| April 28, 1908 - Oskar Schindler is born in Zwittau, an
industrial city in Moravia, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Moravia is nestled
between Bohemia in the north and Slovakia in the south. The region is also known as the
Sudetenland. August 1, 1914 - The First World War begins.
Austria-Hungary joins with Germany to fight France, Britain, Italy, and (in 1917) the
United States.
November 11, 1918 - First World War ends with collapse of three
empires: Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. Moravia, which included Schindler's
hometown of Zwittau, is detached from Austria and annexed by the new republic of
Czechoslovakia.
As a result of the war, several million Sudeten Germans find themselves
a minority people in the new Czechoslovak state. Schindler is ten years old. Schindler
attends german-language school--gymnasium-- in Zwittau. Among his classmates and playmates
are two Jewish boys, sons of the local rabbi.
1920's - Schindler works as salesman for his father's
farm-machinery factory.
May, 1928 - Schindler races motorcycle, a Moto-Guzzi, in high
class competition.
1928 - Schindler marries Emilie. His father disapproves of
marriage, and apparently Schindler leaves his job working as a salesman as a result of a
tiff. He becomes a salesman for Morovia Eklectric and travels to Poland on business.
January 30, 1933 -Hitler is appointed Reichschancellor in
Germany.
1935 -Schindler family factory goes bankrupt. Oskar's parents
separate. Schindler joins the pro-Nazi Henlein party in Czechoslovakia.
September 29, 1938 - Hitler meets British Prime Minister
Chamberlain and French Premier Daladier in Munich, Germany. The western leaders step back
before Hitler's threats of war and force the Czechoslovak government, an ally, to cede the
Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. The Jews and Czechs of the Sudetenland were summarily
expelled and their property confiscated. They fled to Prague and to the regions of the
rump Czech state not yet occupied by the Nazis. That would come six months later.
Autumn 1938 -Schindler joins German military intelligence,
Abwehr, under Admiral Canaris. As a salesman, Schindler travels to southern Poland and
reports to Abwehr regarding points of military importance in Poland. His affiliation with
Abwehr excuses Schindler from military service.
November 9, 1938 - Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass.
Throughout the Greater German Reich (Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland), Nazi storm
troopers smash and burn Jewish shops and synagogues. The glass littering the street in the
aftermath gave the event its name: The Night of Broken Glass. Tens of thousands of Jewish
men are arrested and sent to the concentration camp, Buchenwald.
March 15, 1939 - German troops occupy the rump state of
Czechoslovakia and enter Prague to the gloom of the populace. Slovakia becomes a
cooperative satellite of the Nazis. The Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia are absorbed
into the Reich and named the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
September 1, 1939 -German troops attack Poland. Three and a half
million Jews live in Poland. The southern Polish city of Krakow, the ancient seat of
Polish kings, is occupied on September 6, 1939. Oskar Schindler arrives shortly
thereafter.
October 12, 1939 - The Nazis establish Krakow as the seat of
their General Government of occupied Poland. Hans Frank, Hitler's lawyer, is designated
Reichsfuehrer of Nazi-occupied Poland. He orders the "voluntary" departure of
all but "work-essential" Jews from Krakow. After several months, the Germans
took matters into their own hands and expelled 32,000 Jews to Warsaw, Lodz, other Polish
cities, and the nearby countryside.
Schindler makes initial contact with Stern.
December 3, 1939 - Schindler informs Stern of an impending SS
raid in the Jewish ghetto of Kazimierz, a suburb of Krakow. "Tomorrow, it's going to
start," he said. "Jozefa and Izaaka Streets are going to know all about
it!"
December 4, 1939 - SS Einsatzgruppen descend on Jewish ghetto at
Kazimierz, a suburb of Krakow. They terrorize Jews on Jozefa and Izaaka Streets, searching
for diamonds and gold and then set fire to the synagogue of Stara Boznica, the oldest in
Poland.
January 1940 - Schindler opens Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik factory
at 4 Lipowa Street in Krakow neighborhood of Zablocie.
April - June 1940 - Hitler attacks and conquers western Europe.
August 1, 1940 - Hans Frank issues deadline for all but
"work-essential" Jews to depart Krakow voluntarily. There is a mad scramble as
Jews search for "essential" jobs. Through the urging of Stern, Schindler accepts
150 Jews as employees at his factory.
October 1940 - Hans Frank, in a speech, says, "My dear
comrades, I would not eliminate all lice and Jews in one year (public amused, he notes in
his diary), but in the course of time, and if you help me, this end will be
attained."
November 1, 1940 - By this date, 23,000 Jews have been expelled
from Krakow.
November 10, 1940 -Nazis issue decree: "All Jews and
Jewesses over the age of nine through the General-Government must wear a four inch arm
band in white, marked with "the star of Zion" on the right sleeve of their inner
and outer clothing."
February 1941 - Two Krakow rabbis, Kornitzer and Rappaport, are
sent to Auschwitz and killed for having protested the expulsions from Krakow.
March 20, 1941 - Jewish ghetto established in Krakow in
neighborhood of Podgorze. As historian Lucy Dawidowicz has written, "The Krakow
ghetto was enclosed within walls in the form of Jewish tombstones, symbols of a
terrifyingly literal character."
