"The persecution of Jews in the General Government in Polish territory gradually worsened in its cruelty. In 1939 and 1940 they were forced to wear the Star of David and were herded together and confined in ghettos. In 1941 and 1942 this unadulterated sadism was fully revealed. And then a thinking man, who had overcome his inner cowardice, simply had to help. There was no other choice." Oskar Schindler, 1964 interview.
Oskar Schindler was an unlikely hero. An ethnic German living in Moravia, Czechoslovakia, he joined the Nazi party in 1939. In the wake of the German invasion of Poland, Schindler went to Krakow. He assumed responsibility for the operation of two formerly Jewish-owned manufacturers of enamel kitchenware and then established his own enamel works in Zablocie, outside Krakow. Through army contracts and the exploitation of cheap labor from the Krakow ghetto, he amassed a fortune. Dealing on the black market, he lived in high style.In 1942 and early 1943, the Germans decimated the ghetto’s population of some 20,000 Jews through shootings and deportations. Several thousand Jews who survived the ghetto’s liquidation were taken to Plaszow, a forced labor camp run by the sadistic SS commandant Amon Leopold Goeth. Moved by the cruelties he witnessed, Schindler contrived to transfer his Jewish workers to barracks at his factory.
In late summer 1944, through negotiations and bribes from his war profits, Schindler secured permission from German army and SS officers to move his workers and other endangered Jews to Bruennlitz, near his hometown of Zwittau. Each of these Jews was placed on "Schindler’s List." Schindler and his workforce set up a bogus munitions factory, which sustained them in relative safety until the war ended.
Oskar Schindler’s transformation from Nazi war profiteer to protector of Jews is the subject of several documentaries, the best-selling novel Schindler’s List (1982) by Thomas Keneally, and an Academy award-winning film directed by Steven Spielberg.
"There are stories to be told that must not be forgotten." - Paul Rusesabagina
Paul Rusesabagina was not born, raised, nor educated to be a hero or a humanitarian. In fact, he still believes that he was just doing his job, as hotel manager; yet, Paul’s bravery, compassion, and quick thinking during the 100-day stand exemplify heroism. Rusesabagina worked as the assistant manager of the Hotel des Milles Collines, before being promoted to manager of the Diplomate Hotel. At the time of the 100-day genocide, Paul was managing both hotels, as the Belgian owners of the Collines had appointed him temporary manager so that they could flee for safety.
One early April day in 1994, Hutu militants rounded up Paul, his family, and other Tutsis (whom the Hutu guards called “cockroaches”), and put them on a bus. One guard handed Paul a gun and told him to shoot all the cockroaches on the bus. The idea of killing people, even if it would be to save his own life, was unacceptable to Paul, and so his mind raced to find a way to save the people on the bus. He offered the guards money if they would take him and the others to the Diplomate Hotel. They accepted the offer and drove the bus to the hotel. Paul took money from the hotel safe to give to the guards. They left, and Paul took over driving the van, reaching the relative safety of the Hotel des Milles Collines. That day was only the start of a daily routine of appeasing and bribing the guards in order to stave off killings in his hotel.
Despite every death threat, the loss of water and electricity, and the constant watch of Hutu guards, Paul remained determined to care for and protect the 1200-plus people under his watch. When the water supply was cut off, Paul resorted to the pool to quench the thirst of the people. When the guards cut the phone lines, Paul found one line that they missed. From that phone, he made desperate calls to international agencies to help end the stay, but to little avail. He needed to rely on his own intelligence, craftiness, and charm to appease the militia and help the refugees survive, even though he knew that his scheming could bring about his own death. Paul’s plan worked. Out of the 1200 refugees who spent the 100 days in the hotel no one was killed or beaten.
For more information about Oskar Schindler, click the links below:
Interviews with Schindlerjuden
A 50-Year-Old Article about Oskar Schindler, which was not published when it was written because newspaper were tired of "good German" stories
For more information about Paul Rusesabinga, click the links below:
Photos
Oskar Schindler (third from left) at a party with local SS officials on his 34th birthday. Schindler attempted to use his connections with German officials to obtain information that might protect his Jewish employees. Krakow, Poland, April 28, 1942.
