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Stephen Bryan
Prof. Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1102-009
15 Apr. 2015
Opportunist or Humanitarian: A Research Review on the Life of Oskar Schindler
This research review will focus on the earlier life of Oskar Schindler. It will
discuss/debate the key decisions he made throughout his younger years and how they would
come to affect his actions that made him the famous Oskar Schindler. Everyone who knows
anything about Schindler knows him for being the man who sympathetically saved the lives of
1100 Jews during the Holocaust, but not everyone is sure of why he did it. Was it for personal
gain, or was it for pitys sake?
To support my theories I will be using works done by two authors: Arnold Krammers
Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story behind
the List, and Oskar Schindlers Moral Development During the Holocaust, by Luitgard N.
Wundheiler. Krammers journal discusses Schindlers role in the holocaust, and examines the
decisions he made as either good or bad for those around him, and Wundheilers journal is based
off of interviews with schindler that hold accounts of his life from his own moral perspective.
The first thing that stood out to me while researching was in Krammers journal.
Krammer stated in his opening sentence, The line between good and evil is a fine line, and
history is replete with those who cross it effortlessly1. Schindler danced this line. He was a
member of the Nazi party, but he also sympathized for the Jews. Sometimes he would help the
Jews because he pitied them and sometimes he would abandon them to places like Auschwitz.
Schindler wasnt a humanitarian but he wasnt a bad man either. Krammers journal does a good

job of pointing out whether Schindler was worthy of the name righteous gentile or whether or not
he was just a selfish opportunist whose goals favored a people in need.
In Wundheilers journal he speaks on all of the information he gained on Schindler from
multiple interviews he had with the man himself. In his journal I learned all the research I would
ever need to know on Oskar Schindler. The research ranges from Schindlers birth all the way to
his bankruptcy after the war. The interviews discuss the morality in all of his important life
choices, and I got all of my factual based evidence from his journal in particular.
Schindler was born in Zwittau, Moravia on April 28th, 19082. His parents were both
German and both heavy Catholics. In 1915 Schindlers sister was born and their relationship
was said to be close. From 1915-1924 Schindler attended school where he studied sales and
economics. Schindler was raised in a solid family environment and he grew up to be a smart well
rounded young man with a sharp head on his shoulders. From the beginning schindler was raised
in a healthy environment molding him for greater things to come.
By the age of 20 (1928) Schindler was done with school and got married to a devout
catholic woman who was just like his mother. Unfortunately the marriage was an unhappy one
from the get go and stayed that way. It was not but 7 years later in which Schindler had already
fathered two twins and a third illegitimate child2. What came next was the end of the first chapter
in Schindlers life. Schindlers father left his mother in 1935 when his farming business went
bankrupt. In a way Schindler felt wronged by his father for his actions and wanted nothing to do
with him. They would never speak again. Not too long afterwards Schindlers mother died, and in
such a short time he had lost both his parents, and his family business. Once all this had
happened Schindler had nothing left except for a wife he found no comfort from and a little job
experience in sales.

Life is such a fragile thing, and in Schindlers case he had it all and then he had lost it all.
Schindler would have to move on with his life as his old life faded into memory. He had the
means to be great and now all he had to do was put his skills to use. Having knowledge in sales
and economics schindler rallied behind the Nazi party as their patriotism swept the nation. If
Schindler had a product that catered to the Nazis and was in an area prioritized by mostly Nazis
than he figured the demand for his product would be high.
In search of fortune Schindler then moved to Cracow, Germany. Once in Cracow he went
searching for this fortune in a small shopping center where he encountered many Jewish business
owners. To start up his business Schindler asked around for tips on how he could go about
making and maintaining a healthy business. The most important tip he got was to always treat his
customers no matter who they were as a human being with equal opportunities. One man in
particular whose advice Schindler held especially important was an accountant named Isaac
Stern. Stern was educated in philosophy as well as accounting and while things slowly started to
pick back up for schindler Stern and Schindler despite their personality differences had many
meetings where they shared friendly stories and talked business. Unfortunately their time
together was short and Stern passed away in late 1939. Schindler who was finally ready to run
his own business leased an enamel factory in 1940 not but a month later, and began his own
business. The factory was known as: the Oskar Schindler Enamel Factory, and is the factory that
Schindler used to save those 1100 Jews.
In Krammers journal and Wundheilers journal both authors ask why would Schindler
join the Nazi Party but then go against everything they stood for and help a group of people that
he had no relation to? When I started this research review the question baffled me, it didnt make
any sense. There was no personal gain, or glory in my mind that I could think of that came from

saving the Jews. As I researched deeper into the articles I stumbled upon a possible reason for
why he did it. Wundheiler described that in one of his interviews Schindler said, the only
neighbors he had growing up were a Jewish family with two little boys1. Schindler said that
those two little Jewish boys were his only friends. Now this made me think. I thought it couldnt
have been two Jewish boys that caused a man to put his entire life on the line; and then it hit me.
I thought back to Schindlers relationship with the Jewish business owners in Krakow, and Isaac
Stern, and his parents too. Schindler had always been told do treat others as human beings with
equal opportunities and in Schindlers former and very influential years Schindler was always
treated with kindness from the Jews. So when he found out about the sick plot to commit
Genocide against the Jews, it was not only an opportunity for his own personal gain but it was
what he believed the right thing to do.
Schindler was raised in a strong family environment where he developed good moral
values. Although later on those values would be put to the test when his family was torn away
from him. Schindler was versed in sales, but the Jewish business owners and Isaac Stern would
teach him most of what he knew about business. Although later on all of his business associates
and friends either passed away or were thrown into Ghettos too. Schindlers life repeated itself,
in growing opportunities for his own personal gain but each time he did something selfish he did
something two times more selfless. In the end the research supports that Oskar Schindler was a
Righteous Gentile. Realistically he could not save everyone, but he did what he could do to save
the Jews. By the end of his life He ended up divorced and living off of welfare checks from the
families of the Jews he had saved during World War II. Schindler literally gave his everything in
the end for his pursuit of saving the Jews. Oskar Schindler, a true humanitarian and righteous
gentile, the savior of the Jews.

Works Cited
1. Krammer, Arnold. Oskar Schindler: An Untold Account of his Life, Wartime
Activities, and the True Story Behind the List. Cambridge University Press. Vol. 39,
No. 3 (Sep., 2006), PP 523-525. Web. 13th Apr. 2015.
2. Wundheiler N., Luitgard. Oskar Schindlers Moral Development during the
Holocaust. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, Vol. 13, No. 1/2, Altruism &
Prosocial Behavior (Fall/Winter & Spring/Summer 1986), pp. 333-356. Web. 13th
Apr. 2015.