in Jerusalem. The Hebrew inscription
reads: "Righteous Among the Nations"; the German
inscription reads: "The Unforgettable Lifesaver of
1200 Persecuted Jews".
Schindler’s memorial in Svitavy, Czech Republic,
his birthplace.
