us-005578-irn723116-irn503485
type: RecordSet
archival history: Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah ṿela-gevurah
biographical history: Oskar Schindler (1908–1974) was born on April 28, 1908, in Svitavy (Zwittau), Moravia, at that time a province of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. An ethnic German and a Catholic, he remained in Svitavy during the interwar period and held Czech citizenship after Moravia was incorporated into the newly established Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. After attending a series of trade schools in Brno and marrying Emilie Pelzl in 1928, Oskar held a variety of jobs, including working in his father's farm machinery business in Svitavy, opening a driving school in Sumperk, and selling government property in Brno. He also served in the Czechoslovak army and in 1938 attained the rank of lance corporal in the reserves. Schindler began working with the Amt Auslands/Abwehr (Office of the Military Foreign Intelligence) of the German Armed Forces in 1936. In February 1939, five months after the German annexation of the Sudetenland, he joined the Nazi Party. Following the German invasion and occupation of Poland, Schindler moved to Krakow from Svitavy in October 1939 and assumed responsibility for the operation of two formerly Jewish-owned manufacturers of enamel kitchenware. He converted its plant to establish the Deutsche Emalwarenfabrik Oskar Schindler (German Enamelware Factory Oskar Schindler), also known as Emalia. While Schindler operated two other factories in Krakow, only at Emalia did he employ Jewish workers who resided in the nearby Krakow ghetto. At its peak strength in 1944, Emalia employed 1,700 workers; at least 1,000 were Jewish forced laborers, whom the Germans had relocated from the Krakow ghetto after its liquidation in March 1943 to the forced labor camp and later concentration camp Krakau-Plaszow. Although the prisoners deployed at Emalia were still subject to the brutal conditions of the Plaszow concentration camp, Schindler intervened repeatedly on their behalf. He used bribes and personal diplomacy both for the well-being of Jews threatened on an individual basis…
has beginning date: 1945-01-01
has end date: 1987-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had subject: 004310
has or had subject: 214
has or had subject: 1845
has or had subject: 992
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn503485
is or was included in: us-005578-irn723116
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: Arrangement is thematic
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Consists of letters, photographs, and articles relating to the life of Oskar Schindler and his efforts as a Righteous Gentile during the Holocaust. Included in the materials is a post-period photocopy of a list, dated 18 April 1945, of Jewish inmates of Brünlitz, a subcamp of Gross-Rosen in Czechoslovakia, that was associated with Oskar Schindler's munitions factory. Using an early list the previous year, Schindler had moved workers from his factory in Poland, as well as other Jews, to the relative safety of the Brünlitz camp.
title: Oskar Schindler papers