Oskar Schindler: The Man Behind the List | Full Documentary | Biography

[Music] [Music] he gave me life he saved my sisters and I couldn't ask for any more anybody who is related to us in Poland had died at the hands of the Nazis and we were the only ones that survived and the reason we survived is because we ended up on shindra's list the Allure of Oscar Schindler is in his ambiguity as a human being the ambiguity of his motives he saved them not because he was at the beginning kind-hearted good Noble moral and the like but because on a very deep level he developed a human

attachment to these people you know he raped everything he did everything with monium with gifts or whatever he did they accomplished it he was to us he was an angel [Music] in 1980 in Beverly Hills California Australian author Thomas Connelly walked into a luggage store to replace a travel worn suitcase the owner of the shop Holocaust Survivor Leopold page told Connelly an amazing and somewhat unbelievable story about German nazia drinking womanizer profiteer who saved 1300 Jewish life children women and men and I noticed that he was interested in the story I knew that the story

of Oscar had all the right uh ingredients because people love Paradox and the Paradox of the Scandal savior is one of the contradictions that people most love foreign meeting led to Schindler's List a best-selling award-winning book from that came an oscar-winning Motion Picture by Steven Spielberg that would be seen by hundreds of Millions it's a tale of a man who'd witnessed the enormous evil perpetrated by his own people a man who found the humanity and courage to oppose it Oscar Schindler's life began on April 28 1908. Oscar was born and raised in zvitau Czechoslovakia part

of an area known as the sudeten land svita was just over the German border and many of the townspeople including the schindlers were of German descent and considered themselves German [Music] Oscar was the oldest of two children he had a little sister named Alfreda they loved each other dearly his mother Luisa like other mothers of the day ran their middle class household though the family was Catholic it was only Luisa who practiced the faith his mother was the characteristic misused Catholic Woman married to a somewhat philandering um fun-loving boozing father who had a small Factory

in the town outside of work Hans Schindler's interests lay in coffee houses where he would smoke cigars sip Cognac and socialize with friends hans's young son Oscar was honing his own social skills Oscar was learning how to manipulate people with both his parents Oscar Schindler probably got away with everything short of murder because he got away with everything short of murder when he grew up and I'm sure that applying the same charm to his parents served him well an important influence on young Oscar was a Jewish Family living next door he went to grammar school

and played with their two boys ordinarily a friendship between neighbors wouldn't be significant in this case it was Schindler regarded Jews not as alien others who could be easily stigmatized but as human beings who are like us who breathe like us who laugh like us who cry like us who grieve like us and the recognition of the other person as a human being and not as a stereotype uh means that you're capable of establishing human relations with them in his teens Oscar was uninterested in Academia though he did finish High School the mechanical know-how he'd

gained in his father's farm machine factory led to tinkering with Hans Schindler's motor car later Oscar turned to motorcycles he loved the speed the sense of danger and he thrived on being in the Limelight he was participate in the car races and he was a very good driver and even got lots of award as a driver in school he was in every play and he has to have the major role and he was charmer and the girls was after him [Music] Oscar had many girlfriends then in 1928 at the age of 20 he appeared to

settle down after a whirlwind courtship he married a gentleman farmer's daughter named Emily peltzel Emily had been schooled in a Convent and was as reserved as Oscar was Reckless Oscar received a sizable Dowry when he got married according to Emily he soon bought an expensive car and squandered the rest he wanted to be rich and he wanted sexual gratification quite frankly so they were his Ambitions a good time he had the Ambitions not of a philosopher but of a hedonist [Music] in the early 1930s Oscar entered the military serving in the Czechoslovakian Army he hated

the rules and regulations and got out as soon as he could after his military service Oscar returned to Emily but only in theory by day he worked as sales manager at Moravian Electro Technic at night instead of going home he lived the life of a bachelor staying out and carousing in the cafes it appears that his father had a big influence upon him his father was an unsatisfactory husband as Oscar was and Oscar was appalled by his father's Behavior towards his mother but then of course it so often happens with us fellas he went on

and reproduced the behavior of his father in his own relationships with women in 1935 when Oscar was 27 his father abandoned his mother there was no divorce three years later she died alone and broken-hearted Oscar was devastated at her funeral he refused to speak to his father he'd never forgiven him for leaving his mother it was during this period that Oscars surprised friends and family by wearing a swastika he had joined the Nazi party he got involved in the Nazi party because it was good for business he wanted to make a lot of money and

he did make a lot of money as the National Socialist Party in Germany continued to expand under Adolf Hitler newcomers were avidly sought after Oscar signed on with the Advair the German intelligence agency the affair sent Oscar to Krakow Poland to pose as a businessman and gather information on the gestapo and the German army like most regimes the Third Reich had its share of factions and rivalries Oscar looked forward to his mission he saw krakov as a City full of possibilities on September 1st 1939 the Nazi Blitzkrieg stormed into Poland and began its brutal occupation

one week later Oscar Schindler 31 years old arrived in Krakow as an agent for the Advair the German intelligence organization his disarming smile quick-wit and ability to disguise a bribe as a gift of friendship helped make all the right connections he didn't go into World War II thinking I'm Gonna Save Jews and be a hero he went into it thinking I'm going to make a lot of money and be set for life the crack of the Schindler came to exploit was a bustling industrial city with a thriving Jewish community 66 000 in all but when

Hitler's armies invaded Poland the Jews of krakov as well as Poland's other three and a half million Jews were soon set apart from the rest of society the Nazis decreed that all Jews over the age of 10 were the Star of David a Jewish icon the Nazis followed a very specific pattern which was to take the population that was defined as Jews to isolate them to stigmatize them to confiscate their assets and to make it impossible for them to continue with a normal human life and to exploit their assets Schindler witnessed Nazis evicting Jews from

their apartments at will hurting them into ghettos then moving into their vacant residences the Nazis also took over their businesses retaining Jewish workers as slave labor [Music] Schindler had the full privileges of a Nazi and he understood he could benefit from the Jews Misfortune he began inquiring about a formerly Jewish owned Factory on the outskirts of Krakow on the advice of Itzhak Stern a Jewish accountant he'd met Schindler decided to take over the factory with Stern running the books Schindler was convinced he could acquire lucrative military contracts by producing field kitchenware and mess kits for

German soldiers okay from their first meeting Schindler and Stern formed an immediate Bond when Schindler turned their conversation to the war to the rampant killing to religion Stern saw an opening to plant a seed he expressed a fine point of talmudic wisdom he who saves a single life Saves the World entire the remark was not lost on Schindler Schindler purchased the factory from the bankruptcy court of krakov he borrowed 50 000 Lotus the equivalent of ten thousand dollars from several wealthy Jews who realized the Nazis would get their money sooner or later they took their

chances on Schindler def Deutsche Iman fabric known by its workers as emalia for short soon became quite a success Schindler the operator made the deals behind the scenes he relied on his staff Schindler had the business sense and the heart to treat his Jewish laborers humanely often with a smile a joke or an unexpected kindness he came to my workstation and called me by my name and uh occasionally asked me things not because he wanted to really have the information but he just wanted to make human contact with somebody like me who was 13 years

old and then I'd find out the following day that when I went to get my ration of soup that I was supposed to get two rations kashindra had ordered double ration for me that's kind of person he was there was even more compelling evidence of the fact that Schindler was different from the other Nazis he warned his Jews of upcoming auctions calculated incidents in which the Gestapo would terrorize and kill krakow's Jews kind of Covenant developed between Oscar Schindler and his prisoners it was a very rough Covenant but it basically said you run my factory

and keep things chugging over and I'll keep the dogs and the Jack Boots and the Lash and the rifle off the factory floor as a result Amalia earned a reputation as a Haven from Nazi brutality krakow's Jews sought to work there and Schindler was all too eager to accommodate them for taking on more Jews made good economic sense although the Jews themselves weren't paid Schindler still had to send their wages to the SS but at just six marks a day about two dollars a piece Jewish labor was a better deal than higher priced polish workers

