Oskar Schindler’s Life After the End of World War II

Oskar Schindler was a German businessman, spy, and Nazi Party member who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in munitions and enamel factories.

After World War II, as a member of the NSDAP and intelligence services, Schindler was threatened with arrest as a war criminal.

Stern and several others prepared statements to be submitted to the American people, acknowledging their role in saving Jewish lives.

He also received from the mouth of Schindler Jude Simon Jerrett a gold ring from dental work. The ring is engraved with the words, “Whoever saves one life saves the whole world.”

To avoid being captured by the Russians, Schindler and his wife flee west in a two-seat Horch, with Oscar secretly hiding the diamond under the seat of the car. The Schindlers initially traveled on treadmills with several fleeing German soldiers. Behind them were Schindler’s lover Martha, several Jewish workers, and a truck full of black market goods.

Horch was confiscated by Russian forces in the town of Česke Budějovice, and Schindler was unable to retrieve the diamond. They traveled by train and on foot until they reached American lines at the town of Lenora, then on to Passau, where an American Jewish officer arranged a train trip to Switzerland. In the fall of 1945 they moved to Bavaria.

Schindler Factory, Krakow, 2011

Schindler Factory, Brünlitz (2004)

By the end of the war, Schindler had spent all his fortune in bribing people to buy black market goods for workers. was spending

Oskar moved briefly to Regensburg and then to Munich, but was unsuccessful in post-war Germany. He was practically penniless. In fact, the support he could get was limited to Jewish organizations.

In 1948, he filed a claim with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Commission for reimbursement of war expenses. Expenditures he estimated at more than $1,056,000 covered the cost of building the camp, bribes, and the purchase of black market goods, including food. He got his $15,000 refund.

Schindler moved to Argentina in 1949, where he experimented with raising chickens and coypus, small animals bred for their fur.

Commemorative plaque at Schindler’s House in Regensburg.

When the company went bankrupt in 1958, he left his wife and returned to Germany, where he embarked on several unsuccessful businesses, including a cement factory. He filed for bankruptcy in 1963, and the following year had a heart attack that forced him to stay in the hospital for a month.

Schindler kept in touch with many of the Jews he met during the war, including Stern and Pfefferberg, and survived on donations Schindler-Uden sent from around the world.

He died on his October 9, 1974 and was buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. He is the only member of the NSDAP to be honored in this way.

Schindler’s Tomb in Jerusalem. A Hebrew inscription reads, “Righteous among the nations.” The German inscription reads, “Unforgettable lifesaver of 1200 persecuted Jews.” for his service during the war.

This was part of the life and history of one of the most important figures in world history.