Resist by Veronica Chambers

Author:Veronica Chambers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

OSKAR SCHINDLER

#resist 1945

“I HATED THE BRUTALITY, THE SADISM AND THE INSANITY OF NAZISM. I JUST COULDN’T STAND BY AND SEE PEOPLE DESTROYED. I DID WHAT I COULD, WHAT I HAD TO DO, WHAT MY CONSCIENCE TOLD ME I MUST DO. THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO IT. REALLY. NOTHING MORE.”

OSKAR SCHINDLER NEVER THOUGHT HE was cut out to be a hero. When he was sixteen, he was expelled for forging his report card. He graduated high school but never went to college.

As a young man, he bounced from job to job. When he was thirty-one, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party ruled Germany. The world was at war and the Nazis had begun systematically imprisoning and murdering Jews throughout Europe. At the time, Oskar owned two factories in Poland.

When the Nazis came to Poland, Oskar Schindler tried to protect the hundreds of Jewish workers who worked at his factory. At first he used bribes, diplomacy, and his wiles—the same ones that got him into trouble in school. When he heard that the Nazis were planning a raid on the Jewish ghetto in Kraków, for example, he protected his workers by letting them sleep in the factory overnight.

The Nazis caught on to Oskar Schindler’s tricks eventually. Three times he was arrested and accused of using his business to protect the Jews. Three times he fought against his imprisonment and was set free.

Many in his country saw how dangerous the Nazis were. They began to turn a blind eye to the crimes being committed against the Jewish people. Oskar didn’t have to get involved. He had an easy way out. He was not Jewish. He could have sold his factories and returned to his home in Moravia, which is a part of the current Czech Republic. Simply put, he could have walked away and been—in a sense—free.

But Oskar saw that he had a chance to save lives. More than that, he felt an obligation to try, even if it meant facing prison—or worse.

Oskar had to decide what was greater—the punishment he might face for doing what he knew was right or the pain he would live with knowing that he had allowed others to suffer and die. Oskar could not live with the pain of not trying.

He decided to relocate his factories to Moravia. He and his assistant drew up a list of twelve hundred Jews they could hire at the factory. This became known as “Schindler’s List.” With that list, Oskar Schindler was able to take eight hundred men and four hundred women to Moravia, saving them from the Nazi concentration camps.

One man saved twelve hundred people. It’s a staggering number, but the important thing to remember is that Oskar Schindler believed that if he could save only one life, it would be worth the risk. We are measured not by the results of our actions but by the courage that compels us to act.

#RESIST LESSON

WHOEVER SAVES ONE LIFE SAVES THE WORLD ENTIRE.

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