[Music] while Schindler defied Nazi law by treating his Jews humanely he also broke the rules of marriage Schindler kept his wife Emily back home far from Krakow where he had countless sexual Liaisons with a German mistress his polish secretary and many other beautiful women he was of War and he could never get enough of women women could never get enough of him he was a powerfully built man he was very attractive he smelled good he looked good he exuded sexuality and he had no self-control Emily Schindler was always hopeful that he would reform that somehow

he would come around she was also a very devoted Catholic because we asked why she didn't divorce him said no I couldn't I wouldn't hurt my parent by divorcing him besides I love this man I love this man and while you were not jealous no when he will have only one girlfriend I will be extremely jealous but he has hundreds so how could I be jealous about 100 women Emily's joke belied hurt feelings about her marriage she often argued bitterly with Schindler about his many lovers Schindler's endless pursuit of beautiful women never seemed to distract

him from the plight of his workers they commuted to his Factory from the Jewish ghetto where conditions were abysmal Schindler was well aware of their misery and learned of the Nazis plan to liquidate the ghetto on March 12 1943 Oscar Schindler told us when we arrived at work there that we will not be going back to together that particular evening the reason for that is that there is Trouble In the Ghetto there is shootings killings and a liquidation of the ghetto going on and we would be better off staying here until this is uh over

with the liquidation of tens of thousands of Jews from the krakov ghetto certainly had a powerful emotional effect on Oscar Schindler who witnessed it he would have seen beating he would have seen dogs biting he would have seen officers cruelly whipping and screaming and shouting and bludgeoning every imaginable form of Destruction including mass shootings would have taken place at that moment you know War profiteer can tolerate an awful lot wartime is difficult time for everybody but that may have been the moment when it became too much and when he recognized that something awful Beyond description

beyond recognition Beyond articulation was taking place and that may be the moment that changed him those Jews who survived that night were sent off in cattle cars to death camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka it was all part of what was being called Hitler's final solution now he knew that there was a grand strategy to actually rid Europe of these people to treat them as a virus which would be totally eradicated he knew they weren't a virus he knew that because he knew Stern and he knew those kids he played with as a child Schindler's Jewish

workers were sent to a brutal existence with twelve thousand others at the slave labor camp at plushoff by day they continued their efforts at Schindler's Factory when the work was over they returned to the desolation of the camp a place where summery and mass executions were common was run by commandant Ammon Geth according to survivors of the camp Geth was a monster [Music] it was no life we're waiting for death he was killing people and random before they went to work terrible memories I have when thinking that he was coming back through the yard whistling

a Happy tune he was content like a Content animal he loved to see blood he was training the dogs how to attack people it's very hard for me to talk about this because if it was terrible he would give out the order to the big one to the white rough and the dog would hop on people and tear them apart this was the man with whom Schindler ate and drank and bonded but the relationship had a dual purpose Oscar Schindler had a plan to get his Jews away from amongeth [Music] in 1943 the Nazi regime's

lethal assault on the Jewish people was in full force at the plash of slave labor camp commandant almond Geth gave free reign to his murderous impulses and yet despite this brutal environment Oscar Schindler spent many festive evenings in gatz Villa overlooking the camp Oscar was able to drink with the devil to make deals with the devil that's because there was a lot of the Devil in him as well if Oscar hadn't been that particular blend of satyr and black marketeer and drunk and savior he couldn't have saved them he had to be that particular blend

