The Rescuer
| Emilie Schindler showed us an intriguing glimpse at the shadow world between memory and legend – her husband Oscar Schindler became a household name as one of the great humanitarians of the century, saving more than 1,200 Jews from certain death in Hitler’s death camps during the second World War. While Oscar Schindler’s efforts to save hundreds of Jews are well known thanks to Thomas Keneally’s book and the Spielberg movie Schindler’s List, the silver-screen version left Emilie Schindler on the sidelines. An unsung heroine. A German-language book Ich, Emilie Schindler by the Argentinean author Erika Rosenberg tries to show that Emilie Schindler was just as involved in shielding Jews from the Nazis. The biography highlights Emilie Schindler’s bravery during the Holocaust and portrays her not only as a strong woman working alongside her husband but as a heroine in her own right. Erika Rosenberg, a journalist who befriended Emilie Schindler many years ago, wrote the book to fulfill one of the old widow’s last wishes, to tell her story and to correct a historical oversight.  Oscar SchindlerFor Emilie Schindler, the book was about finding peace. As Erika Rosenberg says: “She’s looking for recognition. Not in the form of money, but recognition for her service … to be the same like her husband.” For the last five decades of her life Emilie Schindler led a modest existence in her little house in San Vicente 40 kilometers south-west of Buenos Aires with her cats, her dog and the beautiful roses. Only the uniformed Argentinean police disturbed the idyll – they were posted to protect Emilie from anti-Semitic and ultra-Conservative extremist groups … |