Oskar Schindler - Schindler factory

In the factory museum there is a whole room devoted to Schindler, the leader of the factory. There are things to read and interviews to listen to given by former workers. (Also there is a film about the factory at the beginning of the museum exhibits.) 

Schindler lived in Moravia (associated with today's Czecoslovakia). He was a businessman. He collaborated with the German military. He was accused by his homeland of spying on Czechoslovakia and Poland and in 1938 was arrested and sentenced to death. He was released when the Germans took over part of that area where he was (called the "Sudetenland"). He was indeed spying on Poland for the Germans. He took part in something called the "Gleiwetz incident", which was a pre-text for the Germans declaring WWII. I will have to look that up. 

Schindler came to Cracow in Sept. 1939. He was still spying for the Germans. He was arrested many times by the Nazis for illegal business deals. He was a shady character. Yet he was kind to the Jews and managed to keep the Germans at bay with bribes.

In Nov. 1939 Schindler was appointed administrator of the factory. He leased the factory, called at that time "Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik". Enamelware (pots and pans) and mess tins were made for the Germans. In 1941 the factory also produced munitions, ie. cases and fuses for shells. 

At the factory lunch was provided. Workers eventually lived in barracks on the factory property. Before that the workers had to walk a ways to get to work. Other facilities at the factory were a clinic, kitchen,stables and Schindler's office and apartment. 

As time went on more and more Jews were employed at the factory. They worked alongside Poles. The Jews received no wages. However Schindler provided food and living quarters for them. It was a good place to work. Schindler paid the Nazis 4 zloty daily for each woman worker and 5 zloty for each man. I am not sure if this was for the Jews or for all the workers regardless of their nationality. 

Schindler helped Dr. Rudolf Sedlack with activities concerning Jewish relief and rescue that were happening in Budapest. Money was raised for this cause.

In May 1943 after the ghetto liquidation Jews working at the factory were barracked at a "sub camp" near the back of the factory. It was a branch of the Plaszow camp. Barbed wire fences surrounded the area. There were watch towers. The camp was guarded by Ukrainians, Germans and Jewish OD. Later the Nazis guarded the place. Guards Albrecht Hujar and Edmund Zdrojewski were particularly brutal. In August 1944 this subcamp was liquidated. The unfit Jews there went to the work camp at Plaszow. Those fit to work were sent to camps at Mauthausen and Stutthof.  In October 1944 munitions production was ended at the factory. The remaining factory staff was sent to Brunnlitz (now Brnenec in the Czech Republic). Schindler had founded a factory there.