In 1933 nine million Jews lived in the countries of Europe that would be occupied by Nazi Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been murdered during the Nazi genocide.
The Holocaust survivor, Nobel Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, has dedicated his life to ensuring that none of us forget what happened to the Jews. He wrote:
“In those times there was darkness everywhere. In heaven and on earth, all the gates of compassion seemed to have been closed. The killer killed and the Jews died and the outside world adopted an attitude either of complicity or of indifference. Only a few had the courage to care.”
The Holocaust is a history of enduring horror and sorrow. It seems as though there is no spark of human concern, no act of humanity, to lighten that dark history. Yet there were acts of courage and decency during the Holocaust – stories to bear witness to goodness, love and compassion.
Emilie Schindler was an inspiring evidence of human nobility. She was not only a strong woman working alongside her husband Oscar Schindler but a heroine in her own right. This remarkable woman worked indefatigably to save the Schindler-Jews.
In 2001 during a visit to Germany, a frail Emilie Schindler handed over documents related to her husband to a museum. Confined to a wheelchair and totally dependent upon others, she told reporters that it was her ‘greatest and last wish’ to spend her final years in Germany, adding that she had become increasingly homesick. ‘I am very happy that I can be here,’ she told with a dazzling smile.
Emilie Schindler died Friday night October 5, 2001, in a Berlin hospital.
This is her story.
– Louis Bülow
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