Oscar Schindler

11 Pages 2765 Words

for the Jewish were outlined in the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” in 1938. In a meeting of some of Hitler’s top officials, the idea of the complete annihilation of Jews in Europe was hatched. By the time the meeting was over, the Final Solution had been created. The plans included in the final solution were the deportation, exploitation, and eventual extermination of European Jews. In 1941, Germany continued its invasion of Europe by attacking and killing some of the western U.S.S.R. By this time, most of the Jews in Europe now lived in lands controlled in Nazis Germany. The SS deployed 3000 death squads, or “Einstagruppen”, to dispatch Jews in large numbers (“Holocaust, the.” Microsoft Encarta ’96). In September 1941, all Jews were forced to wear yellow stars of David on their arms or coats. A Jew could be killed with little repercussions for not displaying the Star of David in public.
It was now in a time of complete horror, fear, and humility, where everything is lost and nothing is to gain, where one remaining element keeps a person alive. Hope! This is exactly what the Jews had after being forced out of their homes, and into the living conditions of the ghettos. Overcrowding, lack of food, and lack of sanitation, as well as brutality by Nazis guards. Quality of life in the ghettos was probably not much above that in a concentration camp. Yet, despite the brutality amongst them, for some 1200 Jews, their level of hope payed off, when they came into contact with a man by the name of Oscar Schindler.
Schindler was born on April 28, 1908 in Zwitlau, which is now the Czech Republic. His mother and father, Louisa and Hans Schindler, were extremely religious.
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This resulted in a strong catholic upbringing for Oscar. The Schindler family was one of the richest and most prominent in Zwitlau and elsewhere. This was due to the success of their family owned machinery business (“...