The Story of Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler (1908-1974), a German industrialist and Nazi Party member, rescued 1,300 Jews from concentration camps in Poland. First he hired them as laborers. Then he protected them from deportation to death camps. Other German industrialists treated their employees as consumable slave labor. Schindler provided food, clothing, shelter, and, when the Nazi killers were on his doorstep, life itself.
His first factory in Krakow, Poland produced enamelware pots and pans for the German army and other customers. When the threats to his Jewish workers intensified in Poland, he relocated to Czechoslovakia. There he set up a factory to which he moved his workers so he could better protect them. This factory produced weapon parts that were deliberately sabotaged so they could not be used. At the end of the war, his Jewish workers helped Schindler and his wife escape Czechoslovakia to avoid the Russian Army.
Schindler was a complicated character. He used his reputation as a prosperous man of the world to effectively protect "his" Jews. With black market connections, he was able to bribe Nazi officials with liquor and expensive gifts. By using his image as a self-interested businessman, he accomplished the impossible - snatching more than 1,000 Jews from the jaws of the Nazi death machine.
In 1961, Oskar Schindler was declared a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, the Israeli State Holocaust Memorial and Research Center. Oskar Schindler is immortalized in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List and in Thomas Keneally's novel of the same name.
"The Story of Oskar Schindler". Teaching the Diary of Anne Frank: An In-depth Resource for Learning About the Holocaust Through the Writings of Anne Frank. Ed. Susan Moger. 2nd Ed. Scholastic, Inc. NY. 1998. Print
His first factory in Krakow, Poland produced enamelware pots and pans for the German army and other customers. When the threats to his Jewish workers intensified in Poland, he relocated to Czechoslovakia. There he set up a factory to which he moved his workers so he could better protect them. This factory produced weapon parts that were deliberately sabotaged so they could not be used. At the end of the war, his Jewish workers helped Schindler and his wife escape Czechoslovakia to avoid the Russian Army.
Schindler was a complicated character. He used his reputation as a prosperous man of the world to effectively protect "his" Jews. With black market connections, he was able to bribe Nazi officials with liquor and expensive gifts. By using his image as a self-interested businessman, he accomplished the impossible - snatching more than 1,000 Jews from the jaws of the Nazi death machine.
In 1961, Oskar Schindler was declared a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, the Israeli State Holocaust Memorial and Research Center. Oskar Schindler is immortalized in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List and in Thomas Keneally's novel of the same name.
"The Story of Oskar Schindler". Teaching the Diary of Anne Frank: An In-depth Resource for Learning About the Holocaust Through the Writings of Anne Frank. Ed. Susan Moger. 2nd Ed. Scholastic, Inc. NY. 1998. Print
Common Core State Standards
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.2 Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g., social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.
- R.CM.01.01 Make text-to-self and text-to-text connections and comparisons by activating prior knowledge and connecting personal knowledge and experience to ideas in text through oral and written responses.