Oskar Shindler

Oskar Schindler Before the outbreak of war, Poland had been a relative haven for European Jews—Jewish population numbered over 50,000. But when Germany invaded, destruction began immediately and it was merciless. Jews were herded into crowded randomly beaten and humiliated, capriciously killed. Jewish property and businesses were summarily destroyed, or appropriated by the SS and sold to Nazi investors, one of whom was Oskar Schindler. An ethnic German from what is now Moravia in the …

…he transferred his factory to Brunnlitz (Sudetenland) in October 1944. When the war ended, Schindler fled to Argentina with his wife and a handful of his workers and bought a farm. In 1958, he abandoned his land, his wife and his mistress to return to Germany. He spent the remaining years of his life dividing his time between Germany and Israel, where he was honored and taken care of by his “Schindlerjuden.” He died in Hildesheim in 1974.