How Oskar Schindler saved 1,200 Jewish people in WW2

Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party, is credited with saving the lives of approximately 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. Initially motivated by profit, Schindler acquired an enamelware factory in Kraków, Poland, employing around 1,750 workers, including 1,000 Jews.

As the war progressed and the Nazi regime's atrocities became evident, Schindler's motives shifted from business interests to humanitarian efforts. Utilizing his connections and resources, he protected his Jewish employees from deportation and death by designating them as essential workers.

In 1944, as the Red Army approached and the Nazis began closing concentration camps, Schindler persuaded officials to allow him to relocate his factory and workers to Brünnlitz in the Sudetenland, thus safeguarding them from the gas chambers of Auschwitz. By the war's end in May 1945, Schindler had exhausted his fortune on bribes and black-market purchases to ensure his workers' survival. His actions have been immortalized in the novel "Schindler's Ark" and its film adaptation "Schindler's List."

Read Original Article: BBC Culture

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