Oskar Schindler has been celebrated for decades for his extraordinary role in saving at least 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust. He deserves every bit of that praise, but it seems like his activities after the war might have been less than heroic.
The details are sourced from the memoir that Oskar's wife, Emilie Schindler, wrote. After the pair moved to Argentina in 1949, they began working as chicken farmers. However, Emilie claims that Oskar was never around to help with their home.
In her book, Emilie writes that her husband seemed to have other interests. "I could never count on help from Oskar, who seemed more interested in the adventures the capital could provide."
As a result, Emilie ran the farm on her own.
Then Oskar left Argentina in 1957, promising his wife he would return. His goal was to return to Germany to see if he could recoup some of the financial losses he suffered during the war.
But he never returned home to Argentina and his wife. In fact, he died in Germany in 1974.
The couple never divorced, but Emilie writes that she contemplated filing at different points due to her husband's "lies, his repeated deceits, and constant insincere repenting."
In 1993, The Washington Post revealed that Oskar had affairs with other women throughout the war and his time in Germany. In fact, his own friends sometimes thought the various women were actually Emilie, which shows how disconnected Oskar kept his wife from some of the people he knew.
The pair first met in 1927 when Oskar showed up at Emilie's family home in Alt-Molstein. One thing led to another, and the two married and moved to Czechoslovakia, which quickly became part of the Third Reich during World War II. Oskar's family business went bankrupt, and he moved to Poland but left Emilie behind.
Oskar famously bought a factory in Poland and hired 1,100 Jews to work there, saving their lives. What many people don't know is that Emilie supported the Jews who worked at a second factory in what was then Czechoslovakia.
Emilie didn't shy away from speaking about her husband in her lifetime. She was once asked by a visitor what Oskar did for work, and she replied, "Schindler doesn't do anything. He just runs around with young women in luxury hotels and spends money."
As for her husband's return to Germany, Emilie told the Post that he never planned to come back and in fact sold his return ticket as soon as he got there. Emilie ended up losing the farm in Argentina and turned to raising cows on land that she rented. She told the Post, "He spent the money on women."
Ultimately, the way Emilie felt about the man she married was complicated. She explained, "For the Jews he did much, no? But I don't recognize it when he lies. You know, when he says that he brought the food? No — nothing did he bring! All the food, I brought! … All the food that the Jews ate, that the Germans ate, that the SS ate, I brought. Not him. He brought nothing."