of contradictions to be a savior in a world where all values were upside down to Helen Jonas rosensweig a Jewish maid at getzvilla Schindler's close relationship with Geth and his concern for Jews was confusing Oscar Schindler came down into the kitchen and he took me to the window he says you see the people down the hill They Carried Stone they were digging the hill he said look at them watch them you see people in Egypt you Jewish people when they were enslaved and then they were freed from Egypt this is what's going to happen to

you you will see you're gonna be free from that hell Schindler soon began to make good on his promise by taking advantage of his close relationship with Geth and other high-ranking Nazis Schindler received permission to build a Barracks Camp next to Amalia he'd convinced them that his Jews would work harder and longer if they didn't have to commute from prashof the workers themselves benefited as well they were now out of geth's deadly jurisdiction those people really were saved from beating hanging killing that was taking place in camplasov Amelia was now a self-contained concentration camp that

made Oscar Schindler the director of a concentration camp nonetheless he provided extra food Medical Care and other necessities that were unheard of in other camps these special services were expensive but Schindler could afford them he was making a fortune on the black market selling Surplus items from his Factory under German law Schindler's Black Market activities were illegal but so was his Humane and cordial treatment of his Jewish workers and one occasion he had his birthday party and some of the inmates baked the cake and a little girl young girl was took it up to the

office and gave it to him so he gave her a kiss and this of course was a major crime during that period of time Schindler was subsequently arrested it was one of three separate arrests but he was able to talk and bribe his way out of all of them he was playing a dangerous game this is a big operation he does it openly he as a German citizen is violating their laws openly he does it at Great personal risk and great personal expense and finally with no expectation of reward in the spring of 1944 Schindler

and his Jews had to adapt to changes in the war the Russians had been steadily advancing on the Eastern front and the Germans were retreating the Nazis ordered all camps and subcamps in plashov and krakov be emptied of their workers Schindler could have easily walked away a wealthy man at that point but he knew what would happen to his Jews if he did instead Schindler went to Berlin where he received authorization to move his Jewish Factory workers to a new location in brinlets a town nearby his boyhood home was Vitale he'd convinced the Nazis that

his new Factory would manufacture ammunition by getting his activities and Jews reclassified as essential to the war effort he hoped to spare his workers from the gas Chambers at Auschwitz everyone who would go to brinlets with Oscar Schindler had to get on his list a list that meant life the Jews called it simply Schindler's List some 1100 workers were lucky enough to get their names on it they were Jews from Schindler's amalgia Factory as well as the plash off labor camp Schindler was even able to make good on his promise to gets made he said

give me the names of your sisters and that's how my sisters came along with me the names were put on the list I really didn't know about the list [Music] the Jews on Schindler's List didn't go directly to brimlets there were two frightening detours at first the 801 men were routed to the gross Rosen death camp 300 women were sent to Auschwitz when they saw the smoke billowing out of its chimneys they understood the Camp's deadly purpose they put us in the shower room but is going to come down or it's going to come down

water or it's going to come down guess are we going to get killed are we going to get guests we didn't know that was the most horrible minutes I don't know how long but for me it it was very very long but it probably wasn't long but it every minute was a year and then came border it came border Schindler knew all too well he had to get his Jews out of gross Rosen and Auschwitz two of the women had already died there in this rare interview clip Schindler explains how he saved his Jews from

a fate that so many others had met it was a struggle to get the women out of Auschwitz it was a miracle that I had them released after four weeks with a list of names naturally it required interventions telegrams and Journeys to Berlin and auschwitzer was alive in beginning of November by the end of November of 1944 he brought the women from Auschwitz the 290 year and he said to I remember like this was yesterday thank God you are with me hot soup is waiting for you in the months to come Oscar Schindler's increasing humanitarian

efforts on behalf of his Jewish workers would far Eclipse any Endeavors toward personal gain [Music] foreign by January 1945 the war was going badly for the Nazis and defeat was imminent Adolf Hitler was nonetheless determined to complete his self-proclaimed mission to resolve the Jewish question the Nazis had nearly succeeded in Exterminating all of Europe's eight million Jews Oscar Schindler was at Cross purposes with the Nazi regime he had brought some 1100 Jews to his War essential Factory in brinlets Czechoslovakia Schindler had now been joined by his wife Emily who'd come from their nearby hometown zvitau

