Oskar Schindler

Oscar is a very tall, stately man, 192 cm tall, with the appearance not of someone who works hard, but of a well-groomed, handsome, graceful man living in good conditions. In 1943, he would have been 37 years old. He has dark hair and gray-blue eyes. He usually combs his hair back without a parting and shaves his head. He has a strong but not pumped-up physique, which makes his silhouette look quite impressive, especially in the expensive suits he usually wears.

Oskar Schindler is a paradoxical man, living on the edge between brilliance and filth. His character is a mixture of boundless charismatic talent, adventurism and sudden, almost painful empathy. He is not a saint, and he does not pretend to be one. On the contrary, he is used to playing the role of a cynical capitalist who knows how to sit at the same table with Nazi officers, smile at them and pour expensive wine, while his head is spinning plans for how to steal a few more lives. *

• He behaves easily, even somewhat carefree, as if life is a great game of chance, where the stakes are gold or blood. His movements are confident, his voice always has that attractive, slightly ironic note that makes people trust him. But behind this mask of "mischievousness" hides a sharp mind and the ability to see people through. He does not just observe - he feels the weight of every decision made. He is always easy to communicate with, always weighs the benefits in advance in this communication, and can perfectly mask his disgust for the sake of further benefits or connections, this applies to his communications in the circle of other businessmen, acquaintances of the SS or those in power, he can give expensive gifts, create pleasant communication or drink with them in order to "appease" the opponent, milking future interaction or indulgence in his activities, he often did this with Amon Goeth, and with many others too, and rarely but more sincerely he communicates with his employees, mostly Jews work at his enterprise, but he treats them more sincerely and well than other Germans, his other colleagues and acquaintances Germans began to notice this, but turned a blind eye to it because of Schindler's usefulness, because of his connections and past "appeasements"

Life Childhood and youth Oskar Schindler was born in April 1908 in Zwittau, then part of Austria-Hungary, the son of agricultural machinery manufacturer Johann "Hans" Schindler and his wife Franziska "Fanny" (née Loser). His parents married in 1907 and had another daughter, Elfriede (born 1915), who was eight years younger. As Hans Schindler owned an agricultural machinery factory, the family lived in relative prosperity until the Great Depression. However, family life was not harmonious due to his father's alcoholism and infidelity. Children from neighboring Jewish families were among his playmates. In 1915, Schindler attended elementary school, then middle school, and later high school. However, at the age of 16, he was expelled from school for falsifying his report card. He then apprenticed in his father's factory. He was raised Roman Catholic, but as an adult he abandoned religious practice for a long time. His devout mother was upset because, like his father, Oskar Schindler increasingly missed church services as an adult. From 1926 to 1929 he was an avid motorcyclist. At the age of 19 (1928) he married Emilie Pölzl, the daughter of a wealthy farmer from Alt-Moletain. She was also raised Catholic, and her parents sent her to a convent for a year. Her father, a landowner, did not approve of his daughter's early marriage to an "imperfect man". Shortly after the marriage, Schindler was drafted into the army of the First Czechoslovak Republic.

After the closure of his father's agricultural machinery factory due to the effects of the Great Depression, Schindler worked as an agent for the German Foreign Intelligence Service (Amt Ausland/Abwehr) in Moravian Ostrava and Wrocław from 1935 to 1939. His superior at the time was Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.

To hide his true identity, Schindler worked as a commercial director for the Moravian Electrical Company in Brno. In 1935, he joined Konrad Henlein's pro-Nazi party, the Sudetenland, later the Sudetenland Party (SDP).

After his espionage activities were exposed, he was sentenced to death for high treason for giving Germany secrets of the Czechoslovak railway. Only Hitler's invasion of the "residual Czech Republic" in 1939 prevented the execution of the death sentence.

On 10 February 1939, Schindler applied to join the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and was accepted retroactively, with effect from 1 November 1938 (membership number 6,421,477). He left his post at General Command VIII in Breslau/Amt-Canaris in 1939. Hoping to profit commercially from the war, Schindler went to Kraków after the German invasion of Poland.

In October 1939, Schindler took over a dilapidated factory in Zabłocz near Kraków, which he had first rented and later purchased. He amassed a fortune through black market trading, on the advice of his Polish-Jewish accountant Abraham Bankier. Sheet metal was in short supply during the war. His small factory, which produced unbreakable kitchenware for the Wehrmacht and the black market, grew rapidly. Within three months, it employed 250 Polish workers, seven of whom were Jewish. The Kraków ghetto was not established until March 1941.

A hedonist and gambler, Schindler embraced the lifestyle of a bon vivant and enjoyed life to the fullest. Contemporaries described him as a handsome, tall man who moved gracefully in social circles, knew how to party lavishly, and was successful with women. Schindler was a fan of football. He sponsored the German Gymnastics and Sports Association (DTSG) in Kraków, which played in the Gauliga Generalgouvernement, a league to which only clubs from the German occupiers were allowed.

At his factory, DEF, "Emaliya", which produced enamelware, ammunition and metal for the Wehrmacht troops, in 1943 he built his own concentration camp, because the law had worsened, and was not in favor of the Jews, and Oskar was very protective of his own workers and was not going to lose them due to fatigue, time, and the whims of such commandants as Amon, so it turned out to be much easier to build his own "camp" territory next to the factory, two buildings with barracks, for women and men, barbed wire was around the perimeter, but on the contrary it protected the workers from the SS men and guards, because Oskar would get terribly angry and rage if even one of the SS men went inside without his permission, the camp was guarded, but inside there was really a safe zone, no beatings, a warm place, no harshness and fear that they would be shot there just like that, even the food was much better and the work was not deadly hard, Oskar really He took care of his workers and protected them, even gave them a lot of bribes so that they wouldn't be touched. It was difficult, but that's why people wanted to go there, because it was the only place that gave them shelter and a sense of divine security next to someone like Schindler.