20 Friday, November 12, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Tragic Story of Righteous Gentile in Schindler's List'
On the Avenue of the
Righteous, approaching
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem,
the historical center con-
taining the record of the
millions murdered by the
Nazis and memorializing
them, there is a tree with a
dedicatory plate in the
name of Oskar Schindler. It
perpetuates the name of a
man whose labors of saving
Jews now emerge as one of
the most moving stories of
the war.
Thomas Keneally is re-
sponsible for bringing to
light the most dramatic
story of the war contained in
the Schindler name, and
what has been written as a
novel under the title
"Schindler's List" (Simon
and Schuster) is already
credited as one of the most
dramatic stories of World
War II.
When Keneally appears
here Tuesday as a Jewish
Book Fair speaker, at a ses-
sion sponsored by Hadas-
sah, he will share great
honors for having brought
to light and for having made
it an inerasable chapter in
history by introducing to
the world a leading char-
acter in the rescue efforts of
the last war: Oskar Schin-
dler.
He was a counterpart
to Raoul Wallenberg and
the most eminent in the
ranks of the Righteous
Gentiles. Oskar Schin-
dler protected 1,200
Jews; he treated them
like his children and
saved the lives of 1,200
who survived the death
camps because their
savior conducted a "con-
centration camp" of his
own making. His per-
sonal imagination and
defiance of the Nazi ter-
ror was unmatched in the
history of the world's
most inhuman terror.
They worked for him in
his enamelware factory,
and the saga commenced in
Cracow, Poland. When the
situation grew worse in the
Nazi search for Jewish can-
didates for the Auschwitz
crematoria, he moved them
and his plant to his native
Moravia.
It was because in addition
to enamelware his factory
THOMAS KENEALLY
manufactured anti-tank,
weapons and the Nazis
needed the munitions. He,
in turn, made the rescue of
Jews his life's endeavor.
On occasion he went to
Auschwitz and virtually
pulled Jews out of the ovens
to retain them as his work-
ers, to save their lives.
They retained the titles
of Schindlerjuden. They
were also called Schin-
dler Brothers.
They survived to tell the
tale and to retain a love for
the great man who was a
drunkard, a woman chaser
who was married to a lady
who always retained her
fidelity for him. Why he de-
voted his life to saving Jews
has never been explained. It
remains one of the mys-
teries and miracles of the
terrible war.
The miracle also is that
an already prominent
author, whose novels have
become best sellers, who has
won many awards, should
have managed to come
across a tale that merited
being fictionalized and yet
became one of the great
stories of World War IL
A native of Sidney, Au-
stralia, the Irish Catholic
Keneally links his name
with the Righteous Gentiles
in the great work that was
acclaimed as "Schindler's
Ark" in England and is now
the great sensation in this
country under the title
"Schindler's List."
How can it be ex-
plained that the story of
the German Catholic
industrialist Oskar
Schindler was kept a
kind of a secret until the
publication of "Schin-
dler's List" by Thomas
Keneally? In an epilogue
to his book, describing
the last years of Schin-
dler, the trials of the
Nazis, the recognition
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that was given the now ever, to avoid all fiction,
identified hero, the Joint since fiction would debase
Distribution Committee the record, and to distin-
-knew about his exploits guish between reality and
and honored him, assist- the myths which are likely
ing him in his days of to attach themselves to a
penury with a stipend. man of Oskar's stature. It
Yad Vashem knew about has sometimes been neces-
him; his wife Emilie, tes- sary to make reasonable
tifying to his genius as a constructs of converstions of
which Oskar and others
savior of so many lives.
have
left only the briefest
For an understanding of
how Keneally learned about record.
"But most exchanges and
the hero, traveled to many
lands to meet the survivors, conversations, and all
the details ascribed to a events, are based on the de-
novel that is so completely tailed recollections of the
truth, it is necessary to read Schindlerjuden (Schindler
the author's note to his book Jews), of Schindler himself,
in almost its entirety, thus: and of other witnesses to
"In 1980 I visited a lug- Oskar's acts of outrageous
gage store in Beverly Hills, rescue."
