Oskar Schindler is the German industrialist who employs Jewish workers in Schindler’s List to help save them from the Holocaust.
Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film is based on Thomas Keneally’s historical novel Schindler’s Ark. Liam Neeson portrays Schindler, who initially enters occupied Poland seeking business opportunities and cheap labor. His relationship with accountant Itzhak Stern, played by Ben Kingsley, becomes central to the creation of a protected workforce.
Schindler’s motives and methods change as he witnesses Nazi persecution. He uses his factory, money, contacts, and influence to keep workers classified as essential, eventually creating the famous list of names. The film is dramatized, and some scenes combine or reshape documented events, but Schindler’s rescue efforts are historically recorded. More than 1,000 people associated with his factories survived the war through his intervention. Schindler was later recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations.