Happy Birthday Oskar Schindler
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It's been 100 years to the day since one of the most noble and courageous of men of the 20th century was born. Lets take a moment to remember and respect Oskar Schindler.
The man himself was born 28 April, 1908, in Svitavy, Moravia, then part of Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic. In 1939, he joined the Nazi Party.
An opportunistic businessman, he was one of many who sought to profit from the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Schindler gained ownership of a factory in Kraków from a Jewish industrialist named Nathan Wurzel, under Nazi Germany's Aryanization policies. Schindler, on Wurzel's advice, renamed the factory Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik, or DEF, to manufacture enamelware. He obtained around 1,000 Jewish slave labourers to work there with the help of his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.
Schindler soon adapted his lifestyle to his income. He became a well-respected guest on SS parties, having easy chats with high-ranking SS officers, often for his benefit. Initially Schindler may have been motivated by money — hiding wealthy Jewish investors, for instance — but later he began shielding his workers without regard for cost. He would, for instance, claim that unskilled workers were essential to the factory. Harming his workers would result in complaints and demands for compensation from the government.
While witnessing a 1942 raid on the Kraków Ghetto, where soldiers were used to round up the inhabitants for shipment to the concentration camp at PÅ‚aszów, Schindler was appalled by the murder of many of the Jews who had been working for him. He was a very persuasive individual, and after the raid, increasingly used all of his skills to protect his Schindlerjuden ("Schindler's Jews"), as they came to be called.
Schindler went out of his way to take care of the Jews who worked at DEF, often calling on his legendary charm and ingratiating manner to help his workers get out of difficult situations. Once, says author Eric Silver in The Book of the Just, "Two Gestapo men came to his office and demanded that he hand over a family of five who had bought forged Polish identity papers. 'Three hours after they walked in,' Schindler said, 'two drunk Gestapo men reeled out of my office without their prisoners and without the incriminating documents they had demanded'".
The special status of his factory ("business essential to the war effort") became the decisive factor for his efforts to support his Jewish workers. Whenever the "Schindler Jews" were threatened with deportation he could claim exemptions for them. Wives, children and even handicapped persons were showed to be necessary mechanics and metalworkers. He arranged with Amon Göth, the commandant of Plaszow, for 700 Jews to be transferred to an adjacent factory compound, where they would be relatively safe from the depredations of the German guards. Schindler also reportedly began to smuggle children out of the ghetto, delivering them to Polish nuns, who either hid them from the Nazis or claimed they were Christian orphans.
As the Red Army drew nearer to Auschwitz and the other easternmost concentration camps, the SS began evacuating the remaining prisoners westward. Schindler persuaded the SS officials to allow him to move his 1,100 Jewish workers to Brněnec in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, thus sparing the Jews from certain death in the extermination camps. In Brněnec, he gained another former Jewish factory, where he was supposed to produce missiles and hand grenades for the war effort. However, during the months that this factory was running, not a single weapon produced could actually be fired. Hence Schindler made no money; rather, his previously earned fortune was getting steadily smaller from bribing officers and caring for his workers.
Oskar Schindler's motives for the great humanity and courage he displayed, have been the subject of much discussion. There has often been speculation as to whether there was a deeper motivation. He was once quoted as saying:
"I knew the people who worked for me... When you know people, you have to behave toward them like human beings."
The writer Herbert Steinhouse, who interviewed Schindler in 1948 at the behest of some of the surviving Schindlerjuden, said:
"Oskar Schindler's exceptional deeds stemmed from just that elementary sense of decency and humanity that our sophisticated age seldom sincerely believes in. A repentant opportunist saw the light and rebelled against the sadism and vile criminality all around him. The inference may be disappointingly simple, especially for all amateur psychoanalysts who would prefer the deeper and more mysterious motive that may, it is true, still lie unprobed and unappreciated. But an hour with Oskar Schindler encourages belief in the simple answer."
Whatever his motives, there is no denying that 1200 people would very well have not survived past WW2, and the subsequent descendants of these 1200 Schindlerjuden would not exist in this world today.
So heres my tribute, my bit of respect and admiration for a man who had the courage to keep his humanity when people all around him were losing theirs. Mr Schindler, Sir, you have my deepest respects. I salute you.
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I'm sure he's resting in peace. He's truly a great man!
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No matter what our neighbouring countries may have said about the movie featuring Schindler during WWII, I felt touched by it. I wouldn't boast that I have lived through any war, but it comes to show the madness and futility of war.
Judge someone by their character, not by their creed, colour or religion.
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The one moment in the movie for me... is when, at the end, the surrender of Germany is announced, and the workers gather to thank him. He breaks down and blames himself for not having done more.
It might be poetic licence on the part of the movie scriptwriters, but I think as a measure of the depth of the man's humanity, its probably spot on.
No matter how many times I watch that scene, I cannot stop myself from crying.
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Originally posted by Croaking_Toad:
No matter what our neighbouring countries may have said about the movie featuring Schindler during WWII, I felt touched by it. I wouldn't boast that I have lived through any war, but it comes to show the madness and futility of war.
Judge someone by their character, not by their creed, colour or religion.
The trouble is that you might not judge someone by their creed nor their colour nor their religion, but they might be judging you based on those.
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Originally posted by 4Justice:
The one moment in the movie for me... is when, at the end, the surrender of Germany is announced, and the workers gather to thank him. He breaks down and blames himself for not having done more.
It might be poetic licence on the part of the movie scriptwriters, but I think as a measure of the depth of the man's humanity, its probably spot on.
No matter how many times I watch that scene, I cannot stop myself from crying.
I kinda forbid myself to watch Schindler's List because I cry very easily.
Already, when watching Anime or crappy Korean romance movies, I cry buckets. I listened to the violin theme song for Schindler's List and I started to have tears well up my eyes when I was on the MRT!! Soooo pai seh!!! So I told myself, better don't watch that movie, otherwise will cry from beginning to end. Just now, on CNN, heard a news snippet about an American soldier missing for four years in ... was it Iraq? and his remains were finally discovered and brought home to rest and I started crying. See his family crying on TV, I cried even more!
Better not watch...
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watch it Rhonda. The crying is worth it.
Yea i have a problem with crying too. I know how u feel.
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Originally posted by 4Justice:
watch it Rhonda. The crying is worth it.
Yea i have a problem with crying too. I know how u feel.
Erm... think I'll watch it when I feel miserable and need to have a crying catharsis session.
Thanks for your recommendation though! 