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| the memorial tablet opposite Oskar Schindler's native house at 24, Poličská street in Svitavy |
Oskar Schindler was born here in 1908 and he died at Hildesheim in 1974. He was known as a bon vivant and a playboy, also nicknamed Schindler - crook. He was a member of NSDAP and of German intelligence service Abwehr.
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| Oskar and Emilie Schindler in 1946 |
He was arrested for spying activity against the Czechoslovak Republic in the Ungar Hotel (now Slavia) in Svitavy and then sentenced in Brno. In 1939 he got to Polish Krakow and bought a factory producing enamel utensils. He employed Jews from the Krakow Jewish ghetto.
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| the building of the former concentration camp in Brněnec nowadays Vitka a.s. company |
In 1943 after abolishing the ghetto and transporting the Jews to the concentration camp in Plaszow Schindler made an effort to found his own small camp for his workers to protect them from Nazi aggression at concentration camp. In 1944 Schindler had a list of 1 100 employees - prisoners made (many of them were enlisted under pretended skills) so that he could have them transported to the village of Brněnec near Svitavy together with his plant.
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| Oskar Schindler in 1950s |
Though 300 „his“ Jewish woman had been sent off to Oswiecim (Auschwitz), he succeeded in getting them back by paying a bribe for their release. Shortly before the end of the war Schindler organized a withdrawal of German guards from the camp and soon the Jewish workers helped him run away from the Red Army so that he could reach an American military zone.
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| the symbolic tomb to the prisoners of the Brněnec camp in Bělá nad Svitavou |
The Jews remained grateful and faithful to him till the end of his lifetime and they supported him whenever he was not able to make up his own career. He was invited to Istrael, he was awarded lots of Peace Prizes and also the Cross of Merit of Konrad Adenauer, President of Germany. he planted his own tree in the Avenue of Righteous and the tree became a symbol of his deed. Children of Israel can read about him in their textbooks.
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| the memorial tablet opposite Oskar Schindler's native house at 24, Poličská street in Svitavy |