Emilie Schindler
Encyclopedia
Emilie Schindler was a humanitarian who, with her husband Oskar Schindler
, helped to save the lives of 1,200 to 1,700 Jews during World War II
. Oskar Schindler
, a Sudeten German industrialist
, created the now famous list of Schindler's Jews
by employing them in his enamelware and ammunition
s factories, providing them immunity from the Nazis.
Israel
's Yad Vashem
memorial to the victims of the Holocaust
honored the Schindlers as Righteous Among the Nations
for their efforts in saving hundreds of Jewish lives.
, (now in the Czech Republic
), to farmers Josef and Marie Pelzl. She also had an older brother, Franz, with whom she was very close.
Schindler's early life in Alt Moletein was idyllic, and she was quite fond of nature and animals. She was also interested in the Gypsies, who would camp near the village for a few days at a time; their nomadic lifestyle, their music, and their stories fascinated her.
in 1928, when he came to Alt Moletein to sell electric motors to her father. After dating for six weeks, the couple married on March 6, 1928, in an inn on the outskirts of Zwittau, Schindler's hometown.
In 1938, the unemployed Oskar Schindler joined the Nazi Party and moved to Kraków
, leaving his wife in Zwittau
. There he was given control of a Jewish-owned enameled-goods factory, Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik, where he principally employed Jewish workers because they were the cheapest. However, he soon realized the true brutalities of the Nazis and the Schindlers started protecting his Jewish laborers. Initially, they saved the workers by bribing the SS
guards; later, they listed their employees as essential factory workers, constructing uniforms and munitions for the Reich. When conditions worsened and they started running out of money, she sold her jewels to buy food, clothes and medicine. She looked after sick workers in a secret sanatorium
in the factory with medical equipment purchased on the black market.
One of the survivors, Maurice Markheim, later recalled:
The Schindlers saved more than 1,200 Jews from extermination camps. In May 1945, when Soviets
moved into Brunnlitz
, the Schindlers left the Jews in the factory and went into hiding, in fear of being caught because of Oskar's ties with the Nazi party.
in Argentina
, with Schindler's mistress and a dozen of Schindler Jews
. In 1949, they settled there as farmers and were supported financially by a Jewish organization.
In 1957, a bankrupt Oskar Schindler abandoned his wife and returned to Germany, where he died in 1974. Although they never divorced, they never saw each other again. Thirty-seven years after he left, she visited his grave:
Emilie Schindler lived for many years in her small house in San Vicente
, 40 kilometres south-west of Buenos Aires
in Argentina
with her pets. She received a small pension from Israel
and Germany
. Uniformed Argentinean police were posted 24 hours a day to protect her from anti-Semitic and extremist groups. Here she formed bonds with many of the soldiers.
, Emilie Schindler told reporters that it was her "greatest and last wish" to spend her final years in Germany, adding that she had become increasingly homesick. She died from the effects of a stroke in Märkisch-Oderland Hospital, Berlin, on the night of October 5, 2001, at the age of 93 years. Her only relative was a niece in Bavaria
. She is buried at the cemetery in Waldkraiburg
, Germany, about an hour away from Munich. Her tombstone includes the words, Wer einen Menschen rettet, rettet die Ganze Welt ("Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.").
. In May 1994, she received the Righteous Among the Nations
award from Yad Vashem
, along with Miep Gies
, the woman who hid Anne Frank
and her family in the Netherlands
during the war. In 1995, she was decorated with the Order of May, the highest honor given to foreigners who are not heads of state in Argentina. Her life inspired Erika Rosenberg
's book Ich, Emilie Schindler, (Herbig, 2001 ISBN 377662230X).
in a present day real life epilogue, Emilie Schindler accompanied by Caroline Goodall
(the actress who portrays her in the film), lays a stone on the grave of Oskar Schindler
, with many of the present day surviving Schindler's Jews.
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist born in Moravia. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively.He is the subject of the...
, helped to save the lives of 1,200 to 1,700 Jews during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist born in Moravia. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively.He is the subject of the...
, a Sudeten German industrialist
Sudeten Germans
- Importance of Sudeten Germans :Czechoslovakia was inhabited by over 3 million ethnic Germans, comprising about 23 percent of the population of the republic and about 29.5% of Bohemia and Moravia....
, created the now famous list of Schindler's Jews
Schindlerjuden
The Schindlerjuden, literally translated as "Schindler Jews", were roughly 1,000 to 1,200 Jews who were saved by Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust. Their story has been depicted in the book Schindler's Ark, by Thomas Keneally, and Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the novel, Schindler's List...
by employing them in his enamelware and ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
s factories, providing them immunity from the Nazis.
Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
memorial to the victims of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
honored the Schindlers as Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
for their efforts in saving hundreds of Jewish lives.
Early life
She was born in the village of Alt Moletein, 49°48′N 16°47′E (alternate spelling, Old Moletin, in Czech: Starý Moletín, today: Maletín) Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, (now in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
), to farmers Josef and Marie Pelzl. She also had an older brother, Franz, with whom she was very close.
Schindler's early life in Alt Moletein was idyllic, and she was quite fond of nature and animals. She was also interested in the Gypsies, who would camp near the village for a few days at a time; their nomadic lifestyle, their music, and their stories fascinated her.
