Oskar Schindler
Why he should be remembered.
Who Oskar Was / What He Did
In Febrary of 1939 Oskar Schindler joined the Nazi party and soon moved to Krakow. He purchased a Jewish owned enamelware manufacturing facility and converted it to the Deutsche Emalwarenfabrik Oskar Schindler / Emalia. In this factory he had hired Jewish workers from the Krakow ghetto nearby. During their time working at the factory the Jews were often defended by Oskar, him claiming that they were important workers and also offering bribes to nazi officials in order to keep them working at the factory. When the Krakow ghetto was liquidated he allowed the workers to stay the night at the factory as well. Schindler later went on to relocate is factory to Brünnlitz where they would make munitions exclusively. Stern, Schindlers assistant helped him to make up a list of about 1000-1200 Jewish prisoners to transfer to the new factory which was also a camp. Out of all the munitions made, not a single one fired. Oskar left the factory on May 9, 1945, the day that the camp was liberated by soviet troops.
Why Remember Him?
Only about 4000 Jews were left in Poland by the end of the war. Oskar had saved about 1000 which is a major accomplishment on his part because when such a small amount of a population is left, every person matters. Oskar Schindler had gone from being a full blown Nazi to someone who had saved Jewish lives. Oskar Schindler got to later plant a tree in the garden of the righteous which means that he did something truly amazing. We should learn about Oskar Schindler because he was a bit of light in one of the darkest times in world history.