Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List [Hardcover]

David M. Crowe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 26, 2004

Spy, businessman, bon vivant, Nazi Party member, Righteous Gentile. This was Oskar Schindler, the controversial man who saved eleven hundred Jews during the Holocaust but struggled afterwards to rebuild his life and gain international recognition for his wartime deeds. David Crowe examines every phase of Schindler's life in this landmark biography, presenting a savior of mythic proportions who was also an opportunist and spy who helped Nazi Germany conquer Poland. Schindler is best known for saving over a thousand Jews by putting them on the famed "Schindler's List" and then transferring them to his factory in today's Czech Republic. In reality, Schindler played only a minor role in the creation of the list through no fault of his own. Plagued by local efforts to stop the movement of Jewish workers from his factory in Kraków to his new one in Brünnlitz, and his arrest by the SS who were investigating corruption charges against the infamous Amon Göth, Schindler had little say or control over his famous "List." The tale of how the "List" was really prepared is one of the most intriguing parts of the Schindler story that Crowe tells here for the first time. Forced into exile after the war, success continually eluded Schindler and he died in very poor health in 1974. He remained a controversial figure, even in death, particularly after Emilie Schindler, his wife of forty-six years, began to criticize her husband after the appearance of Steven Spielberg's film in 1993. In Oskar Schindler, Crowe steps beyondthe mythology that has grown up around the story of Oskar Schindler and looks at the life and work of this man whom one prominent Schindler Jew described as "an extraordinary man in extraordinary times."

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Schindler is known best for the portrayal of him in Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List, which was, of course, based on Thomas Keneally's novel of the same name. Schindler was a German who risked his life and his fortune to save 1,100 Jews and provide hundreds of other Jews who worked for him with a quality of life that enabled many of them to survive the Holocaust. In researching this definitive biography over a seven-year period, Crowe interviewed and corresponded with many of Schindler's Jews; discovered a vast collection of his private papers and letters; found the Czech secret police and Gestapo files on Schindler documenting his involvement as an operative in Nazi Germany's military counterespionage organization, Abwehr, before and during World War II; and studied the war crimes file on Amon Goeth, the commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp. Crowe posits that Schindler had nothing to do with the creation of his famous transport lists (one for 700 men and one for 300 women) and then devotes a long chapter on its true origin. Crowe sees that Schindler's transformation from a greedy factory owner into one of the most remarkable righteous gentiles in the Holocaust took place slowly. "I think that he was, at heart, a fairly decent human being despite his womanizing and heavy drinking," Crowe concludes, and that over time, the growing violence and death that enveloped Krakow's Jews disgusted him and prompted him to do whatever he could to protect his Jewish workers from the SS. With 32 black-and-white photographs, this biography is essential in understanding one of the most extraordinary figures from the Holocaust. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A monumental work of scholarship, detailed, informed, precise and measured, the definitive work on this extraordinary man." -- Michael Berenbaum, The University of Judaism Los Angeles, California; Former Director of the Research Institute, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Former President, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation; Author, A Promise to Remember

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 766 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; 1st edition (October 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081333375X
• ISBN-13: 978-0813333755
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Schindler's List, November 24, 2004

By 

C. Hutton "book maven" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List (Hardcover)

The historical Oskar Schindler is much more complex than the charming rogue portrayed in the "Schindler's List" of film and novel. In this definative new biography, Mr. Crowe has done impressive research in uncovering new archives and interviews to depict the Nazi spy/businessman who became a "righteous gentile" in saving Jews from certain death during World War II. Mr. Crowe is a Holocaust historian who has documented other Nazi atrocities in his 1996 work, "A History of the Gypies in Eastern Europe and Russia."

The reader will be surprised to learn that Oskar Schindler had nothing to do with the creation of the life-giving lists that gave the title to the film by Steven Spielberg and the book by Thomas Keneally. Schnidler was in prison briefly when the lists were created by other persons. This does not diminished the other heroic acts that Schindler and his wife performed to save the Jews they came in contact with during the final two years of the World War II. He spent his war-profiteering fortune on bribes and supplies for those Jews in his care.

