Remembering Schindler’s Humanity

The recent critical comments by Emilie Schindler about her late husband are a disgrace to the memory of one of the true heroes of this century (Morning Report, Calendar, April 2). Those of us who were saved by Oskar Schindler know how closely the book “Schindler’s List” by Thomas Keneally and the film by Steven Spielberg portrayed the man and the events of the Holocaust. Humanity is thankful that so much of this story could be told. It has led to a greater understanding of the Holocaust and an awareness of how one man could make a difference.

We did not know Emilie Schindler until November 1944 when we arrived in Brunlitz camp in Sudetenland, but we knew Oskar Schindler and what he did from our first meeting in 1939 to our liberation on May 8, 1945. However, from November 1944 to the liberation in May 1945, Emilie Schindler also distinguished herself helping Oskar to save the people who were frozen on the cattle trains that had stopped at the gate of the Brunlitz camp in January 1945. Oskar paid the Nazis six marks for each person per day for what was supposed to be slave labor, but these people never recuperated until after liberation, so they were never able to work. He paid for their care, food and medicine from his own pocket.

For his deeds, he was recognized as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, in 1962. For her support, Yad Vashem also recognized Emilie Schindler as a Righteous Gentile. We survivors, whom Schindler called his “children,” considered her recognition a great honor that she deserved.

For us, the survivors and witnesses to this most horrific period of human history, the relationship and personal affairs in the married life of Oskar and Emilie Schindler are not of importance, although we do sympathize with her feelings. What is important is Oskar Schindler’s achievement in saving 1,300 lives--men, women and children.

Keneally, who wrote “Schindler’s List,” and Spielberg, who turned it into a film, had similar reactions to Emilie Schindler’s comments and a book she has written in Argentina.

Keneally, who is researching a book in Ireland, wrote: “As reported, Emilie Schindler’s published statements concerning her husband are that he was opportunistic and selfish, that he wanted Jewish labor for its cheapness, that he was an appalling husband.

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“These arguments, whatever the difference of emphasis, are the very arguments of the book and the film. Mixed motives were the mainspring of our personal fascination with Oskar, and ultimately of the public’s fascination with him.

“There are a considerable number of survivors and others who testify to the heroism not only of Oskar but of Mrs. Schindler. According to former prisoners and other parties, individual acts of fraternity and bravery on Oskar’s part were many. They included the heroism of his reporting the beginning of mass extermination to agents of the Jewish rescue operation in Budapest, and his rescue and taking in of the Goleszow men from trucks abandoned in a nearby rail depot. It is very likely that Mrs. Schindler initiated this latter rescue.

“The subsequent hand-feeding of both the women Schindler took from Auschwitz and of the Goleszow men is remembered with particular gratitude. For Mrs. Schindler to deny her own heroism runs counter to the overwhelming testimony of survivors.

“On the basis of testimonies from a mass of survivors, Yad Vashem declared Oskar and Emilie Righteous Gentiles, and this testimony process was totally separate from the process of gathering information for the book and film.”

Spielberg obviously was equally troubled by Mrs. Schindler’s remarks and offered this comment:

“It is perplexing that three years after publicly supporting the film ‘Schindler’s List’ and its contents at numerous public events, here and abroad, Emilie Schindler has chosen to reverse herself with recent public statements to promote her book.

“She had praised the film to me personally.

“The most serious criticism she leveled at me upon seeing ‘Schindler’s List’ was that her husband, while still married to her, had so many more affairs than the film portrayed.

“She was also somewhat critical that her role in saving the lives of Jews rescued from two frozen boxcars while she was with her husband in Brunlitz, Czechoslovakia, was not shown in the film. Those scenes and others had to be cut to keep the film near a three-hour length.

“No one knows exactly what motivated Oskar Schindler to do what he did--the good and the bad--and it is that enigma that made him so compelling. The film left that for each to interpret.

“The most important fact is that Schindler saved over 1,300 lives and made it possible for them to survive and for over 6,000 members of their families to be alive today.”