Oskar Schindler

Spy, businessman, bon vivant, Nazi Party member, Righteous Gentile. This was Oskar Schindler, the controversial man who saved eleven hundred Jews during the Holocaust but struggled afterwards to rebuild his life and gain international recognition for his wartime deeds. David Crowe examines every phase of Schindler's life in this landmark biography, presenting a savior of mythic proportions who was also an opportunist and spy who helped Nazi Germany conquer Poland.

Schindler is best known for saving over a thousand Jews by putting them on the famed "Schindler's List" and then transferring them to his factory in today's Czech Republic. In reality, Schindler played only a minor role in the creation of the list through no fault of his own. Plagued by local efforts to stop the movement of Jewish workers from his factory in Krak-w to his new one in Brnnlitz, and his arrest by the SS who were investigating corruption charges against the infamous Amon Gth, Schindler had little say or control over his famous "List." The tale of how the "List" was really prepared is one of the most intriguing parts of the Schindler story that Crowe tells here for the first time.

Forced into exile after the war, success continually eluded Schindler and he died in very poor health in 1974. He remained a controversial figure, even in death, particularly after Emilie Schindler, his wife of forty-six years, began to criticize her husband after the appearance of Steven Spielberg's film in 1993. In Oskar Schindler, Crowe steps beyond the mythology that has grown up around the story of Oskar Schindler and looks at the life and work of this man whom one prominent Schindler Jew described as "an extraordinary man in extraordinary times.

ISBN-13: 9780465002535
Author : David M. Crowe
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 05/07/2007

Editorial Reviews - Library Journal

What is the truth behind the enigma known as Oskar Schindler? In this detailed, scholarly work, Crowe (history, Elon Univ.; Education Committee, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) corrects inaccuracies in the popular versions of Schindler's story (e.g., Thomas Keneally's Schindler's List and Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film adaptation) and brings to life a more believable figure. Crowe reveals new evidence about Schindler's life and activities, using primary research from around the world and interviews with Schindler's widow and many of the remaining Schindlerjuden. Despite Schindler's vices (which included women, drinking, bribery, and espionage), Crowe concludes that Schindler's heroics, motivated by moral obligation, saved between 1100 and 1200 Jews.

He also divulges that Schindler himself did not compile the list, although he did verbally and physically intercede in saving his workers and many of their relations. This hefty biography covers both the prewar and the postwar periods through Schindler's death and the death of his wife. Any library that owns Keneally's book or Spielberg's film should have this definitive account.

Meet the Author

David M. Crowe is President Emeritus of the Association for the Study of Nationalities at Columbia University and a member of the Education Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He is currently a Fellow at the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North at Carolina at Chapel Hill. His award-winning books include A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia and The Baltic States and the Great Powers: Foreign Relations, 1938-1940. He teaches at Elon University.