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Hero as schinder (Click to select text)
Truly Hero If a hero is someone who risks their life for others, then Oskar Schindler is a truly a hero. He was a man of great integrity, virtue and valor during World War II and throughout his life. I've tried to express what kind of a life and person Oskar Schindler was, and I ask you to evaluate yourself and decide if you could take the kind of risks Oskar Schindler did. As you learn about a man full of flaws just like the rest of us, I know that you too will appreciate the fact that an ordinary man can do extraordinary things. What is a hero? A hero is one who has good manners, respectful, generous, trustworthy, faithful, dependable, and responsible. A hero can be any number of things. A hero can be someone who loves and cares for you, someone you look up to, or maybe someone ordinary who does the extraordinary. Many people think of their favorite athlete or rockstar. Some may think of a famous speaker or activist. Whatever the case may be, most everyone has a hero. A person who I think heroic would be Oskar Schindler. He is a hero to thousands of Jews currently living across the United States and Europe because he risked his life and spent all he had to save a race of people his country was so against. He saved more than 1,200 human lives during the Holocaust of World War II and he is considered one of the greatest heroes of this century. Oskar Schindler was born on April 18, 1908 in Zwittau, Austria-Hungary. Both his mother and father (Louisa and Hans Schindler) were German and they both were deeply religious. His father owned a farm machine factory, which was to be inherited by Oskar when he grew up. His mother was a homemaker and he had one sister named Elfriede who was seven years younger then him. The Schindler family was one of the richest and most prominent families in Zwitlau and elsewhere. This was due to the success of their family owned machinery business. Schindler himself was a very tall and handsome man. Needless to say, all the young women adored him. He married Emilie Schindler at nineteen, but was never without a mistress or two. Hard drinking and feckless, he had the soul of a gambler, winning big and losing bigger. In 1929, during the Great Depression, the Schindler family business went bankrupt. At this time, Schindler's father left his mother, and she died soon after. He became a machinery salesman when opportunity came knocking in the guise of the war. According to his situation from the above, how can this man be consider a hero? What would possess him, with all of his power and money, to risk his own life to save the lives of thousands of people he has never met? How did he do it? This leads many to think, "how an alcoholic, normal salesman can be a hero of over thousands people?" He took his first faltering steps from the darkness of Nazism towards the light of heroism in 1939 because he started saving the Jewish lives in this year. He took over two previously Jewish owned companies that dealt with the manufacture and sales of enamel kitchenware products. He also opened up a small enamel shop near the Jewish ghetto and he employed mostly Jewish workers. This in turn saved them from being deported to labor camps. Then in 1942, Schindler found out through some of his workers that many of Jews were being sent to the death camps. This is where Schindler's connections with the German government were so useful. Using his knowledge and his influence to set up a branch of a camp for 900 Jewish workers in his factory compound in Zalocie, he made his now famous list of the workers he would need for its operation. Schindler was making money, but every one in his factory was fed, no one was beaten, no one was killed. It became an oasis of humanity in a desert of moral torpor. By the autumn of 1944, Germany's hold on Poland had weakened. As the Russian approached, the Nazi's tried desperately to complete their program of liquidation and send all remaining Jews to die. Schindler used his connections to receive permission to reestablish his once defunct business as an armament production company in Bruunlitz. After some negotiation with officials, he was allowed to take with him some Jewish worker from these camps. Schindler succeeded in saving more then 1,000 Jews from at this time and Schindler afforded them for foods, clothes, shelters, and medical care. He tried to save as many lives as possible until he died. He died in Frankfurt in 1974 and he is one of the greatest heroes in history. No matter what anyone believes, the story of Schindler touched me. I think to myself, I would have the courage to give up my life for a bunch of strangers? Would I give up all of my comforts and riches with nothing in return? I think that is why he is a hero. He did not want all the pomp and circumstance. He did not want a hero status. I think he saw no reason to brag about what he had done. Schindler knew what it meant to him and those that he saved, and that is all that mattered. Saving those lives was his return for giving up all he had. He died without many fanfares. He was bankrupt and his last few years were rough. He gave up everything he owned, literally. He gave an unselfish love, of sorts, to the Jews. Schindler is indeed a hero for many reasons. Most importantly, he helped to save a race of human beings, just like you and me.
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