Marriage and life with Oskar Schindler
Emilie Pelzl first saw the handsome and outgoing Oskar SchindlerOskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist born in Moravia. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively.He is the subject of the...
in 1928, when he came to Alt Moletein to sell electric motors to her father. After dating for six weeks, the couple married on March 6, 1928, in an inn on the outskirts of Zwittau, Schindler's hometown.
World War II
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, leaving his wife in Zwittau
Svitavy
Svitavy is a town in the Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. The town has a population of 18,000 and is also the district administrative centre...
. There he was given control of a Jewish-owned enameled-goods factory, Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik, where he principally employed Jewish workers because they were the cheapest. However, he soon realized the true brutalities of the Nazis and the Schindlers started protecting his Jewish laborers. Initially, they saved the workers by bribing the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
guards; later, they listed their employees as essential factory workers, constructing uniforms and munitions for the Reich. When conditions worsened and they started running out of money, she sold her jewels to buy food, clothes and medicine. She looked after sick workers in a secret sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
in the factory with medical equipment purchased on the black market.
One of the survivors, Maurice Markheim, later recalled:
The Schindlers saved more than 1,200 Jews from extermination camps. In May 1945, when Soviets
Soviet Armed Forces
The Soviet Armed Forces, also called the Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Armed Forces of the Soviet Union refers to the armed forces of the Russian SFSR , and Soviet Union from their beginnings in the...
moved into Brunnlitz
Brnenec
Brněnec is a village in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has around 1,400 inhabitants.Villages Chrastová Lhota, Moravská Chrastová and Podlesí are administrative parts of Brněnec.-History:...
, the Schindlers left the Jews in the factory and went into hiding, in fear of being caught because of Oskar's ties with the Nazi party.
Life after war
The Schindlers were deprived of their nationality immediately after the war. They lived under continuous threats from former Nazis, which meant that they were insecure in post-war Germany. They fled to Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, with Schindler's mistress and a dozen of Schindler Jews
Schindlerjuden
The Schindlerjuden, literally translated as "Schindler Jews", were roughly 1,000 to 1,200 Jews who were saved by Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust. Their story has been depicted in the book Schindler's Ark, by Thomas Keneally, and Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the novel, Schindler's List...
. In 1949, they settled there as farmers and were supported financially by a Jewish organization.
In 1957, a bankrupt Oskar Schindler abandoned his wife and returned to Germany, where he died in 1974. Although they never divorced, they never saw each other again. Thirty-seven years after he left, she visited his grave:
Emilie Schindler lived for many years in her small house in San Vicente
San Vicente, Buenos Aires
San Vicente is the head town of the San Vicente Partido in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is located within the Gran Buenos Aires metropolitan area and has about 44,500 inhabitants as per the ....
, 40 kilometres south-west of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
with her pets. She received a small pension from Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Uniformed Argentinean police were posted 24 hours a day to protect her from anti-Semitic and extremist groups. Here she formed bonds with many of the soldiers.
Death
In July 2001, during a visit to BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Emilie Schindler told reporters that it was her "greatest and last wish" to spend her final years in Germany, adding that she had become increasingly homesick. She died from the effects of a stroke in Märkisch-Oderland Hospital, Berlin, on the night of October 5, 2001, at the age of 93 years. Her only relative was a niece in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. She is buried at the cemetery in Waldkraiburg
Waldkraiburg
Waldkraiburg is a town in the district of Mühldorf, in Bavaria, Germany with a population of about 24,000. It is the biggest town in the district of Mühldorf. It is located on the Inn River, approximately ten kilometers southwest of Mühldorf and sixty kilometers east of Munich.Waldkraiburg is one...
, Germany, about an hour away from Munich. Her tombstone includes the words, Wer einen Menschen rettet, rettet die Ganze Welt ("Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.").
Legacy
Emilie Schindler was honored by several Jewish organizations for her efforts during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In May 1994, she received the Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
award from Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
, along with Miep Gies
Miep Gies
Miep Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and several family friends in an attic annex above Anne's father's place of business from the Nazis during World War II...
, the woman who hid Anne Frank
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
and her family in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
during the war. In 1995, she was decorated with the Order of May, the highest honor given to foreigners who are not heads of state in Argentina. Her life inspired Erika Rosenberg
Erika Rosenberg
Erika Rosenberg is an author, interpreter and journalist. She wrote the biography of Oskar Schindler and Emilie Schindler.- Life :Erika Rosenberg was born in a family of German Jews in Buenos Aires, Argentina...
's book Ich, Emilie Schindler, (Herbig, 2001 ISBN 377662230X).
In popular culture
At the end of the movie Schindler's ListSchindler's List
Schindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
in a present day real life epilogue, Emilie Schindler accompanied by Caroline Goodall
Caroline Goodall
Caroline Cruice Goodall is a British actress and screenwriter.-Biography:Goodall was born in London, England to a journalist mother and a publisher father...
(the actress who portrays her in the film), lays a stone on the grave of Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist born in Moravia. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively.He is the subject of the...
, with many of the present day surviving Schindler's Jews.
See also
- Oskar SchindlerOskar SchindlerOskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist born in Moravia. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively.He is the subject of the...
- Individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust
- Righteous among the NationsRighteous Among the NationsRighteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
- List of Righteous among the Nations by country
- Schindler's ListSchindler's ListSchindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
External links
- http://www.emilieschindler.com/ - The story of Emilie Schindler