Oskar Schindler (1908–1974)

German industrialist who became famous for saving his Jewish staff from being murdered in concentration camps. The history of Schindler was described by the Australian writer Thomas Keneally in his novel Schindler's Ark which was made into the film Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg. Schindler employed Jewish slave labour workers - known as Schindlerjuden (Schindler's Jews) - in his Deutsche Emailwaren-Fabrik (German Enamelware Factory), which later switched to ammunition. Schindler entered into a pact with Amon Goeth, the Commander of the Płaszów Camp, enabling him to transfer his Jews to a subcamp adjacent to his production plant. When the Red Army was approaching Kraków, German camps were liquidated, and most of the inmates were murdered. Schindler succeeded in transferring 1200 "hired hands" to a plant in Brunnlitz in October 1944. When some were redirected to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp en route, he managed to bring them out from there. The Yad Vashem Institute awarded him with the medal for the Righteous Among the Nations. After his death, Schindler was buried in the Catholic Cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.



Oskar Schindler (collection of Fundacja Kultury Chrześcijańskiej ZNAK in Kraków)