Did the Jews reward Schindler for saving them?

Answer 1

Post war conditions were hard on former members of the Nazi Party. Oskar Schindler is no exception. He had spent his fortune bribing and cajoling officials in Nazi Germany to allow him to conduct his business free from the harsh realities of regime life. His various post war ventures (many of them backed by Jewish contributions), failed. There were many points where he and his wife relied on assistance from Jewish organizations. He died penniless.

But in death his honour was secured, and his legend has grown in the past fifteen years with the release of the Spielberg movie, Schindler's List. The fact remains that Oskar Schindler sacrificed personal fortune and glory for the common good; for the sake of humanity.

"Schindler wanted to be buried in Jerusalem, as he said, "My children are here".[13] After a Requiem Mass, Schindler was buried at the Catholic Franciscans' cemetery[16] on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way.[3] A sign at the entrance to the cemetery directs visitors "To Oskar Schindler's Grave".

Schindler's grave is located on the mountainside below Zion Gate and the Old City walls. Stones placed on top of the grave are a sign of gratitude from Jewish visitors, according to Jewish tradition, although Schindler himself was not Jewish. On his grave, the Hebrew inscription reads: "Righteous among the Nations", an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. The German inscription reads: "The Unforgettable Lifesaver of 1200 Persecuted Jews".

No one knows what Schindler's motives were. He was quoted as saying "I knew the people who worked for me... When you know people, you have to behave towards them like human beings."[17]

The writer Herbert Steinhouse, who interviewed Schindler in 1948 at the behest of some of the surviving Schindlerjuden(Schindler's Jews), wrote:

"Oskar Schindler's exceptional deeds stemmed from just that elementary sense of decency and humanity that our sophisticated age seldom sincerely believes in. A repentant opportunist saw the light and rebelled against the sadism and vile criminality all around him. The inference may be disappointingly simple, especially for all amateur psychoanalysts who would prefer the deeper and more mysterious motive that may, it is true, still lie unprobed and unappreciated. But an hour with Oskar Schindler encourages belief in the simple answer."[3]"

I personally am not a religious man, but I am not without spirit. And Oskar Schindler's actions are chock full of that! Schindler's actions were their own reward. He did all that he could to save the lives of approximately 1200 people. And they and their ancestors live on. That is a greater reward than any earthly silver or gold.

But those people had a rough go of it, to say the least. They were ripped out of their homes. They saw their families disappear, and drop like flies. They were subject to horrors far worse than anything Hollywood can conjure. Nowhere in recorded human history has such a terrible ordeal been recorded. People were turned into bars of soap. Tests were done, to see how many cracks of a hammer a living human skull could sustain. The skins of the dead were stretched into lamp shades, furniture covers, and book jackets. Oskar Schindler is one of the few noted (among others unrecorded, I am sure), who performed their duty as human beings during a very dark period of human history.

While I do not wish to diminish the great actions of this great man, it should be remembered that his actions only stand out because they are among the very few (recorded) right things amidst a sea of wrong. And being judged right in history, especially by the victors when you are on the other side, is a reward (IMHO) greater than all the gold in Israel.