Friday 12 June 2009

One man who made a difference-Oskar Schindler



This film clip is taken from the ending of the superb movie Schindler's list.The Allied forces have arrived in German occupied Czechoslovakia and Schindler must leave the factory, or be arrested, which he had used as a front to save his Jewish 'workers'. will be arrested. In this very emotional clip he is saying good bye to the Jews he had saved from the concentration camps,and death.He had saved about eleven hundred of them, but still he feels he could have done more.

Schindler was only one man. He was also a playboy who had become very wealthy due to the war, but by this stage, after almost a miraculous change, he had spent all his money on bribes protecting the Jews from the Nazis death camps.For this he was became a hero to the Jews for what he did. Those who were saved by him or who were part of later generations of those he had saved are known as Schindler's Jews.( See a short biography of Schindler as the first comment).

We too have only one life and each of us have the opportunity now to use it for good, today and for the rest of our lives. Let us pray each day for ourselves and others that we will be used by him:'Let your Kingdom come in us, let your will be done on earth in us as it is in heaven'.Christ said to his disciples:"My food,is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." We have only one life to do this, may we be his servants in the harvest field he has assigned for us.

3 comments:

Andrew Kenny said...

Oscar Schindler

This is the true story of one remarkable man who outwitted Hitler's SS men to save more Jews from the gas chambers than any other single person during World War II.

Oscar Schindler surfaced from the chaos of madness, spent millions bribing and paying off the Nazis and eventually risked his life to rescue the Schindler-Jews in the shadow of Auschwitz.

Today his name is known to millions as a household word for courage in a world of brutality - the flawed hero who saved hundreds of Jews from Hitler's gas chambers. A saint walking through hell.

No one will ever know exactly what made this complex man do what no German had the courage to do. A large part of the fascination of Schindler is that not even those who admire him most can figure out his motives.

But Oscar Schindler rose to the highest level of humanity and gave his Jews a second chance at life. He earned the everlasting gratitude of his Schindler Jews. No matter why, no matter that he was an alcoholic and a shameless womanisor of the worst sort - what matters to his Jews is that he surfaced from the chaos of madness and risked everything for them.

To more than 1200 Jews Schindler was all that stood between them and death at the hands of the Nazis. But he remained true to his Jews, the workers he referred to as my children. In the shadow of Auschwitz he kept the SS out and everyone alive.

Today there are 7,000 descendants of Schindler's Jews living in US and Europe, and many in Israel. Before the Second World War, the Jewish population of Poland was 3.5 million. Today there are between 3,000 and 4,000 left.

Here you find Schindler Jews sharing memories of their unlikely savior - stories to bear witness to goodness, love and compassion. To serve as eulogy to the millions with a yellow star who lived and died during the dark years of the Nazi genocide.

Generations will remember Oscar Schindler for what he did ..

- Louis Bülow

A Contrarian's Way said...

Great clip and great word. It truly is a great story of the difference of one man...

Andrew Kenny said...

Thanks Jeremy