Early Life
Emilie Pelzl Schindler was born in 1907 in Czechoslovakia. She connected with nature and animals. Life seemed to be pretty good until World War I. Her father served in the army and came back with PTSD. She had to take care of him a lot. So, it’s not really surprising she was ready to get out of her situation when she met the handsome and adventurous son of an electric motors salesman in 1928. That son was Oskar Schindler. After six weeks of dating, the two married.
She was shocked by her new husband’s lifestyle and affairs. She suffered from miscarriages and periods of loneliness.
To the Rescue
Oskar also loved money. He saw that joining the Nazi party provided profiting opportunities. He was able to buy a factory where he hired Jews for cheap labor. As the war progressed, he and Emilie witnessed the brutality of the Nazis and that the Jews were in real trouble. (Her Jewish friend, Rita, had been hung in front of her father’s store.)
She felt she had to do something at the scenes she witnessed:
“I’d seen enough of emaciated bodies, starving children, and desperate mothers.”
Oskar’s factory became a sort of haven for Jews on his list.
The Schindlers used the black market and spent much of their money and valuables for things like food, supplies, and the necessary relocation of the factory and workers. Oskar would go out of town a lot to wheel and deal in order to protect those on the list while leaving the care of the factory to Emilie.
Ludmilla Page said:
“She was wonderful, Mrs. Schindler. She did it in her own quiet way.”
One of the times Oskar was away from the factory, four train wagons of 250 people stopped. The SS officer reported the Jews in these wagons were on their way to a death camp.
Emilie recounted the event:
“We found the railroad car bolts frozen solid…the spectacle I saw was a nightmare almost beyond imagination. It was impossible to distinguish the men from the women: they were all so emaciated – weighing under seventy pounds most of them, they looked like skeletons. Their eyes were shining like glowing coals in the dark.”
Her niece, Gertrud, recalled:
“I didn’t know if they were dead or alive. Even the living looked liked skeletons. Some of them were stuck to the walls. Their hair and skin frozen in place. Aunt Milly had warm water fetch so we could thaw them off. Then we go them out. The sight was horrifying.”
Emilie had a makeshift hospital set up in the factory. She and her husband also set up a Jewish cemetery for those Jews who didn’t survive under their care.
Michael Klein recalled the scene when he was rescued:
“Some people who could still walk, were walked in. Others were carried in to a big room where there are several showers nearby. And the showers were turned on, and hot water was running for the showers. I remember I went to this hot water [that] was running, and I lied down, and I slurped the hot water like a pig. I couldn’t imagine that I will ever see hot water, and it would be warmed.”
Celina Binjaz, who was then 12 when she and her mother were saved from Auschwitz and brought to Schindler’s factory, would be forever grateful for the Schindlers. In her interview, Saved by Schindler’s List, she told how by the time she and her mother reached the factory, her then illness was an enlarged liver. She commented:
“It was only through the good graces of Mrs. Schindler-Emilie-who came with a pot of farina [sort of like a cereal that’s easy on the stomach] that she had cooked herself, you know, and fed us sick people, that we survived, really. Because that was the only nourishment that we got.”
The factories were not luxurious, but the Schindlers did tried their best, and Emilie proved to be a maternal lioness. She got grain by asking (while revealing she was helping out Jews) her next neighbor, a woman who ran a grain mill. She succeeded in that. She did personalized things like getting prescription glasses for a boy who broke his.
Survivor Maurice Markheim remembered:
“She got a whole truck of bread from somewhere on the black market. They called me to unload it. She was talking to the SS and because of the way she turned around and talked, I could slip a loaf under my shirt. I saw she did this on purpose. A loaf of bread at that point was gold. There is an old expression: Behind the man, there is the woman, and I believe she was the great human being.”
Post War
Emilie and Oskar had saved 1200 Jews. Europe was an unsafe place for the Schindlers after the war. (A big part of that was the approaching Russians.)
They found refuge in Argentina. It should have been a fresh start. Oskar tried setting up businesses there but failed. He would abandon Emilie and went back to Europe with his girlfriend (whom he had brought with him to Argentina). Emilie was left to settle his debts. She’d later receive pensions from Israel, Germany, and Argentina as well as security.
Emilie worried she would be forgotten. But the survivors she helped would not forget her!
Survivor Francisco Wichter said,
“As long as I live, I will always have a sincere and eternal gratitude for dear Emilie. I think she triumphed over danger because of her courage, intelligence and determination to do the right and humane thing. She had immense energy and she was like a mother.”
Emilie and Oskar were recognized by Righteous Among the Nations. She was able to return to Europe at the very end of her life and died in 2001 in a Berlin hospital.
It’s important not to forget Emilie Schindler. She is VERY relevant to today. At first she was unaware how bad things were for the Jews, but as she witnessed the atrocities, she knew she had to do something to help. She actually did something about it
Shouldn’t we all be doing something to help?
Notes and Sources:
The direct recollections of those on Schindler’s List were from interviews provided by the USC Shoah Foundation, which were gathered for a video, “Emilie Schindler – A forgotten heroine who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust” and Celina Binjaz’s experience “Saved by Schindler’s List | Celina Biniaz | Jewish-American Heritage Month | USC Shoah Foundation.” Accessed February 15, 2025.
“Emilie Schindler 1907-2001” from Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed February 15, 2025.
“Emilie Schindler” from Arizona Jewish Historical Society. Accessed February 17, 2025.
Emilie Schindler Wikipedia article. Accessed February 17, 2025.
www.emilieschindler.com. Accessed February 17, 2025.
A Look Back At The Life Of Emilie Schindler, The Wife Of Oskar Schindler from Grunge. Written by Jane Shea. Accessed February 17, 2025.
Oskar and Emilie Schindler. Righteous Among the Nations. Accessed February 17, 2025
Images
Featured Image and Wedding pic from A Forgotten Heroine – Emilie Schindler Saved Jewish Lives article. Accessed February 17, 2025.
Emilie in a Light Dress from Arizona Jewish Society. Accessed February 17, 2025
Schindler in 2000 from Wikipedia. Accessed February 17, 2025
