Oskar Schindler (second from right) with a group of Jews he rescued during the Holocaust. The photo was taken in 1946, a year after World War II ended.

The Schindlerjuden, literally translated from German as "Schindler Jews", were a group of roughly 1,200 Jews saved by Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust. They survived the years of the Nazi regime primarily through the intervention of Schindler, who afforded them protected status as industrial workers at his enamelware factory in Kraków, capital of the General Government, and after 1944, in an armaments factory in occupied Czechoslovakia. There, they avoided being sent to death camps and survived the genocide. Schindler expended his personal fortune made as an industrialist to save the Schindlerjuden.

The story of the Schindlerjuden has been depicted in the book Schindler's Ark, by Thomas Keneally, and Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the novel, Schindler's List. Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the survivors, persuaded Keneally to write the novel and Spielberg to produce the film.

In 2012, over 8,500 descendants of Schindlerjuden were estimated to be living in the United States, Israel, and other countries.[1]

List

The original list of Schindlerjuden transported to Schindler's Brünnlitz factory in Brněnec, occupied Czechoslovakia, was prepared by Mietek Pemper, Itzhak Stern and Oskar Schindler in September and October 1944. That list likely no longer exists.[2][3][4]

Another list with 1,000 names, compiled by Pemper upon the prisoners' arrival on 21 October 1944 at Schindler's Brünnlitz factory, was presented by him to the International Tracing Service in 1958.[5]

Two lists of 1,098 prisoners made by camp administrators in Brünnlitz on 18 April 1945 are also extant and preserved in Yad Vashem Memorial, where Oskar and wife Emilie Schindler are recognized among the Righteous.[6][7] The first list contains 297 female prisoners and the second contains 801 male prisoners. There are several preserved copies and carbon copies of the later list from April 1945, some in museums and others in private hands, mostly those of former prisoners' families.

Notable Schindlerjuden

Historiography

References

  1. ^ Smith, Larry (28 March 2012). "Survivor of the Holocaust tells how Schindler saved her life". Tribune 242. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  2. ^ "Mietek Pemper". The Telegraph. June 11, 2011. Archived from the original on 2013-07-26. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  3. ^ "Oskar Schindler's collaborator, Mietek Pemper, has died". Agence France-Presse. The Gazette (Montreal). 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2011-06-26.[dead link]
  4. ^ Martin, Douglas (18 June 2011). "Mietek Pemper, 91, Camp Inmate Who Compiled Schindler's List". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2011-06-21. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
  5. ^ Sample Documents from the ITS Archives Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, International Tracing Service
  6. ^ "Oskar and Emilie Schindler | www.yadvashem.org". www.yadvashem.org. Archived from the original on 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2018-11-24.
  7. ^ "Schindler's entire List". www.oskarschindler.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-30. Retrieved 2018-11-24.

External links

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