Emily was as horrified as Oscar of the Nazi atrocities when Emily joins her husband full time at the factory in brinlet's Czechoslovakia she was an integral part of the operation and helping people survive while Emily's motives for feeding supplying and looking after the Jewish workers at this time were primarily humanitarian Oscar's reasons were still ambiguous if your workers are working for you and they are profitable it is in your economic self-interest to keep them near you and to keep them in conditions that are less Grievous so that they're more able to function although Schindler may

have begun his wartime Endeavors in 1939 as a profit-minded businessman an incident in January 1945 indicated that at this point in his life his humanitarian concerns far outweighed his financial motives two cattle cars carrying 132 Jews were on a hellish Odyssey that began at a Nazi stone quarry in golisha of Poland the prisoners had been turned away by several death camps ironically they were too full and too busy killing people to take them in after 10 days without food water or blankets the Frozen prisoners were abandoned at brinlets Oscar Schindler came to their rescue so

we have to cut out with the welding equipment the doors to remove them an unbelievable things that we saw we saw peoples that 16 of them they were 132 people in the two cattle train these people were looked after by Oscar and Emily and the fact that there is carriages those tracks were opened the fact that these people were brought onto the floor of brinlets and the fact that their lives were saved uh the fact that Oscar bought a a plot from the local Parish priest for the burial of those who died all this is

an eloquent statement to the honor and benevolence of the schindlers as the cattle car survivors were all in poor health not one of them worked a single day at brynnitz and yet for the next five months Schindler paid the Nazis over 600 marks a day for the 116 Jews he'd taken in this act alone spoke volumes about the man Schindler had become on the eve of May 8th 1945 Oscar Schindler had important information that the Jews in his care had waited five years to hear she didn't ask us all to gather around he stood up

on something high and he told us that we were we were free the war is over the Germans have surrendered and that he was going to leave and these cards were standing around behind him were going to leave as well and he wished as well everyone there was in either in tears or in laughs or trying to crawl toward Schindler to kiss him and thank him personally which was impossible to do with a thousand people it was an emotionally charged Gathering where we just were short of being able to express our feelings The Unbelievable achievements

that we have survived the war and it was Oscar Schindler that brought us to this point the 12 or 1300 Jews Schindler had saved would soon learn of the extent of the Nazi Holocaust six million other Jews had not had an Oscar Schindler to come to their aid they had perished from that moment on it was Schindler's Jews who would spring to action on his behalf whenever necessary we the survivors the people who Oscar Schindler fed and protect for four and a half years knew when the Russian will take Camp of ours he as a

gentleman as a Nazi as a profiteer as a manager of the Concentration Camp Factory he will have not have a chance to survive Schindler the former Nazi war profiteer was now disguised as a concentration camp Survivor eight of the Jews he'd rescued spirited him away to Allied Forces in the west where he was able to surrender without repercussion Oscar and Emily traveled to Munich and pondered the future he was 37 years old and faced the turbulence of the post-war world Germany's economy was a shambles so were Oscar's finances despite the millions he'd made during the

war he'd walked away a pauper Schindler was undeniably a hero but outside of the survivors who owed him their lives no one knew or cared after the war when the drama was gone he was adrift he was afloat from one business venture to another and basically was a civil right who lived to have a good time Schindler soon acquired enough money to start a new life in 1949 a Jewish organization awarded him fifteen thousand dollars it was the first of many Financial gifts bestowed upon Him by a grateful Jewish community year Schindler moved to Buenos

