In the commercial sector, Schindler is synonymous with the Schindler Group, a Swiss multinational founded in 1874. It is one of the world's leading providers of elevators, escalators, and moving walkways. Oskar Schindler | Holocaust Encyclopedia
As the war intensified, Schindler's factory became a refuge for Jews fleeing the ghettos and concentration camps. He bribed officials, forged documents, and used his charisma to convince Nazi leaders to allow him to employ more Jews. schindler
The turning point in Schindler’s life came on a single, horrific day in March 1943: the liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto. From a hilltop overlooking the carnage, Schindler watched in horror as SS troops brutally murdered hundreds of Jews in the streets, dragging others from their hiding places to be shipped to the Plaszów labor camp. The chaos, the screams, the image of a little girl in a red coat (immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List ) shattered his detached, profit-driven worldview. In the commercial sector, Schindler is synonymous with
On May 8, 1945, the war in Europe ended. Schindler gathered his workers in the factory floor. He was a broken man—bankrupt, a defeated Nazi, with no home or fortune left. He gave a short speech, urging them not to seek vengeance, and then fled into the night with his wife, Emilie. He bribed officials, forged documents, and used his
In one of history’s most extraordinary acts of bureaucratic defiance, he and his Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern, compiled a list of approximately 1,100 names—a list "of life." Schindler argued that to continue producing munitions for the Reich, he needed to relocate his entire factory to his hometown in Brünnlitz, in the Sudetenland. He bribed Nazi officials to allow him to take his "skilled workers." In reality, the list was filled with friends, children, the elderly, and anyone Schindler could argue was essential. It was a masterclass in deception.