Oskar Schindler

Oskar Schindler (1908 – 1974) was a German industrialist and humanitarian whose transformation from opportunist war profiteer to rescuer saved over 1,200 human lives. Operating an enamelware factory (*Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik*, 'Emalia') in Kraków, Poland, Schindler initially employed Jewish slave labor from the Kraków Ghetto for commercial profit.

Witnessing the sadistic liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto by SS-Kommandant Amon Göth, Schindler experienced a profound moral awakening. He bribed SS officials with black-market diamonds, alcohol, and money to designate his workers as essential to the war effort, establishing a sub-camp where beatings and executions were prohibited. In late 1944, when the camp was ordered evacuated to Auschwitz, Schindler drew up lists of 1,200 Jewish men, women, and children, spending his entire personal fortune to relocate them to his new factory in Brünnlitz (Moravia), where not a single worker was murdered. He is buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the only member of the Nazi Party so honored.