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Hannah Adams English 1102 Mrs. Wertz-O 4/1/14 Inquiry Essay: Oskar Schindlers Life

My major is business so I decided to base my paper on a businessman. When I was starting my inquiry I considered many different people but only one really stuck out to me. That is the life of Oscar Schindler. Oskar Schindler is credited for saving the lives of many Jews during the holocaust (Wikipedia). What most find ironic about this is that Schindler was a member of the Nazi party. I myself wanted to know what made him decide to change his views and go against what Hitler and the Nazi

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party where doing. To find out this information I decided to go to google and see what I can find. By reading through Wikipedia I discovered that Schindler joined the Nazi party in 1939. Soon after he opened a enamelware factory where he employed about 1,750 workers who were mostly Jews. He was able to protect these Jews from deportation and death. At first Schindler did this for the money but it is said that soon after he began shielding his worker with no care of the cost. This gave me a small understanding of how he did what he did but I wondered if how his early life affected how he conducted himself in his later life so I decided to try another website. What I discovered on the United States Holocaust Museums website was that Schindler held very many jobs. After going to many different trade schools he went to work with his father in his machinery business. Soon after this he opened a driving school and sold government property (USHM). Something I was shocked to find was that Schindler served in the Czechoslovak army and in 1938 attained the rank of lance corporal. The reason this shocked me is because I never saw Schindler as a so called Military Man. After working for the Office of the Military Foreign Intelligence of the German army in 1936 he joined the Nazi party. Schindler seemed like an unlikely candidate to become a wartime rescuer of the Jews, that is why there were very few people suspicious.

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After reading about all the jobs Schindler held I stilled wanted to know what could have persuaded him into to changing his views and helping all the Jews so I decided to look at all his relationships hoping that maybe they would have impacted his decisions (USHM). I first looked at the relationship he had with his wife. By reading information on Wikipedia I discovered that Schindler married Emilie Pelzl the daughter of a prosperous Sudeten German farmer. When they were first married they lived with Oskars parents for seven years. After serving in the army Schindler went bankrupt which caused him to be unemployed for a year.(USHM) Im sure this really affected his relationship with Emilie. I looked on both websites and for the most part it seems that Oskar and Emilie had a good relationship and I believe she is part of the reason he helped the Jews. Next I decided to look into the actual factory and the Jews who worked there. I discovered that the factory was located in Krakow. To the left is a picture of this factory (Crowe 1). He actually had two other factories there but only one had Jews as employees. This factory was called Deutsche Emalwarenfabrik Oskar

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Schindler (German Enamelware Factory Oskar Schindler), also known as Emalia. Out of the 1,700 Jews working at this factory at least 1,000 were forced laborers whom the Germans had relocated from the Krakow ghetto to the forced labor camps and later concentration camp Krakau-Plaszow (Crowe 2). Schindler intervened repeatedly on the Jews behalf through bribes and personal diplomacy because the Jews were still subject to brutal conditions at the Plaszow concentration camp. During the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto Schindler allowed his Jewish workers to stay overnight night to protect them from being deported (Crowe 3). So after reading all this I feel that Schindler really put his life in danger to protect the Jewish people. Although some people believe it was all just for his own well-being because the Jews he employed keep his factory running. As I was exploring the internet I discovered and article on a website called The Independent. This article is called Oskar Schindler and Me. It was about Leon Leyson a man who Oskar Schindler saved when he was 13 years old. Leon wrote a book about his life in the holocaust but died before he was able to see it published (Clark 1). I liked this article because it is the first accountant of an actual Jew Schindler saved I have read. Something that really stuck out in this article was when the were talking about what was in Leons book it really made me want to go get the book and read it.

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Next I decided to look into Schindlers image after his death in 1974. I found the movie Schindlers List, this movie is based on the life of Schindler. When I watched the movie I found that it was very accurate. Something that I really liked about the movie was at the end it shows the real life Jews who Schindler saved visiting his grave (Schindlers List). I believe they added this to the movie so people know that this did really happen. Below is a picture of the actual Jews Schindler saved visiting his grave.

(Schindlers List)
I feel like all of my sources really helped me to learn more about Oskar Schindlers life. Each one gave me different information. Something I didnt like about the sources where how some didnt have many pictures so I had to go look up pictures on google to get a good idea of what things looked like. I learned the most from the movie because it allowed me to be a fly on the wall and see Oskar Schindlers experiences.

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References
Oskar Schindler. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Inc. 22 July 2004. Web.10 Aug. 2004.

Schindlers List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Universal Pictures

1993 Film

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Oskar Schindler. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Web.10 Jun. 2013 David M. Crowe, Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of his

Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List (Cambridge, MA: Westview Press, 2004).

Nick Clark: Oskar Schindler and Me.Independent.Web.29

Aug. 2013.

Oskar Schindler enamel factory in Krakow Wikipedia: The

Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Inc. 22 July 2004. Web.10 Aug. 2004.