The fates Mohelnice

Emile Schindlerová

She was born on October 22, in the village of Maletin not far from the town of Mohelnice. On March 6, 1928 she married Oscar Schindler from the nearby town of Svitavy. This is a beginning of the story, which became famous thanks to the director Steven Spielberg and his movie Schindler´s List.

In the fall 1944 the Schindler´s factory in Krakow was closed down and Jewish workers were to be deported to feared Auschwitz. However Emile renewed her contacts with the head of the District Office, who was her former acquaintance and received the permission for the transfer of Jewish prisoners to Brnenec u Svitav (formerly Brunnlitz bei Zwittau; now Czech Republic). She was taking care of workers and also getting food for them, often in her native village of Maletin. Some historians have different views on the role of Oscar Schindler, but almost all of them agree that Emilie played a very important part in a saving Jews and that her contribution was not made well known.

Again in January 1945 she saved with her husband almost 100 Jewish workers from the quarry in Golleschau. However, in May 1945 they both had to escape from Sudetenland to Germany and from there later to Argentina, where they settled on a farm in San Vicente by Buenos Aires.

In 1957 Oscar Schindler traveled from Argentina to Frankfurt, Germany and never came back. Emilie was left in a difficult financial situation caused by her husband´s debts. She was forced to sell the farm and later acquired thanks to assistance of a Jewish Community a small house, where she lived for many years.

Emile Schindler received the high recognition only when she was old. In 1993 she was recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations in Yad Vashem, Israel. In the next year the president of Germany awarded her the Order of Merit of German Republic. She also became the honorary citizen of Argentina and Frankfurt. In 2001 she received the Prize of Sudetenland Germans for Human Rights in memoriam. She was very pleased and honored when the Pope John Paul II gave her the audience in 1995. Emilie Schindler visited her native land - Czech Republic in 1999. Two years after that she died in a nursing home near Berlin.