Where Light and Shadow Meet: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Emilie Schindler (Author), Erika L. Rosenberg (Author), Dolores M. Koch (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

The memoir of the woman left in the shadows by Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List". In this book Emilie Schindler tells her side of the World War II story.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist and counterintelligence operative made famous by Steven Spielberg's movie Schindler's List, did not think of himself as a hero, nor even as a particularly nice man. Nor should he have, suggests this memoir by his widow. Although he tried to temper the savage natures of men such as concentration camp commander Amon Goeth, and although he and Emilie managed to save the lives of several thousand Jewish inmates, his eye seems always to have been on the personal gain to be had in a given situation. The Schindlers emigrated to Argentina after the war and took up farming; Oskar later abandoned Emilie and returned to Europe. Where Light and Shadow Meet is a decidedly minor but nonetheless interesting addition to the literature of the Holocaust.

From Library Journal

In this autobiography, the wife of Oskar Schindler, whose story is known through Schindler's List, chronicles her own wartime heroism. She begins with her childhood in Bohemia, then traces her life from her marriage to her work against the Nazis to her present life in Argentina. During World War II, Emilie first began her resistance to Nazism by joining Oskar in counterintelligence. Later, she obtained food for Jews on the black market and cared for sick Jewish factory workers. She is candid in her accounts, including the infidelities of her husband. Written in a straightforward, accessible manner, her work is unique in revealing the woman behind one man's bravery. Recommended for Holocaust collections.
-?Mary F. Salony, West Virginia Northern Community Coll. Lib., Wheeling
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 162 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393041239
• ISBN-13: 978-0393041231
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,255,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not just a good read but an important one, June 29, 2003

By 

Robbie Lewis (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where Light and Shadow Meet: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Through print and screen we have learnt how Oskar Schindler, that Sudenten charmer, saved the lives of his Jewish workers in occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia during World War II. What was less recognised is the role in Oskar's activities of his wife, Emilie. She appears of course in Kenneally and Spielberg, but she is a small bit actor, confined to the margins. Now, finally, we hear from Emilie.

In a series of reminiscences, she tells us of her Catholic upbringing in Bohemia and her first meeting with Oskar. Entranced by his "mysterious, undefinable nature", marriage followed soon after. The coupling was not always a happy one though and Emilie says she was aware of her husband's extra-marital wanderings from the early days. Still, she stayed with him. Like other women, she couldn't pull herself away from what she described as Oscar's natural seductiveness.

Emilie's views on Oscar are insightful but the real story is her part in Oskar's acts of deliverance. Most noteworthy was her leadership and devotion to the surviving Jews of Goleschau, who arrived unannounced, emaciated, near death in frozen cattle cars in the middle of the night. In what was already a hellish situation, her quick thinking saved many at a time when Oskar was away on some business trip.

Some will be disappointed by this book's brevity and the narrative is a little disjointed in parts. But we now know more about Oskar's long-suffering wife and her part in the drama. It's well known that in 1967 Yad Vashem recognised Oskar as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. It is less publicised that in 1993 it correctly extended this recognition to Emilie. In the concluding lines to her story she invites us to toast her, as well as her husband. It's now time we did.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emilie and Oskar Schindler: A Different Perspective, January 12, 2007

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Where Light and Shadow Meet: A Memoir (Hardcover)

The account of the Schindlers is very well known. For this reason, my review intentionally focuses on some little-known information relative to this interesting memoir provided by Oskar Schindler's widow.

Emilie Schindler recounts the challenges her husband faced in keeping his Jewish workers. Yet, all over the Reich, Jews were being spared from death and diverted into forced labor. A few hundred thousand known Jews survived the Nazi period in this manner. This fact contradicts Holocaust-uniqueness proponents, who had argued that ALL Jews were targeted for extermination, and, moreover, that practical matters were invariably shunted aside in the effort to locate and kill every possible Jew. The Schindlers' experience exemplifies the fact that the Germans were willing to spare some Jews provided that they would be useful to the Reich. And, with few exceptions, these Jewish forced laborers were not killed in the final hours of the war. Finally, the Schindlers' experience shows that the Germans WERE willing to let practical matters (namely the need for forced laborers) to get in the way of killing as many Jews as possible.

Emilie Schindler believes that Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, did not commit suicide. She believes that he was kidnapped from his home and forced to swallow poison (p. 95).

It is interesting to note that Oskar Schindler spoke Polish quite well (p. 49). Moreover, he had been involved in anti-Polish intelligence before the war. It also turns out that he was involved in the action of procuring Polish army uniforms for German intelligence (p. 32). These were later used in the German propaganda stunt in which "Polish" soldiers attacked the Germans, giving the latter a pretext for launching their war of aggression against Poland.

Emilie Schindler (p. 43) informs the reader that Polish forces were able to resist the German invaders for only 8 days. This is manifestly incorrect. Regular Polish forces fought both the invading Germans and Russians for 35 days. Then Polish guerilla warfare began and never stopped during the entire German occupation of Poland.

Very few non-Poles realize the fact that, as a final act of cultural genocide, the Germans planned to blow up the cultural cities of Krakow (Cracow) and Czestochowa (Tschenstochau). Emilie Schindler mentions the former (p. 50). Only the speedy arrival of the Red Army (and, not mentioned, Polish guerilla resistance) prevented this from happening. (I myself visited Krakow and saw the holes that the Germans had cut into the foundations of the historical buildings. These holes were to be filled with explosive charges. After the war, the holes were left unfilled as a testimony to German barbarism).

The Schindlers apparently had some sympathy for Poles. Emilie Schindler recounts an experience (pp. 58-59) during which she expressed anger and defiance to an SS man, whose dog had just bitten a Polish woman. In the plant at Brunnlitz, Oskar Schindler had not only Jewish forced laborers, but also Czech and Polish forced laborers. Owing to the shortage of food rations, Oskar Schindler always saw to it that the Jewish forced laborers were given more food, as they were forced to do heavier work (p. 85).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ever since..., September 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Where Light and Shadow Meet: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Ever since I saw Schindlers List I wanted to know more. This story draws you in and makes the reader think he/she is experiancing what the people in the story are. Truly a wonderful book.