The Jewish police in the ghetto, the OD (or Ordnungsdienst) is formed.
June 22, 1941 - Hitler attacks the Soviet Union.
End of 1941 - Schindler is arrested by Gestapo for black market
activities. He manages to be released by way of his high-ranking friends and bribery.
December 1941 - Hans Frank, in a speech, said, "As far as
the Jews are concerned, I want to tell you quite frankly that they must be done away with
in one way or another . . . Gentleman, I must ask you to rid yourself of all feelings of
pity. We must annihilate the Jews. Difficult to shoot or poison the three and half million
Jews in the General-Government, but we shall be able to take measure which will lead,
somehow, to their annihilation."
April 28, 1942 - Schindler's thirty-fourth birthday. He kisses a
Jewish girl at his birthday party.
April 29, 1942 - Schindler arrested a second time, having been
denounced as "a Jew kisser." He again wins his release.
June 1, 1942 - Beginning of first Krakow deportation to Belzec.
June 3, 1942 - Schindler goes to Krakow train station to rescue
his office manager, Abraham Bankier, and other workers from deportation to Belzec. In the
film, Itzhak Stern is given the role of the rescued.
June 4, 1942 - Seven thousand Jews are deported from Krakow
ghetto. In the afternoon, Schindler rents two horses and he and his mistress watch the
SS's liquidation of ghetto from a nearby hill. Schindler becomes fixated on a little
Jewish girl dressed in red who stands out from the crowd of Jews being herded to the
train.
October 28, 1942 - 2000 Jewish children and 6000 Jewish adults
are deported to Belzec death camp.
End of October 1942 - Six Jews killed in forests near Krakow,
having been betrayed by local peasants.
Autumn 1942 - Schindler travels to Budapest, Hungary, to inform
Jewish leaders there of the extermination campaign going on in Poland. In general,
Hungarian leaders do not believe him. It is, says one, "an insult to German
dignity."
Forced labor camps established at Plaszow, a suburb of Krakow. Amon
Goeth is commandant.
December 22, 1942 - The Jewish Fighting Organization blows up
several cafes in the heart of Krakow that were frequented by German officers. They were
led by Jewish commander Adolf Liebeskind. "We are fighting for three lines in a
history book," he said.
By February 1943, all members of Jewish Fighting Organization in
Krakow are arrested or killed.
March 13, 1943 - Final liquidation of Krakow ghetto begins.
March 14, 1943 - Several hundred small children shot in entrance
of house, and several hundred old people and sick are killed in street. Two thousand Jews
sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Children and old people are slaughtered at Jewish hospital. Dr. Zygmunt
Fischer is ordered to abandon his patients, but he refuses and is shot with his wife and
child. The patients are killed in the wards.
Schindler establishes a Jewish sub-camp (a Julag) at his Emalia factory.
Spring 1944 - At Chujowa Gorka forest, Nazis unearth and burn
bodies of Jews executed earlier.
Jews await deportation to death camp, but Schindler goes to train
station and arranges through Goeth for a fire brigade to spray the cattle cars with water.
July 20, 1944 - German officers attempt to assassinate Hitler.
The effort fails.
Emalia factory ordered dismantled, the prisoners sent to Plaszow. Schindler plays a game
of cards with Goeth for Helen Hirsch.
Autumn 1944 - Schindler prepares a "list" of Jews that
he argues are "essential" workers and are needed at his new factory in
Czechoslovakia.
Schindler establishes factory at Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia.
September 13, 1944 -Amon Goeth is arrested by the SS and charged
with black market activities.
300 Schindlerjuden are sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau instead of to
Brunnlitz.
November 1944 - Schindler women are transferred from
Auschwitz-Birkenau to Brunnlitz. Schindler greets them, "You're safe now; you're with
me."
April 28, 1945 - Schindler's thirty-seventh birthday. He gives a
speech.
May 8, 1945 - Schindlerjuden give Schindler gold ring. The gold
is extracted from the bridge in a prisoner's mouth and engraved with the inscription:
"He who saves a single life saves the entire world."
Schindler and his wife, Emilie, both dressed in prison uniforms, flee
the Russians in a Mercedes. They are accompanied by eight Schindlerjuden who are there to
protect them. A letter, written by the Jews, testifies to Schindler and Emilie's actions.
May 11, 1945 - Brunnlitz camp is liberated by lone Russian
officer on a horse.
September 13, 1946 - After a trial, Amon Goeth is hanged in
Krakow by Polish authorities. He dies unrepentant.
1949 - Schindler departs Germany for Argentina to try his hand at
a nutria factory.
1957 - Schindler's nutria farm goes bankrupt.
B'nai B'rith purchases the Schindlers a house in San Vicente, a southern
suburb of Buenos Aires.
1958 - Schindler returns to West Germany, leaving his wife and
mistress behind. With funding from Joint Distribution Committee and "loans" from
number of Schindler Jews, Schindler establishes a cement company.
1961 - Schindler's cement factory goes bankrupt. Schindlerjuden
invite Schindler to Israel. Eichmann trial is underway.
April 28, 1962 - Schindler is awarded honor Righteous Gentile.
October 9, 1974 - Schindler dies in Frankfurt, West Germany. He
is buried at the Latin cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
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