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Oskar Schindler

Industrialist • Germany • 1908–1974

Spent his entire fortune saving 1,200 Jews. Died penniless and buried in Jerusalem — the only Nazi Party member interred there.
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler — Industrialist

Schindler was a Nazi Party member, a member of the Abwehr intelligence service, and a war profiteer who made his millions from forced Jewish labor in his enamelware factory in Krakow. And yet, he spent his entire fortune bribing SS officials, buying Jewish workers from concentration camps, and sheltering over 1,200 Jews from deportation to Auschwitz. When the war ended, Schindler broke down in tears, saying: I could have saved more. If I had sold my car, I could have saved another ten people. His workers gave him a ring with the inscription: Whoever saves one life saves the world entire. He died penniless in Germany in 1974, the only Nazi Party member buried in Jerusalem.

Tags: factory,Krakow,Auschwitz,Righteous Among the Nations,fortune

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Obscurity: 4/10