Oscar Schindler's
life after the war was a long series of failures. He tried
without success to be a film producer and was deprived of his
nationality immediately after the war. Threats from former Nazis
meant that he felt insecure in post-war Germany, and he applied
for an entry permit to the United States. This was refused as he
had been a member of the Nazi party.
He fled to Buenos Aires in Argentina with Emilie, his
mistress and a dozen Schindler Jews. The Schindlers settled down
in 1949 as farmers, raising chickens and nutrias.
They were supported financially by a Jewish organization Joint
and thankful Jews, who never forgot them. But Oscar Schindler
met with no success, and in 1957 he became bankrupt and traveled
back alone to Germany, where he remained estranged from his wife
for 17 years before he died in poverty in
1974, at the age of 66.
Oscar Schindler never saw Emilie again ...
She stayed in Argentina, where she scraped by on a small
pension from Israel and a $650 a month pension from Germany. Her
only relative, a niece, lived in Bavaria, Germany.
Jewish organizations have honored her for her efforts during the
war. In May, 1994, Emilie Schindler received The Righteous
Amongst the Nations Award - along with Miep Gies, who hid
Anne Frank's family in the Netherlands and preserved her diary
after the family was taken away by the Nazis.
Almost 2,000 people attended the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Yom
Hashoah commemoration honoring Emilie Schindler. The tiny woman
in the navy blue pantsuit was greeted with smiles and tears as
she made her way, supported by two rabbis, toward the
menorah-shaped monument at the Museum of Tolerance, where she
lit the memorial flame to remember the 6 million Jews killed in
the Holocaust.
'Let me touch you,' said one woman as she reached
out to embrace Emilie Schindler.
In 1995, Argentina decorated her with the Order of May,
the highest honor given to foreigners who are not heads of
state. In 1998 The Argentine government decided to give her a
pension of $1,000 a month until her financial situation
improved. Last November, Emilie Schindler, was named an Illustrious
Citizen by Argentina.