Deleted is the long list
California, and inquired the
prices of briefcases. The
store belonged to Leopold
Pfefferberg, a Schindler
survivor. It was beneath
Pfefferberg's shelves of im-
ported Italian leathergoods
that I first heard of Oskar
Schindler, the German bon
vivant, speculator,
charmer, and sign of con-
tradiction, and of his sal-
vage of a cross section of a
condemned race during
those years now known by
the generic name
Holocaust.
"This account of Oskar's
astonishing history is based
OSKAR SCHINDLER
in the first place on inter-
views with 50 Schindler of names with the Kene-
survivors from seven na- ally expression of
tions — Australia, Israel, gratitude for their help,
West Germany, Austria, including Emilie Schin-
the United States, Argen- dler, Yad Vashem staff
tina and Brazil. It is people and others.
Oskar Schindler and his
enriched by a visit, in the
company of Leopold Pfeffer- wife Emilie settled in
berg, to locations that prom- Argentina. He became a
inently figure in the book: farmer. The effort ended in
Cracow, Oskar's adopted bankruptcy in 1957. Bnai
city; Plaszow, the scene of Brith helped them settle in
Amon Goeth's foul labor San Vicente. He was a sales
camp; Lipowa Street, Zab- representative for a year.
Then, leaving Emilie be-
locie, where Oskar's factory
still stands; Auschwifz- hind, he left for Germay. He
Birkenau, from which sought aid from the German
Oskar extracted his women government, seeking to es-
tablish a cement factory in
prisoners.
"But the narration de- Frankfurt. He failed to get
pends also on documen- such aid. Schindlerjuden
tary and other informa- provided some help. The ef-
tion supplied by those fort failed again in 1961.
Schindler then went to Is-
few wartime associates of
Oskar's who can 'still be rael at the invitation of the
reached, as well as by the Schindler Jews and was
large body of his welcomed enthusiastically.
Schindler was greatly
postwar friends. Many
of the plentiful tes- honored while in Israel.
timonies regarding He was there during the
Oskar deposited by Eichmann trial and his
Schindler Jews at Yad story attracted wide at-
Vashem, The Martyrs' tention.
A plaque in his honor was
and Heroes' Remembr-
ance. Authority, further unveiled in the Park of
enriched the record, as Heroes in Tel Aviv and the-
did written testimonies inscription describes him as
from private sources and "the savior of 1,200 pris-
a body of Schindler pap- oners of Brinnlitz," and it
ers and letters, some adds that it was "erected in
supplied by Yad Vashem, love and gratitude." He was
some by Oskar's friends. declared "A Righteous Per-
"To use the texture and son" a few days later in
devices of a novel to tell a Jerusalem.
Back in Frankfurt, he
true story is a course that was hissed and a mob de-
has frequently been fol-
lowed in modern writing. It clared he should have been
with the Jews.
is the one I chose to follow burned
Keneally reports in his
here — both because the epilogue that "in 1963 he
novelist's craft is the only punched a factory worker
one I can lay claim to, and who had called him a 'Jew
because the novel's tech- kisser,' and the man lodged
niques seem suited for a a charge of assault." Oskar
character of such ambiguity was lectured by the court
and magnitude as Oskar.
and ordered to pay dam-
"I have attempted, how- ages.
He became dependent on
his Juden, in Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem. He limited him-
self to three cognacs a night.
In 1966, efforts were
renewed to secure com-
pensation from the Ger-
man government on the
grounds of his heroism,
loss of property and
fragile health. Keneally
explains, "It was not until
July 1, 1 968 that the
Ministry of Finance was
happy to report that from
that date it would pay
him a pension of 200
marks per month."
The first official reaction
from the German govern-
ment was the award of the
Cross of Merit in 1966, in a
ceremony at which Konrad
Adenauer presided.
He received the Papal
Knighthood of St. Sylvester
from the Bishop of Linburg.
