The German industrialist Schindler, who is revered for saving the lives of more than 1,000 Jews, was brought to life in 1993 by the famous director Spielberg in the film Schindler's List.
This work reflects Schindler's painstaking choices and great acts of kindness under the Nazis. It is worth noting that Schindler's real life is more magnificent than the film portrays.
Oskar Schindler was born in the Czech Republic (formerly Austria-Hungary) and was a German Catholic who studied at various business schools.
He has promoted his status in various ways, such as buying and operating driving schools, selling agricultural machinery, etc.
As a Germanic resident of the Sudetenland, Schindler was deeply aware of the Nazi Party's ideals and actively supported and assisted the German occupation of the Sudetenland.
Amy Randall, chair of the history department at Santa Clara University, disputed Schindler's view, saying that "a lot of research focuses only on his pre-war service to the German newspaper and ignores other important sources." ”
Research in recent years suggests that Schindler may have been deeply involved in orchestrating the invasion of Poland.
The evidence comes from historian David Crow's 2004 book Oskar Schindler: The True Story Behind His Life, Wartime Activities, and List.
In the archives of the Czech Bureau, Crow discovered that Schindler was described as a "particularly dangerous spy" and had been involved in the Polish invasion.
Despite the controversy surrounding Schindler's performance in the war, he was arrested and imprisoned after 1938 and was not released until the Munich Agreement granted the land to Germany.
At the beginning of 1939, Schindler became a member of the Nazi Party, and the reasons for his membership are yet to be further studied.
In this regard, Randall believes that the reason for Schindler's joining the Nazi Party is not only to make money, but more importantly, his identification with Nazi ideology.
After the German invasion and occupation of Poland in 1939, Schindler quickly moved to Krakow to avoid risks. Krakow, originally home to numerous factories and industrial areas, is now either closed or occupied by the Nazis.
Schindler managed to acquire an enamel factory that had formerly belonged to Jews only a month later in Krakow. This was fully in line with the policy of the Nazis, which was to confiscate the property of Jews and give it to non-Jews.
Initially, the factory produced daily necessities for citizens and German soldiers, and then switched to ammunition production.
Although Schindler hired local Polish workers, his Polish-Jewish accountant, Isaac Stern, proposed recruiting Jewish laborers to reduce business costs and increase profits. Schindler soon embraced this strategy.
As he continued to do it, he developed empathy for these victims – and at the same time he made a lot of money," Randall explained.
In addition, according to her, Schindler also employed children and the elderly population to avoid starvation in the slums.
In March 1943, the Germans cleared Krakow and moved the Jewish population to Prashov, a converted concentration camp.
Through bribes and Schindler's connections in the Nazi regime, he was able to set up a Pulashov sub-camp in the factory to manage some 1,000 Jewish employees in a clean environment and provide them with meals.
In the autumn of 1944, Schindler succeeded in convincing the authorities to transfer his munitions manufacturing operations in the factory to Brunlitz, the town where he grew up in what was then the Sudetenland. This new subcamp was subsumed as part of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.
According to Crow's account, his Jewish employees working at the Laskov factory were so vital to his wartime production that they were also transferred to the factory in Brunlitz. About 800 men and 300 to 400 women were relocated as a result.
Their names were recorded on what would become known as Schindler's List, but Crow revealed that the list actually consisted of nine separate sheets of paper, in which Marcel Goldberg, a corrupt security policeman, was accused of creating four of the lists, and the origin of the other five remains unfounded.
Crow further elaborated that although Schindler's role in this process was limited to suggesting a few names on the list, and was unfamiliar to most of the people on the list.
But for the participants in the life-saving plan, the creators of the list are only one of the insignificant links. In the end, fortunately, it was this list that saved more than a thousand innocent lives.
Randall points out that Schindler's wife, Emily, played an important role in saving the workers of the Jewish factory, especially since the construction of the factory in Brunlitz was completed.
As a prominent figure who went all out to serve the Jewish people," she explains, "Emily was actively involved in the long period before the war to raise basic supplies such as medical aid and food. ”
In addition, Emily played a key role in the daily life of the Jews in Brunlitz.
In January 1945, two ox carts loaded with about 120 Jewish male workers had been left penniless and poorly fed and clothed in Goleszow, the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Before the train headed for the final station, Auschwitz, Emily eagerly sought the SS camp commander. With her and Schindler's efforts, the SS agreed to keep the employees. ”
Later, Randall said, Emily cared for more than 100 travelers who survived their difficult circumstances, while others froze to death in the snow.
Emily and Schindler remained in Brunlitz in May 1945 after the end of the war, and later moved to Regensburg, Germany, where Schindler tried to restart his business career.
However, despite many attempts, the results were not as expected. "A lot of bold attempts didn't pay off, and Oscar ended up leaving his homeland for Argentina," Lander said. ”
In 1949, Schindler and his wife moved to Argentina, but Schindler returned to Germany a few years later. He lived there until his death in 1974.
Schindler's body was eventually brought to Israel and laid to rest in the Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
Sean Stewart, a scholar specializing in the field of Central and Eastern European historiography and education in the 19th and 20th centuries, was one of the founders of the Berlin History Trail.
Since his death, Schindler's contributions have gradually become widely recognized. "In the post-war period, society and even history as a whole didn't really remember him," Stewart said. ”
However, those who helped him are well remembered, but mainly among those who have benefited directly or indirectly from him.
Surprisingly, Stewart emphasized that characters like Schindler are not alone.
"Schindler was just one of many Europeans who began to engage in business or gain financial benefits during the war," he noted. ”
For these merchants, the clothing needed by the army and occupation forces during the war became an important business opportunity, and while some protected their employees for various reasons, many overlooked it.
In light of this, Schindler's story was less dramatic in the decades that followed than Yad Vashem, an Israeli memorial to the victims of the Nazi Great.
That changed in 1982, when Thomas Keneally published his classic Schindler's List.
Although the book is a complete integration of the documents obtained at the time and interviews with a large number of survivors, it is still essentially a historical fiction and became the basis for the film Schindler's List.
Stewart emphasized that since the release of the film Schindler's List in 1993, his portrayal of Schindler has gradually become more positive, making Schindler himself more familiar to the modern public than the film character.
However, the film has also attracted a lot of criticism, such as downplaying his previous cunning words and actions, and even suggesting that he has had a noticeable change in mentality, from an opportunist who makes a fortune from war to a humanitarian, trying to turn the tide and save the lives lost.
Still, both authors agree that cinema has its own unique value and helps to give viewers an insight into the big events: before Schindler's List, the genre was almost never seen in popular culture.