— Leopold Page Photographic Collection
Paul Rusesabagina with Don Cheadle, who portrayed him in Hotel Rwanda
Lech Walesa was born in Popowo, Poland. His father died shortly after World War II; he and his brothers and sisters were raised by their mother, aunt and uncle. The Soviet Union occupied Poland after the war, and the Soviet-imposed communist government controlled almost every aspect of life in Poland, except for the Catholic Church.
Walesa trained as an electrician and mechanic, and as a young man went to work at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk. Walesa was an outspoken critic of the shipyard management and of the communist regime. He was involved in the shipyard strike of 1970, and throughout the next decade played a role in organizing the shipyard protests. In 1976 he was fired for his political activities. Although he was only sporadically employed for the next four years, he persisted in his organizing.
In 1980 the shipyard workers were ready to strike again, and Walesa emerged as a leading spokesman of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc. A series of strikes spread throughout the country, forcing the government's recognition of Solidarity, but this victory was short-lived. When Solidarity called for free elections, the government outlawed the union. Fearing Russian military intervention, Poland's puppet government declared martial law in December 1981. Walesa was arrested and held for months without trial. When he was finally released in September 1982, he remained under government surveillance.
The outside world recognized Walesa's courage, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1983. The encouragement of the Polish-born Pope John Paul II kept Solidarity's hope alive underground, and the ascension of reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union presented another opportunity for the Polish dissidents to press their case.
By 1989 Gorbachev had made it clear that he would not intervene to prop up communist governments in Eastern Europe. Nationwide protests at last forced the communist regime to hold free elections and Solidarity quickly formed a new coalition government. In 1990 Lech Walesa was elected to a five-year term as President of Poland. Although he was defeated in his bid for re-election, he has remained an outspoken figure in the life of the country he helped free from dictatorship. His autobiography, The Struggle and the Triumph, first appeared in English in 1992.
From http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/printmember/wal1bio-1
"Through the streets of Accra, capital of the Gold Coast, democracy ran joyously wild. The women in the parade were slim and graceful, furled like striped umbrellas into acres of colorful cotton cloth. The men wore shirts open at the neck and hanging outside their shorts. Everyone in the procession was black and proud of it.
Suddenly, the noisy crowd parted. Through a forest of waving palm branches, an open car bore a husky black man with fine sculptured lips, melancholy eyes, and a halo of frizzy black hair. The Right Honorable Kwame Nkrumah, prime minister of the Gold Coast, waved a white handkerchief to his people as they sought to touch the hem of his tunic.
Nkrumah’s 4.5 million countrymen speak a range of languages and are scattered across a rectangular patch of jungle, swamp, and bushland. Seven out of ten are illiterate, more than half believe in witchcraft, yet the happy-go=-luck Gold Coasters have been chosen by imperial Britain to pioneer its boldest experiment in African home rule. In 1951 the British gave the Gold Coast its first democratic constitution; lat year they designated Kwame Nkrumah as prime minister.
Nkrumah was born in the mud-hut village of Nkroful, where his father hammered out gold ornaments for local woodcutters. Nkrumah studied at a Catholic mission school and a Gold Coast college. Then a generous uncle paid his way to the United States. He spent eight years at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he earned three degrees. From there he went to England to take a law degree at London University.
While he was in London, the cause of African nationalism was heating up at home. Nkrumah was picked to head the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), which was demanding home rule. Soon the British were presented with a new constitution that called for popular elections. The UGCC’s slogan had been “self-government in our time.” Nkrumah wanted more. He demanded “self-government NOW.” He formed the Convention People’s Part (CPP).
Last March, the British government approved Kwame Nkrumah as full prime minister. Now he feels the full responsibility of leading his people to complete self-government. Of the Gold Coasters, he says, “They must not make me go too fast – and I must not go too slow. If I tried to stop their urge to be free, they would turn on me. My job is to keep things level and steady.”
It is in the jubilant Gold Coast, and in its hero Nkrumah, that some of Africa’s awakening millions see the early light of freedom dawning over the continent."
Abridged version of article printed Feb. 9, 1953 in TIME Magazine
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