Schindler continued to
assist in the prosecution of
war criminals.
Back in Germany, he
helped conduct fundrais-
ing for the Hebrew Uni-
versity in Jerusalem. He
helped set up exchanges
between German and Is-
raeli children. But de-
spite his poor health he
continued drinking.
He conducted a love affair
with a German woman he
met at the Kind David in
Jerusalem, his wife having
remained in Argentina.
Keneally adds to the story of
the Schindlers:
"His wife, Emilie, still
lived, without any financial
help from him, in her little
house in San Vincente,
south of Buenos Aires. She
lives there at the time of the
writing of this book. As she
was in Brinnlitz, she is a
figure of quiet dignity.
"In a documentary made
by German television in
1973, she spoke — without
any of the abandoned wife's
bitterness or sense of griev-
ance — about Oskar and
Brinnlitz, about her own
behavior in Brinnlitz. Per-
ceptively, she remarked
that Oskar had done noth-
ing astounding before the
war and had been unexcep-
tional since. He was fortu-
nate, therefore, that in that
short fierce era between
1939 and 1945 he had met
people who summoned forth
his deeper talents.
"In 1972, during a visit
by Oskar to the New York
executive office of the
American Friends of He-
brew University, three
Schindlerjuden, partners
in a large New Jersey
construction company,
led a group of 75 other
Schindler prisoners in
raising $102,000 to dedi-
cate to Oskar a floor of
the Truman Research
Center at Hebrew Uni-
versity. The floor would
house a Book of Life, con-
taining an account of Os-
kar's rescues and a list of
the rescued.
"Two of these partners,
Murray Pantirer and Isak
Levenstein, had been 16
years old when Oskar
brought them to Brinnlitz.
Now Oskar's children had
become his parents, his best
.
recourse, his source of
honor.
"He was very ill. The men
who had been physicians in
Brinnlitz — Alexander
Biberstein, for example
knew it. One of them
warned Oskar's close
friends, 'the man should not
be alive. His heart is work-
ing through pure stubborn-
ness.'
"In October 1974, he col-
, lapsed at his small apart-
ment near the railway sta-
tion in Frankfurt and died
in a hospital on Oct. 9. His
death certificate says that
advanced hardening of the
arteries of the brain and
heart had caused the final
seizure.
"His will declared a
wish he had already ex-
pressed to a number of
Schindlerjuden — that he
be buried in Jerusalem.
Within two weeks the
Franciscan parish priest
of Jerusalem had given
his permission for Herr
Oskar Schindler, one of
the Church's least obser-
vant sons, to be buried in '
the Latin Cemetery of
Jerusalem."
An obituary of Schindler
was published on Page 54 of
The Detroit Jewish News,
Oct. 18, 1974. It appeared
under a two-column head
"Oscar Schindler, Duped
Nazis, Saved Jews From
Death Camp." It was about
10 inches in length. Now his
story merits this lengthy
review.
Thomas Keneally earns
all the honors accorded him
for unearthing this over-
whelming tale of heroism.
—P.S.
* * *
Yad Vashem
Cites Woman
JERUSALEM — Yad
Vashem l.st week honored
a Polish woman now living
in the U.S. for saving the
lives of 300 Jewish co-
workers during World War
II.
Irena Gut-Updike, who
was foreman of a laundry in
Tarnopol, warned her
Jewish workers of a Nazi
roundup, led them to a hid-
ing place in the woods and
supplied them with food and
clothing for nine months
until the area was liberated.
Corrections
The Nails by Sharon ad-
vertisement appearing in
last week's Jewish News
was in error. The ad
should have read that only
manicures are being of-
fered to new clients at 20
percent off every Tuesday
in November. The Jewish
News regrets the error.
* * *
The obituary for Ab-
raham Franzblau in last
week's Jewish News was
in error. Dr. Franzblau
was not a former De-
troiter, nor was he the
president of the Halevy
Singing Society. It was
former Detroiter Eugene
Franzblau who was affil-
iated with the singing
society. The Jewish News
regrets the error.