Oskar Schindler's life after the war is not very well documented. This site gives a brief account of his life up until his death from liver failure on October 9th 1974 in Frankfurt, Germany at the age of 66.

A lot of the information on this site was gathered during my visit to Poland in January 2000.

The later years of Oskar Schindler.

Oskar Schindler was born on April 28th 1908 in Zwittau, Czechoslovakia. His life and achievements during the war became the subject of a best selling book by Thomas Keneally, so good that it is taught in schools as part of the British A' level English exam. Steven Spielberg made it into a powerful film which won 7 Academy Awards as well as many other honors from the movie industry. So how did a member of the Nazi party, war profiteer of slave labor, womanizer, alcoholic and compulsive gambler end up being honored along side world heroes like Winston Churchill, Gandhi and Martin Luther King? He was even invited to plant a tree in The 'Avenue of Righteous at the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem.   This is the Schindler/Jewish memorial. It stands high on a hill in Krakow, Poland.

It was black market trader Poldek Pfefferberg who started writing this incredible story. He had business links with Schindler and supplied him with goods which were used as gifts to impress Nazi officers. It worked, Schindler became friends with some of the highest ranking officers in the German army.

Schindler used Jewish backing to buy a enamel wear factory in Lapowa street, Krakow. This was just a few miles from the ghettos. But after the war Schindler found it harder to run a business. Without free labor his business were never going to work. He even tried his luck as a film producer (although I have been unable to trace any film work that he was involved in). He found himself being hated by many of his old colleagues who turned against him for helping a race of people who the Nazi party thought should be removed from the face of the earth. He was stripped of his German citizenship and tried to start over in the United States. He was refused entry on the grounds that he had once been a member of the Nazi party.

He tried hard to live a quiet life in South America. He ran a farm for a while but once again had to face bankruptcy. He left Argentina in 1957 and returned to Europe. His wife Emilie stayed behind and the couple never saw each other again. Emilie lived her last years under 24 hour armed guard at her home in San Vicente near Buenos Aires. She became a target for many extremist groups. This is surprising when you consider that her husband was considered the savior of the Jewish people.

Although she lived in Argentina until her death, She is buried in the Le' Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

On his birthday in 1962 that he was invited to plant a tree in the 'Avenue of Righteous at the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem. This outraged many of the German people who considered him a traitor. He was harassed in the streets by Nazi sympathizers and this lead to his despair. He had considered suicide (see footnote), although it's not known for sure what the reason for this was. His pass, the harassment or his troubles as a failed businessman.

Schindler told Pfefferberg (the ghetto black market trader became his close friend) that he wanted to be buried in Jerusalem. After he died in Frankfurt on October 9th 1974, his body was flown to Israel. He was buried in a churchyard on Mount Zion.

The Schindler legacy will never be forgotten. The tree still grows in the 'Avenue of Righteous. Streets are named after him in the USA and Israel. He may have been a failure in business, a traitor to Germany, alcoholic and compulsive gambler - but there are many thousand desendence of Schindler Jews that would not has been, if it wasn't for him.

Footnote : This information was based on his comments about how his suicide would make his former colleagues so happy.

© Auschwitz-Poland 2000.