It is sad that in the the madness of the Holocaust Oskar Schindler found the only success of his life. After the war, it was all downhill for the alcoholic womanizer who died in poverty in 1974. The book is very well-written and will interest those readers who desire to know what was the reality behind Schindler's List.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Moving True Story, December 5, 2004

By 

Nic "past reviews of some pastimes" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List (Hardcover)

Amazing, fascinating, horrifying and sad is the story of Oscar Schindler, Emilie and others, as written in David M Crowe's well researched and easily readable biography. Oscar evolved into a deeply good good man, with great skill, courage and sharp wit, who flaws were also in many ways his strong points it seems to me in achieving what he did, and was an immensely admirable person. And it is sad that brilliant nice people don't 'appear' to get what they deserve, as loss of health and tragic failures after the war seemed in many ways just as challenging in Oscar's life story.
There are a lot of horrible events and people described in this book, but also acts of humanity, kindness and braveness by many in the Oscar Schindler story, those three traits in particular summing up Oscar. There are more than a few instances of the Nazi hypocracies and madness, being used against them as they are outwitted in this story. An amazing and moving story.
It's true that there's a lot of detail in this book and it can be hard going to keep up with it all, but i found the subject matter of Schindler enough to more than motivate me to keep turning the pages. One of the best sections of the book was Oscar's meeting in budapest i think it was, with aid organisation representatives for jews in occupied europe. Here you get a chance to discover what Oscar's thoughts were in relation to the war, holocaust and where he was at in action amongst it all. There is a lot of other detail in the book, not so involving, but the holocaust was a huge bureaucratic operation and apart from that, there weren't too many people with the liberty to document or concentrate on individual coming and goings, in the new cut throat order of the glorious third reich. So a lot of the superfluous information not directly relating to Oscars' daily life, is both understandably from a research point of view and also is relevant because this is precisely the world that Oscar was operating in.
I think the author has done a great job on bringing us a biography on a man whos life and good deeds, never really got the reward they deserved(which is why life is as it is!) and because Oscar remained relatively obscure, much of his life details just wern't important enough for anyone to record for prosperities sake. Mr Crowe is more critical of Oscar than i feel he should be, for example, he disaproves when Oscar tell's the afore mentioned agents in Budapest that they must admit, in the intellectual realm the jew is really a dangerous competitor for the nazis. Is that such a bad and unaccurate thing to say, in light of the situation?
I feel Schindler's own intelligence and strength of character is not given enough credit in the book; due to the fact that he was out to exploit the situation for personal monetary gain intially(i.e. he was a opportunistic business man cashing in on the war and occupation), and because he lost his health and failed after the war finished, it is easy to put his success down to war time craziness and the skill of the men running his factories. He was not a moral man in the conventional sense, he liked women, drinking and living in the moment but i think it was his free-spiritedness, that when given the power, compelled him to use it in a humanitarian way rather than worry about his own security, which is the accepted way to do things. Ultimately Oscar Schindler lived from his heart, he understood this, u get this from the book, and why the book is a great effort in bringing us his life story, to me the author's judgement on Oscar is not as good as it should be, due in part i suppose to the clinical unromantic objectivity that is expected of a researcher.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great research BUT..., May 9, 2005

By 

SusieQ (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List (Hardcover)

What horrible writing. Never (well almost never) have I read a biography with such a facinating subject, with such in-depth research, more boringly presented.

The writing is terrible. The subject, a man of many layers living in arguably the most morally testing time of the 20th century, just lays there on the page, fact after fact, and never comes alive. Getting through this book was some chore, and that's from someone who really WANTED to read this book. I have to agree with the professional reviewer who used the word, "maddening" to describe the writing here. Really, the author's editor should be taken off the job, but the author is certainly no great shakes as a writer and deserves his lumps also. Not recommended, except to those who really want to plow through a pile of chaff to get to the wheat.