Aires Argentina where he Emily two Mistresses and three families he'd rescued attempted to rebuild their lives [Music] Oscar Schindler's post-war life like everything that had preceded it was a study in contrast and ambiguity there were times of great joy and extended periods of despair while all of his business attempts in Argentina were failing he always managed to find the time and the money for beautiful women these activities came to an end in 1957 when Schindler was bankrupt the following year he left his wife Emily to fend for herself and returned to Germany never to see

her again in Frankfurt Schindler lived in a one-room apartment overlooking the train station whenever he received money from various Jewish organizations he would leave the squalor of his apartment and live the high life for a while in 1961 after a number of failed business ventures in Germany Schindler went to Israel at the invitation of a group of Jews who were among those he'd saved 800 people greeted him at the airport at the time Adolf Eichmann the architect of Hitler's final solution was being tried in Jerusalem the Israeli press learned of Schindler's wartime heroics and played

up the obvious contrasts between these two former Nazis the German press also filed stories about Schindler so when he returned to Germany his fellow countrymen knew all about what he'd done during the war he was condemned by the Germans a traitor he saved witnesses to the truth thousand three hundred of them children women and men and they are alive and they will talk and they will tell the truth while the Nuremberg trials had held accountable many of the Nazi leaders like Hermann Goering and even amongeth who were both executed there were millions of former Nazis

who'd escaped punishment and returned to civilian life Schindler's fellow countrymen called him a Jew kisser they threw rocks at him no one would do any business with him there was even an attempt on his life Schindler contemplated suicide but didn't want to give his enemies the satisfaction foreign Schindler's Spirits were lifted when he returned to Israel on April 28 1962 his 54th birthday he'd been invited to plant a carrot tree in the garden of the righteous and Yad vashem Israel's Memorial to the Holocaust Schindler was also awarded a medal it was inscribed with the talmudic

verse he'd heard two decades earlier from itsoc Stern he who saves a single life Saves the World entire [Music] in 1963 an article on Schindler's heroism brought his story to the attention of MGM Studios which optioned it for fifty thousand dollars as he did whenever he got money Oscars spent it quickly the MGM film was never made Oscar Schindler's former Factory workers eventually began calling themselves Schindler Juden Schindler's Jews they felt a lifelong bond to the man who rescued them in 1968 Survivor Leopold page and others established a foundation that would provide for Schindler for

the rest of his life Schindler Jude Leon layson was at a Los Angeles reception held in Schindler's honor he recalls his emotional reunion with the man who'd saved him his parents and two of his four siblings over two decades earlier I reached out my hand and started to introduce myself because I realized you know I was a grown man and last time he saw me I was not yet 15 you know so he interrupted me he says I know who you are your little Mason [Music] Schindler had many heartfelt reunions with those he'd saved for

the rest of his life he returned annually to Israel to celebrate his birthday on month-long visits paid for by his Schindler jutan they were wonderful times that by all accounts seemed to be the highlights of his post-war life he felt in Israel every time he was invited like a king he was accepted like the most important person and he was cherished by those people love by the new children by the new generation in 1973 Schindler told Paige he wanted to be buried in Israel the following year on October 9 1974 Oscar Schindler died of a

massive heart attack in Frankfurt he was only 66. it's a devastating news traveled quickly to Schindler Juden throughout the world was a tragedy for us personally and I sometimes was asking myself did we did enough for him that we fulfilled the obligation [Music] maybe yes maybe Noah I try my best [Music] the Schindler Juden collected the money to have his remains brought to Israel at the dedication of his Israeli gravesite 500 survivors paid last respects to their hero and savior but Oscar Schindler lives on people have a choice in their lives and Schindler is an

example of it he was a Nazi but he was a good person his story teaches children everywhere they can choose not to grow up hating those who are a different religion nationality or race they can look to Oscar Schindler as a noble example of doing right and opposing those who do wrong he's an indictment of the generation of perpetrators he belies the truth that they think they tell when they say well everybody did it we had no choice we couldn't have done otherwise there were no alternatives you point Oscar Shin or there were he made

a difference and he made a difference when it counted [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]