Schindler: Rena Finder's letter to my students

March 19th, 1992

To Alan Filreis' Holocaust Class:

I am sorry that I cant talk to you all, I will try my best to tell you about Oscar Schindler as I remember him. I was only 10 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and we were torn away from our homes and families.It was then that Oscar Schindler appeared in our lives.He took over the Emalia factory which was making pots and pans before the war, converted part of the factory to make ammunitions, so he could get all necessary permits, and started to employ as many Jews as he could,and treated them with kindness and respect.Keneally wrote a wonderful book about an ordinary man,who became a hero and a savior during the most awful times in the history of the world. To me He [Oskar] was like God, tall, handsome, kind. I think that once he got to know the jewish people,he liked us,and when he saw the killings and atrocities his Nazis friends were doing,he didnt want any part of it.He played cards with many of the Nazis,especially the Blaszow Camp Commander Amon Goeth,the most vicious and sadistic man.Oscar Schindler bribed Goeth and others to get food and better treatment for the Jews during a time when all Germans were killing the Jews.There were many other Germans that were in chanrge of factories and camps,but it was only Oscar Schindler who tried and did save 1500 Jews. I would not be alive today if it wasnt for Oscar Schindler,my Mother survived and so did my grandfather.It was possible to make difference to save some, but Oscar Schindler was the only one.Others didnt care,looked the other way. If others had Oscars courage,didnt follow orders to kill and murder,holocaust couldnt happen.Without people carrying out his orders Hitler wouldnt succeed. Steven Spielberg is going to make a movie about Oscar Schindler,based on Kenneallys book.If the book was written differently,it probably would not be as popular.The world needs to know about Oscar Schindler,a hero from a time when there were very few people trying to help the Jews condemmed to die because we were jews. The bystanders are as guilty as the murderers.

It's a tragedy that Oscar Schindler died young before the world could aknowledge his heroism.His country men considered him a traitor, to us he was our God, our Father our protector. On a march from Auschwitz to Germany in the winter of 1944 and 1945 millions of people perished, killed, drowned and died of diseases, cold and starvation. Oscar Schindlers' Jews were sent to Brinnlitz, where he fed us, clothed us and kept us safe, didnt allow the Nazis to kill us, till the war was over and we were rescued by a lone Russian soldier.

One Righteous Gentile made a difference in the lives of 1500 people, if there were more like him,how many more would have been saved!

Yours truly [signed] Rena Finder

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