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Oskar Schindler is remembered as a courageous and compassionate figure who risked his life and fortune to save the lives of 1,200 Jews.
In today’s article, we look at his life as we explore about him and what led to his demise.
Oskar Schindler’s Biography
Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908, in Zwittau, Moravia, which was then part of Austria-Hungary.
He was the eldest child of Johann “Hans” Schindler, who owned a farm machinery business, and Franziska “Fanny” Schindler (née Luser). He had a younger sister named Elfriede.
Prior to enrolling in a technical school, Schindler completed his primary and secondary education.
He was expelled, nonetheless, in 1924 for falsifying his report card. He later received his diploma, but he chose not to appear for the Abitur tests required for college or university admission.
Instead, he studied numerous skills and spent three years working in his father’s company. With his 250-cc Moto Guzzi racing motorcycle, Schindler also developed a passion for bikes and competed in mountain races.
Schindler wed Emilie Pelzl, a prosperous Sudeten German farmer’s daughter, on March 6, 1928. They moved in and spent seven years living with Schindler’s parents.
Schindler had a number of employment during this time period, including running a driving school and working at Moravian Electrotechnical.
He spent 18 months serving in the Czech army, rising to the rank of lance corporal. In 1931, Schindler got work at the Jaroslav Imek Bank in Prague following a string of setbacks that included bankruptcy and unemployment.
Schindler encountered personal difficulties in the early 1930s, which included numerous arrests for public intoxication. In addition, he had an adulterous relationship with Aurelie Schlegel, a classmate, who gave birth to Emily in 1933 and Oskar Jr. in 1935.
Later, Schindler denied having a biological son named Oskar Jr. Tragically, Schindler’s father abandoned his family in 1935 due to his battle with alcoholism. A few months later, following a protracted illness, his mother passed away.
Schindler joined the Nazi Germany’s military intelligence agency, the Abwehr, in 1936. He kept doing many professions, including gathering data for the German government about troop and railway movements.
He was detained by the Czechoslovak government for spying when the German occupation of Czechoslovakia started in 1938, but he was freed as part of the Munich Agreement.
Working in Poland in 1939, just before World War II began, he continued to give the Nazis intelligence.
In the same year, Schindler purchased a Polish enamelware plant in Kraków that had a sizable Jewish workforce. Schindler shielded his Jewish workers from deportation and death in concentration camps with the aid of his connections with the Abwehr.
To protect the safety of his employees as the war went on, he had to give more bribes and presents to Nazi officials.
Germany was losing the war by July 1944, and the SS started shutting down concentration camps in the east.
In order to protect his employees from the death chambers, Schindler convinced SS-Hauptsturmführer Amon Göth, the commandant of the Kraków-Paszów concentration camp, to allow him to relocate his plant to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Schindler created a list of 1,200 Jews who were sent to Brnec in October 1944 with the aid of Marcel Goldberg and Mietek Pemper. Up until the conclusion of World War II in May 1945, he kept offering SS officials bribes.
Schindler relocated to West Germany after the war, where he got financial aid from Jewish relief organisations.
Eventually, he and his wife Emilie moved to Argentina where he began a farming business. He ran into financial issues, though, and went back to Germany in 1958.
Due to the failure of his companies, Schindler was forced to rely on the help of the Schindlerjuden, or “Schindler Jews,” whom he had spared from the Nazis during the war.
At the age of 66, Oskar Schindler passed suddenly in Hildesheim, Germany, on October 9, 1974. He was buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, a rare honour for a former Nazi Party member.
For his valiant efforts during the Holocaust, Schindler and his wife Emilie were named Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli government in 1993.
Oskar Schindler’s Cause Of Death
Oskar Schindler’s cause of death is reported to have been due to a liver failure which took his life on 9 October 1974 at age 66.
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