If I were to mention Schindler’s List, most people would at least recognize the terminology from a 1993 Steven Spielberg movie by that name. They might know that it has something to do with Jewish people. But most would know nothing of Oskar Schindler. I tell you his story today because he died on this day in 1974.
Schindler wore many hats throughout his years. He was a tradesman, a member of the Nazi Party, a member of the Nazi counterintelligence organization known as Abwehr and arrested for espionage. He was also an industrialist, humanitarian, and credited with saving the lives of at least 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust.
Unravelling his life is confusing to historians to this day.
Much of his life seems to be intertwined with doing whatever would make him the most money. That is ironic considering the fact that he died penniless, being cared for by the very people he rescued. It does seem, though, that he parted ways with Nazi Germany concerning the treatment of the Jews.
Together, with his wife, Emilie, the Schindlers purposefully employed Jews scheduled for Nazi concentration camps or the gas chambers, declaring that his business was needed for the war effort, and he could “imprison” the workers productively in the factory. However, this wasn’t much of a prison by Schindler’s design.
Many prisoners were brought to him with frostbite and other ailments. He and his wife nursed them to health and provided food, shelter, clothing, and comfort for all who worked for him.
“In October 1944, after the SS transferred the Emalia Jews to Plaszow, Schindler sought and obtained authorization to relocate his plant to Brünnlitz (Brněnec) in Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (near his hometown) and reopen it exclusively as an armaments factory. One of his assistants drew several versions of a list of up to 1,200 Jewish prisoners needed to work in the new factory. These lists came to be known collectively as
“Schindler’s List.” Schindler met the specifications required by the SS to classify Brünnlitz as a subcamp of Gross-Rosen concentration camp and thereby facilitated the survival of around 800 Jewish men whom the SS deported from Plaszow via Gross-Rosen to Brünnlitz and between 300 and 400 Jewish women from Plaszow via Auschwitz…
“In 1993, Yad Vashem awarded Oskar and Emilie Schindler the title “Righteous Among the Nations” in recognition of their efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust at great personal risk. ”1 Yad Vashem is Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust and it was under the direction of Dr. Yitzhak Arad.2
“In 1963 Yad Vashem embarked upon a worldwide project to pay tribute to the Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. This represents a unique and unprecedented attempt by the victims to honor individuals from within the nations of perpetrators, collaborators and bystanders, who stood by the victims’ side and acted in stark contrast to the mainstream of indifference and hostility that prevailed in the darkest time of history.” Elie Wiesel said, “And so we must know these good people who helped Jews during the Holocaust.We must learn from them, and in gratitude and hope, we must remember them.”3
As of August 10, 2023, the award has been given to 28,217 people.4
We have to bless all who would support the Jewish people because of Genesis 12:3. “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Israel is God’s chosen nation and the Jews are still His chosen people.
But supporting or rescuing Jewish people doesn’t make a person righteous.
Romans 4:3 asks, “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Justification always comes by grace through faith.
Several of the Jewish saints are named in Hebrews 11. Throughout the passage are the words “by faith.” Everything they did and believed was “by faith.” But, faith in what? Hebrews 11:13 tells us. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
They saw “afar off” the promises as if they were already fulfilled. They saw the coming Messiah and the redemption He would bring. They saw eternity in Heaven and the joys that would far surpass the greatest joys of earth and would make all the hardships and 
heartaches pale.
I could not find anything that told what Oskar Schindler believed concerning God and Jesus. What I can say for certain is that he was not righteous because of what he did for the Jews. He was righteous only if he believed God, the Gospel, and the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:21. “For he hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
John 14:6 reminds us, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
1https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/oskar-schindler
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Arad
3https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous
4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_Among_the_Nations
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