Schindler realized that it was going to be a long, hard road to freedom. Schindler often spent his evenings on the town with SS and German Army officers. His apparent political standpoints and engaging personality made him popular among the Nazi elite. During the day Schindler would entertain officials and visitors to the factory, mixing them drinks, and telling them that he knew how to get work out of the Jews and that he wanted more brought into his factory. In this way he managed to bring approximately 1200 Jews into the plant, eventually saving them from the gas chamber.
The labor camp closest to Scindler’s business venture was called Plaslow. Amon Goeth, an SS officer was the commandant of the Plaszow labor camp. The conditions of Plaszow were made dreadful by Goeth. A prisoner in Plaszow was very lucky if he could survive in this camp more than four weeks (www.us-israel.org.) The camp shown in Spielberg's film: Schindler's List was derived exactly from the description of Plaszow himself (Schindler’s List.)
Goeth passed his mornings by using a high-powered sniper rifle to shoot at children playing in the camp. Often times, he would use his rifle as a “motivational factor.” If people were moving too slowly, and he shot one, the rest left standing were much more likely to work harder.
As time progressed, the destruction of life in the concentration camps was working like a well-oiled machine. Fearing for the lives of his workers, Schindler requested that those Jews who continued to work in his factory be moved into their own sub-camp near the plant "to save time in getting to the job." The idea seemed fair, and Goeth complied. Plaszow was then converted to a war-essential concentration camp and the inmates were no longer headed to Auschwitz for extermination.
At this point, Schindler found that he could have food and medicine smuggled into the barracks with less danger. The guards of the camp were bribed, and Goeth never discovered what was going on, even though Schinder was arrested twice for his actions.
In a complete reversal of his earlier purpose in life, he spends all the money he made by exploiting the labor of Jews saving the lives of Jews. Whatever funding that was not spent bribing SS officials was spent feeding and medicating the inmates at Plaszow. Although inmate life of a Schindler factory worker was no walk in the park, it was much better than the alternative. Schindler did everything in his power to keep his workers as healthy as possible. Often times, food and supplies were even purchased off the black market. This was another aspect that displayed some differences. The movie did not explain the background of the labor camp very thoroughly. It left little explanation behind the way the camp functioned.
In order to save the lives of his factory workers, Schindler lied about the actual status of his factory workers. Lawyers and doctors were listed as mechanics and sheet metal workers. Elderly people were listed at a younger age. By doing this, it made it look as if all of the factory workers were essential to the war. This further insured the well-being of the factory workers.
In the Schindler years, millions of Jews died in Polish camps like Treblinka and Auschwitz. However, Schindler`s Jews miraculously survived in Plaslow up to 1944. Schindler bribed the Nazis to get food and better treatment for his Jews during a time when one of the most civilized nations of the world was capable of systematic mass-murder (www.us-israel.org.)
When the Nazis were beaten back on the East Front, Plaszow and its satellite camps were dissolved and closed. Schindler had no illusions as to what that would entail. Frantically he exerted his influence on his contacts in the military and industrial circles in Crakow and Warsaw. Finally, he went to Berlin to save his Jews from a certain death. Where no-one would have believed it possible, Schindler succeeded. He was granted permission to move his factory from Plaszow to Brunnlitz in occupied Czechoslovakia. Furthermore, Schindler was allowed to take all his workers with him. Even though the Schindlers had had a large mansion placed at their disposal close to the factory, Oscar Schindler understood the fear which his Jews had of nocturnal visits from the SS. As in Plaszow, Schindler did not spent one single night outside the little office in the factory
The 1,098 workers who had been written on “Schindler`s list” avoided sharing the fate of the other 25,000 men, women and children of Plaszow who were sent without mercy to extermination in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, only 60 kilometers from Plaszow. Just as things are looking up, 300 Schindler-women were accidentally routed on a train to Auschwitz, where certain death awaited them. At this point Schindler realized that something was wrong and began searching for the women from his “list.” After some time in Auschwitz, the women were released. Miraculously enough, this was the only shipment of Jews ever to leave Auschwitz. When the women returned to Brunnlitz, Schindler met them in the courtyard.
The factory continued to produce shells for the German Wehrmacht for 7 months. In all that time not one usable shell was produced! Not one shell passed the military quality tests. Instead, false military travel passes and ration cards were produced, just as Nazi uniforms, weapons, ammunition and hand-grenades were collected.
Even after relocating to a new factory, a tireless Schindler succeeded in persuading the Gestapo to send a further 100 Belgian, Dutch and Hungarian Jews to his factory camp "with regard to the continuing war industry production"(www.us-israel.org.)
Until the liberation of spring, 1945, Oscar Schindler used all means at his disposal to ensure the safety of his Schindler-Jews. He spent all of the money he had access too, and even sold his personal belongings to preserve the lives of those in his factory. Even his wife’s jewels were sold to buy food, clothes, and medicine. He had set up a secret sanatorium in the factory with medical equipment purchased on the black market. Even his wife Emily helped provide medical care to the ill. Those who did not survive were given a Jewish burial in a hidden graveyard; established and paid for by Schindler. By the time it was all said and done, Schindler had spent in upwards of four million dollars protecting his factory workers.
In May, 1945, it was all over. Schindler told them they were free, and that he was a fugitive. "My children, you are saved. Germany has lost the war." He asked that they didn't go into the neighboring houses to rob and plunder. "Prove yourself worthy of the millions of victims among you and refrain from any individual acts of revenge and terror". He announced that three yards of fabric were to be given each prisoner from his warehouse stores as well as a bottle of vodka - which brought a high price on the black market. After everything, Oscar Schindler left the factory. Oscar Schindler and 1200 Schindler-Jews survived the horrors of the Holocaust (www.us-israel.org.)
After the war, the Americans captured Amon Goeth and turned him over to the Poles. Goeth was convicted on thousands of counts of murder. He was hanged for his crimes in Crakow on September 13, 1946.
Schindler`s life after the war was a long series of failures. Even after his long string of heroic acts, the United States failed to grant him access to the country, simply because he was at one point a Nazi. Likewise, he was stripped of his German citizenship for obvious reasons. Threats from former Nazis created an insecure livelihood in post-war Germany. After this he fled to Buenos Aires in Argentina with his wife Emilie, his mistress and a dozen Schindler Jews. He settled down in 1949 as a farmer, supported financially by the Jewish organization Joint and thankful Jews, who never forgot him. However in 1957 the Schindler farm failed (www.us-israel.org.)
In the beginning of the 1960s, this same Oscar Schindler was honored in Israel and declared “Righteous.” A memorial in the Park of Heroes praises him for saving 1200 lives. Schindler and his later separated and he returned to Europe, living part of the year in both Germany and part of the year in Israel. The Schindlerjuden and the State of Israel supported Schindler when he moved back to Europe.
None of the sources for this paper talked much about where they obtained their information from. Although I emailed the Jewish Virtual Library in curiosity, I never received a response. The movie was based upon the book, and I am assuming that the book was based on information provided by sources similar to the Jewish Virtual Library.
Although I am a big fan of movies, I have to say that the movie was not the best source of information. It was very well done, and contained some interesting perspectives, but was not very in depth. Unlike the movie, the book went into a little more depth. You could have a better overall understanding of the situation at hand by reading the book. Ultimately, the information that I gathered online was the most useful. By reading about Schindler online, I learned more than I ever could by reading the book or watching the movie. When it is all said and done, the book and the movie were both well done, but they cannot be used as a substitute for the raw information that can be found from professionals in the field.