Saturday, August 8, 2009

Saturday...Featured Favorite Humanitarian # 15

Oskar Schlinder
A German Industrialist that originally sought out to be among some of the wealthiest businessmen at the time of the Holocaust. He operated his factory at will, with cheap labor. However, as time went by, he grew a conscious and with that he arranged with Amon Göth, the commandant of Plaszow, for several Jews to be transferred to an adjacent factory compound. The Jews would be relatively safe from the depredations of the German guards. Schindler also reportedly began to smuggle children out of the ghetto and sent them to stay with Christian nuns.
In 1967, Schindler was honored at Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial to the victims of the Holocaust as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, or “righteous Gentiles”, an honor awarded by Israel to non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust at great personal risk. Schindler was the only former member of the Nazi party to be so recognized by the planting of a tree in his name at the Yad Vashem Memorial.
In 1993 Steven Spielberg directed "Schlinder's List", it won 7 Academy Awards including, Best Director, Best Actor (Liam Neeson) and Best Picture!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I loved that film. Oskar Schindler has been my favorite humanitarian ever since.