56 Facts About Oskar Schindler

Oskar Schindler is the subject of the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark and its 1993 film adaptation, Schindler's List, which reflected his life as an opportunist initially motivated by profit who came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity, courage, and dedication in saving his Jewish employees' lives.

Oskar Schindler was arrested for espionage by the Czechoslovak government but was released under the terms of the Munich Agreement that year.

Oskar Schindler continued to collect information for the Nazis, working in Poland in 1939 before the invasion of Poland at the start of World War II.

Oskar Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent his workers' execution until the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, by which time he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black market purchases of supplies for his workers.

Oskar Schindler moved to West Germany after the war, where he was supported by assistance payments from Jewish relief organisations.

Oskar Schindler died on 9 October 1974 in Hildesheim, Germany, and was buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only former member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way.

Oskar Schindler was born on 28 April 1908, into a Sudeten German family in Zwittau, Moravia, Austria-Hungary.

Oskar Schindler's father was Johann "Hans" Schindler, the owner of a farm machinery business, and his mother was Franziska "Fanny" Schindler.

Oskar Schindler later graduated, but did not take the Abitur exams that would have enabled him to go to college or university.

On 6 March 1928, Oskar Schindler married Emilie Pelzl, daughter of a prosperous Sudeten German farmer from Maletein.

Oskar Schindler took a job with Jaroslav Simek Bank of Prague in 1931, where he worked until 1938.

Oskar Schindler was arrested several times in 1931 and 1932 for public drunkenness.

Oskar Schindler died a few months later after a long illness.

Oskar Schindler was assigned to Abwehrstelle II Commando VIII, based in Breslau.

Oskar Schindler later told Czech police that he did it because he needed the money; by this time Schindler had a drinking problem and was chronically in debt.

Oskar Schindler was arrested by the Czech government for espionage on 18 July 1938 and immediately imprisoned, but released as a political prisoner under the terms of the Munich Agreement, the instrument under which the Czech Sudetenland was annexed by Germany on 1 October.

Oskar Schindler continued to work for the Abwehr until as late as fall 1940, when he was sent to Turkey to investigate corruption among the Abwehr officers assigned to the German embassy there.

Oskar Schindler first arrived in Krakow in October 1939, on Abwehr business, and took an apartment the following month.

Oskar Schindler showed Stern the balance sheet of a company he was thinking of acquiring, an enamelware factory called Rekord Ltd owned by a consortium of Jewish businessmen that had filed for bankruptcy earlier that year.

Oskar Schindler renamed it Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik or DEF, and it soon became known by the nickname "Emalia".

Oskar Schindler initially acquired a staff of seven Jewish workers and 250 non-Jewish Poles.

Oskar Schindler helped run Schlomo Wiener Ltd, a wholesale outfit that sold his enamelware, and was leaseholder of Prokosziner Glashutte, a glass factory.

Oskar Schindler himself enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and pursued extramarital relationships with his secretary, Viktoria Klonowska, and Eva Kisch Scheuer, a merchant specialising in enamelware from DEF.

Oskar Schindler claimed wives, children, and even people with disabilities were necessary mechanics and metalworkers.

On one occasion, the Gestapo came to Oskar Schindler demanding that he hand over a family that possessed forged identity papers.

Oskar Schindler's workers travelled on foot to and from the ghetto each day to their jobs at the factory.

Enlargements to the facility in the four years Oskar Schindler was in charge included the addition of an outpatient clinic, co-op, kitchen, and dining room for the workers, in addition to expansion of the factory and its related office space.

Aware of the plans because of his Wehrmacht contacts, Oskar Schindler had his workers stay at the factory overnight to protect them from harm.

Oskar Schindler decided to get out and to save as many Jews as he could.

Oskar Schindler was arrested twice on suspicion of black market activities and once for breaking the Nuremberg Laws by kissing a Jewish girl, an action forbidden by the Race and Resettlement Act.

Oskar Schindler's secretary arranged for his release through Schindler's influential contacts in the Nazi Party.

Oskar Schindler remained in jail five days before his influential Nazi contacts could obtain his release.

Oskar Schindler was held for most of a week and released.

Goth had been arrested on 13 September 1944 for corruption and other abuses of power, and Oskar Schindler's arrest was part of the ongoing investigation into Goth's activities.

In 1943, Oskar Schindler was contacted by Zionist leaders in Budapest via members of the Jewish resistance movement.

Oskar Schindler travelled to Budapest several times to report in person on Nazi mistreatment of the Jews.

Oskar Schindler brought back funding provided by the Jewish Agency for Israel and turned it over to the Jewish underground.

On 15 October 1944 a train carrying 700 men on Oskar Schindler's list was initially sent to the concentration camp at Gross-Rosen, where the men spent about a week before being rerouted to the factory in Brunnlitz.

When officials from the Armaments Ministry questioned the factory's low output, Oskar Schindler bought finished goods on the black market and resold them as his own.

The rations provided by the SS were insufficient to meet the workers' needs, so Oskar Schindler spent most of his time in Krakow, obtaining food, armaments, and other materials.

Oskar Schindler arranged for the transfer of as many as 3,000 Jewish women out of Auschwitz to small textiles plants in the Sudetenland in an effort to increase their chances of surviving the war.

The boxcars were frozen shut when they arrived, and Emilie Oskar Schindler waited while an engineer from the factory opened them with a soldering iron.

Oskar Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent the slaughter of his workers as the Red Army approached.

Oskar Schindler was given a ring made out of gold from dental work taken out of Schindlerjude Simon Jeret's mouth.

The Schindlers were unable to recover a diamond Oskar had hidden under the seat.

Oskar Schindler was reduced to receiving assistance from Jewish organisations.

Oskar Schindler estimated his expenditures at over $1,056,000, including the costs of camp construction, bribes, and expenditures for black market goods, including food.

In 1949, Oskar Schindler emigrated to Argentina, where he tried raising chickens and then nutria, a small animal raised for its fur.

Oskar Schindler declared bankruptcy in 1963 and suffered a heart attack the next year, which led to a monthlong hospital stay.

Oskar Schindler is buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way.

Oskar Schindler received other awards, including the German Order of Merit in 1966.

Also on Pfefferberg's initiative, in 1964 Oskar Schindler received a $20,000 advance from MGM for a proposed film treatment titled To the Last Hour.

Oskar Schindler was approached in the 1960s by MCA of Germany and Walt Disney Productions in Vienna, but again nothing came of these projects.

Oskar Schindler gave Keneally copies of some materials he had on file, and Keneally soon decided to make a fictionalised treatment of the story.

In 1997 a suitcase belonging to Oskar Schindler containing historic photographs and documents was discovered in the attic of the apartment of Ami and Heinrich Staehr in Hildesheim.

Oskar Schindler had stayed with the couple for a few days shortly before his death in 1974.