Who was Oskar Schindler?

The Rescuers

A light can save you from the darkness. In every darkness there is always a light. People think that there were not any lights in the dark time of the Holocaust. However, there were many lights saving Jews from the darkness. These lights were called Rescuers. One of the lights that shinned the brightest was Oskar Schindler, who worked within the Nazi Party.

Oscar Schindler rescued 1200 Jews, who were called the “Shindler Juden” which is German for “Schindler’s Jews.” Schindler was a mixture of self-serving greed and generosity and was originally motivated by the fact that he was making a fortune by saving Jews, but eventually became disgusted by Nazi brutality. Schindler was born on April 28, 1908, to a middle-class family in the town of Zwitlau, Austria- Hungary (now Moravia, Czech Republic). The Schindler family was one of the richest and most prominent in Zwitlau and elsewhere. This was due to the success of their family owned machinery business. Schindler was born Catholic but from an early age he lived in a world of sin. His ventures with women were the stuff of barroom legend. He married at nineteen. He was never without a mistress or two. In 1936 Schindler became a spy for, Abwehr, the intelligence service for the Nazis. In 1938, Schindler was arrested and sentenced to death on charges of espionage. After his home country was annexed by Germany under the Munich agreement, Schindler was pardoned by the Reich. Five months later he joined the Nazi Party.

When the Germans took over Poland, Schindler marched into Poland on the heels of the Gestapo. He immediately jumped in the Black-market and the Underworld. He immediately became friends with high ranked Gestapo officers, softening them up with women, money and ...

... middle of paper ...

...n October 9, 1974 but surviving Jews from his list arranged for him to be buried on Mt.Zion in Israel. The State of Israel recognized him as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” (a non-Jew who helped save Jewish lives during the Holocaust). In 1993 Stephen Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” Helped shine light on the heroic actions of Schindler during the Holocaust.

Oskar Schindler, who worked within the Nazi Party, was one of the lights that shinned the brightest. People ask the question “Why did he do what he did?” Perhaps the question is not why he did it, but rather how he could not, and perhaps the answer is not important. It is only his actions that matter now, actions that show that even in the worst of times the most ordinary of us can act courageously. Schindler’s actions also show that no matter how flawed we are we can always be a light in the darkness.