How Schindler spent his life after World War II

After the war, Schindler was in danger of being arrested and executed as a war criminal because of his membership in the Nazi Party and Abwehr. Bangier, Stern and others prepared a statement that Schindler could present to the Americans to prove that he had saved a number of Jewish lives. To escape capture by the Soviets, Schindler and Emily fled westward in their two-seat Horch sedan. Arriving in ?eské Budejovice, the Horch car was confiscated by Soviet Red Army soldiers who had occupied the place. Schindler also failed to retrieve a single diamond that he initially hid under his seat. They continued by train and on foot until they reached American-occupied territory and then to Passau, where an American Jewish officer arranged for them to take a train to Switzerland. In the autumn of 1945, the Schindlers moved to Bavaria. By the end of the war, all of Schindler's savings had been spent in bribes and buying supplies for his workers on the black market. Almost penniless, Schindler briefly moved to Regensburg and then to Munich, but he never prospered in postwar Germany. In fact, he already needed assistance from Jewish organizations to survive.

In 1948, he submitted a request to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for reimbursement of his wartime expenses and received $15,000. He once estimated that his wartime expenses exceeded $1.056 million, including camp construction, bribes, and black market goods including food.

In 1949, he immigrated to Argentina, where he tried to raise chickens and nutria, whose fur had a certain economic value. But by 1958 it was bankrupt. He then left his wife and returned to Germany, where he tried to run several industries, including a cement factory, without success.

In 1963, he declared bankruptcy again, and the following year he suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized for a month. Schindler maintained contact with many of the Jews he had met during the war, and funding from "Schindler Jews" from around the world allowed him to continue living.

Oscar Schindler passed away on October 9, 1974, at the age of 67. His body is buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the only former member of the Nazi Party to be buried here.

In 1963, Israel awarded Schindler the title of Righteous Among the Nations in recognition of his contribution to saving the Jews from the Holocaust during World War II. In addition, in 1966, the German government also awarded him the Federal Cross medal.

Reference for detailed information:

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