Oskar Schindler

Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List. Spy, businessman, bon vivant, Nazi Party member, Righteous Gentile. This was Oskar Schindler, the controversial savior of almost 12,000 Jews during the Holocaust who struggled afterwards to rebuild his life and gain international recognition for his wartime deeds. Author David Crowe examines every phase of the subject’s life in this landmark biography, presenting a figure of mythic proportions that one prominent Schindler Jew described as “an extraordinary man in extraordinary times.”









ISBN-13: 9780465002535
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 5/7/2007
Author : David Crowe

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

What is the truth behind the enigma known as Oskar Schindler? In this detailed, scholarly work, Crowe (history, Elon Univ.; Education Committee, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) corrects inaccuracies in the popular versions of Schindler's story (e.g., Thomas Keneally's Schindler's List and Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film adaptation) and brings to life a more believable figure. Crowe reveals new evidence about Schindler's life and activities, using primary research from around the world and interviews with Schindler's widow and many of the remaining Schindlerjuden. Despite Schindler's vices (which included women, drinking, bribery, and espionage), Crowe concludes that Schindler's heroics, motivated by moral obligation, saved between 1100 and 1200 Jews. He also divulges that Schindler himself did not compile the list, although he did verbally and physically intercede in saving his workers and many of their relations. This hefty biography covers both the prewar and the postwar periods through Schindler's death and the death of his wife. Any library that owns Keneally's book or Spielberg's film should have this definitive account. Highly recommended.-Maria C. Bagshaw, Lake Erie Coll., Painesville, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Meet the Author

David M. Crowe is President Emeritus of the Association for the Study of Nationalities at Columbia University and a member of the Education Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He is currently a Fellow at the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North at Carolina at Chapel Hill. His award-winning books include A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia and The Baltic States and the Great Powers: Foreign Relations, 1938-1940. He teaches at Elon University.