OSKAR SCHINDLER

                                                                OSKAR SCHINDLER
                                                                         A War Hero
Oskar was born on 28th April, 1908, to Johann "Hans" Schindler, the owner of a farm machinery business, and Franziska "Fanny" Schindler. His sister, Elfriede, was born in 1915. On 6th March, 1928, Oskar married Emilie Pelzl (1907 - 2001) and the young couple lived in the upstairs rooms in the same house as Oskar's parents, for seven years. During all of this time, Oskar went through several jobs, eventually becoming a spy for the Abwehr, an intelligence service of Nazi Germany in 1936. (All information is from Wikipedia.)

Oskar acquired an enamelware factory called Rekord Ltd. At its peak business in 1944, the business employed 1,750 workers,a thousand of whom were Jews. Oskar used his position within Nazi Germany to hire the Jews, thus saving them from the concentration camps and almost certain death. What Courage Oskar showed !
To start off with Oskar hired the Jews because they were cheaper but eventually his human side took over, and Oskar began shielding his workers without regard to cost. The status of his factory as a business essential to the war effort became a decisive factor enabling him to help his Jewish workers. Seeing the horrific injustices met out to the Jews, Oskar "changed his mind about the Nazis" and tried to save as many Jews as he possibly could. During the months to come, Oskar and his wife did literally everything they could to save as many Jewish lives as possible, even using blackmarket "bribes" to free Jews from Auschwitz. On 7th March, 1945, Oskar and his workers gathered on the factory floor to listen to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announce over the radio that Germany had surrendered and the war in Europe was over.

As a member of the Nazi party and the Abwehr intelligence service, Oskar was in danger of being arrested as a war criminal. Several "friends" prepared a statement he could present to the Americans attesting to his role in saving Jewish lives. He had lost his fortune during the war, using it to try to save as many Jewish lives as possible and, after the war, had to survive on donations and "menial jobs".
Oskar died on 9th October, 1974, and was buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi party to be honoured in this way. For his work during the war, Oskar Schindler was named "Righteous Among The Nations", as award bestowed by the State of Israel on non-Jews who took an active role to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Other awards include the German Order Of Merit (1966).
Oskar Schindler was quoted as saying :"I felt that the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them: there was no choice." Oskar is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them.