WWII Research Paper

WWII Research Paper: Oskar Shindler During a very dark time in history, during World War II, Oskar Schindler saved the lives of thousands of Jews by employing them in his factories, he had little to gain and everything to lose by saving these Jews but he was a courageous individual who did the right thing when others wouldn’t. Oskar Schindler was and opportunist and a businessman.

He was one of many who sought to make a profit from the German invasion of Poland. He gained ownership of an enamelware factory and he employed around 1,000 Jews, At first he was only otivated by money, Jewish labor was extremely cheap, but it later turned into him helping and shielding his workers without regards of the cost. Oskar would claim to SS officers that unskilled workers were essential to his factory even though they were not.Under his employment his workers were treated with somewhat respect and were never beaten, let alone killed. The special status of his factory also became a big factor in his efforts to help save his workers from the work and death camps. When his workers were hreatened with deportation to these camps, he would simply claim exemptions for them, stating that even women, children and handicapped persons were necessary for his workforce. Schindler’s Jewish workers weren’t just things to him, they were human beings and he used all his skills to help protect them.

He called them his Schindlerjuden, (Schindler’s Jews) and he often got them out of very difficult situations. After he witnessed the 1942 raid on the Krakow Ghetto, where he was appalled to see many of hisJewish workers being murdered, he began to work increasingly hard to help protect his workers. One-account states that two Gestapo men came to Schindler demanding he give up a family who he had forged identify papers for. After three hours, some drinking and his charm the two Gestapo men left without the family or the incriminating documents. Schindler is also said to have smuggle Jewish children out of the ghettos by giving them to polish nuns who would hide them. Schindler talked the commander of the Plaszow amp, Amon Goth, into making his factory a sub camp of Plazow and having a few hundred Jews work there. In this way the workers would be relatively safer from the German guards.

Schindler’s mastery of persuasion and charm saved many Jews lives.In the beginning it was only about making money and becoming rich for Schindler, but it became something much more to him and in the end he died a penny- less hero. Oskcar would constantly buy supplies and extra food off the black market for his workers. He was caught numerous times, but each time he paid off SS officials and as never punished. Towards the end of the war, with Russia drawing nearer, he bribed and convinced SS officials to let him move his work force of over a thousand Jews to another factory. Thus he saved their lives from certain death in the extermination camps which were working on the double to eliminate Jews before Russia was upon them. In the new factory Schindler was supposed to be producing weapons and ammunition for the war effort.

In the eight months of operation there the barley produced anything.Schindler made now money and his once fortune grew smaller and smaller as he bought supplies for his workers and bribed officials. In the end though it wasn’t about money for Oskar Schindler, it was about helping out his fellow human beings thorough one of the most horrific time periods in history. To him it was about preserving human life and doing the right thing.Bibliography 1)”Oskar Schindler. ” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2004.

10 May 2009 . 2)”Oskar Schindler, rescuer of Jews during the Holocaust. ” . 10 May 2009 . 3)”Oskar Schindler. ” . 2005.

10 May 2009 .