Oskar Schindler: The Greatest Heroes Of The Holocaust

1202 Words5 Pages

Throughout life, people experience impossible situations, situations so unthinkable no one should have to be put through them. During these darkest hours, the same people seek refuge; some look for it in faith, fellowship, or a hero. In 1933, Adolf Hitler threw European Jews into turmoil (Staff, History.com). The supreme leader of Germany started the most tragic, memorable, and shocking chain of events the world has ever seen. Six million corpses later, the image of the Holocaust is still stricken in the minds of survivors. The death toll could have been even more terrifying if many did not stand up to this tyranny. Despite the risks, Oskar Schindler defied Hitler and the Nazis becoming one of the greatest heroes of the Holocaust (“Oskar Schindler”). Schindler exemplifies the characteristics of a hero because he spent his fortune to save hundreds of Jews along with giving …show more content…

Oskar Schindler is a hero because he not only risked his life and spent his fortune to save 1,300 Jews from death during the Holocaust, he also gave the world faith in humanity (Bulow). Schindler, a war profiteer, always had an angle on making money, so when World War II began, his reputation for being a Nazi helped him become close to the SS leaders who assisted him in acquiring a factory near Plaszow, Poland (Bulow). Schindler used cheap Jewish labor to make his fortune skyrocket until he truly saw the horrors of the Holocaust (“Oskar Schindler”). He witnessed the murders of innocent people in the Plaszow death camp. There, a Jew would be lucky to live 4 weeks (Bulow). Schindler was shocked and began to bribe SS officials so they would allow more Jews could come work at his factory instead of facing the alternative of certain death at a concentration camp (“Oskar Schindler”). However, his fortune slowly began to decrease because of all of the purchases and bribes he made to keep his Jewish workers, whom he referred