Oscar Schindler
There were also good individuals that were willing to sacrifice there lives in order to save lives one example is Oscar Schindler. Oscar Schindler was born April 28, 1908 in Svitavy in the former Empire of Austro-Hungary now modern day Czech Republic. After school, be became a commercial salesman. In the 1930’s he switched between multiple amounts of jobs, he even attempted to start some of his own business but went into bankruptcy during the depression. In 1935 he joined the Sudeten Germany party although he was a citizen of the Czech Republic. He worked for German Military Intelligence. In July of 1938 he was exposed and was put in jail, but was released because of the Munich Agreement. In 1939 he joined the Nazi Party; a source reports that he worked for the Abwehr so he helped pave the way for the German invasion of Poland. Like many other Germans, he was looking forward to seeking benefits from the invasion of Poland. He was given ownership over an idle enamelware factory in Kraków, he renamed the factory to Deutsche Emailewaren-Fabric or DEF. He and his assistant, a Jewish man named Itzhak Stern, were able to gather 1,000 Jewish prisoners to work in the factory. When Stern and Schindler first met, Schindler held out his hand for a hand shake, but Stern declined it. When Schindler asked why Stern told him Jews were forbidden to shake hands with Germans, Schindler replied with a expletive “Scheisse”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_schindler)
Schindler soon became a well respected member of the Nazi party, and was very well respected by the SS. Schindler witnessed the raid on the Kraków Ghetto in 1942 and was extremely upset by the murdering of the Jews many of whom worked for him. After the raid he was able to persuade the Nazi’s to give him back his SchindlerJuden (“Schindler’s Jews”). In one incident two Gestapo agents came in and demanded that Schindler hand over a family of five people who had bought forget Polish Identity Papers. About three hours later they left without the prisoners, without the charges, and drunk. In other incidents his Jews were supposed to be exported from the factory and sent to a concentration camp but Schindler would exempt all of his workers. Schindler was also reported to smuggle children out of Ghetto’s and then gave them to Polish nuns who took them and hid them form the Nazi’s. Schindler was arrested two times for supposable use of the black market but he was able to avoid going to jail both times. Near the end of the war the Russian Army was getting closer to Auschwitz. The Germans began moving the prisoners westward and began to kill even more. Schindler was able to persuade the leaders of the SS to move him and his 1,100 Jews to a factory in Brnĕnec. This move saved his workers from being sent to an extermination camp. While owning this new factory he was supposed to build missiles and hand grenades for the German Army but every weapon the factory made could not be fired. This cost Schindler money and he began to lose money by bribing officials and caring for his workers. After the war Schindler had spent his whole fortune for the protection of his workers. In post war Germany Schindler was not able to prosper and had to receive help from Jewish Organizations. In 1948 he moved to Argentina and tried to establish a small business but the business went bankrupt so he moved back to Germany in 1958. He attempted to build more businesses but each one went bankrupt. On September 24, 1974 he went to the hospital for heart problem he later died in the hospital on October 9, 1994 he was 66. His body was transported to Jerusalem, Israel. His body was buried in the Catholic cemetery at Mount Zion, the only Nazi member that had the honor to be buried there. Many Jews gather out of respect and put rocks on Schindler’s grave in honor of what he did. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_schindler)
The Holocaust was full of heroes and villains. The villains such as Joseph Mengele and Amon Goeth attempted to destroy an entire race from existence. They killed many innocent people in order to create a “perfect Aryan race” and they also took great pride in what they did. The heroes on the other hand such as Oscar Schindler attempted to save the innocent and was willing to risk his own life in order to do so. He sacrificed everything he had so lives could be saved. Along with may other heroes many lives were saved.