Oskar Schindler's Grave

Oskar Schindler's Grave

Above is the grave of Oskar Schindler, lionized in the film The Schindler's List. In the final scene of the film, the Jews Oskar Schindler saved line up and place stones on around the edge of his grave. As you can see, stones still cover the edge of Oskar Schindler's grave.

Where is Oskar Schindler's grave?

Oskar Schindler's grave is in the Franciscan (Catholic) Cemetery on Mount Zion. To get to it, walk about 300 yards down hill from Zion Gate until you come to a small parking lot, across the road from which are two gates. Walk through the gate on the right and down into the cemetery, and then down two levels. Oskar Schindler's grave is near the center of the third (the lowest) level. The stone pile may still be there to help you find it.

Are the stones on Oskar Schindler's grave those from the movie?

The photo below is of a photo hanging in Oskar Schindler's enamelware factory, now a museum, in Krakow, Poland. It shows some of the Jews Oskar Schindler saved and their descendents visiting his grave, which is clear of stones, in 2007.

What is inscribed on the grave of Oskar Schindler?

The English translation of the inscription in Hebrew and German is:
"OSKAR SCHINDLER
28. 4. 1908  -  9. 10. 1974
THE RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE GENTILES
THE UNFORGETTABLE RESCUER OF 1200 PERSECUTED JEWS"

What happened to Oskar Schindler after World War II?

After the war, the penniless, 41 year-old Oskar Schindler moved to Argentina with his wife and tried to start over as a chicken farmer. When his venture failed, he returned to Germany alone and lived out the rest of his life in poverty punctuated by annual visits to Israel, where he was treated like royalty by the Jews he had saved.

If you haven't watched the film, Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist and Nazi party member who made a fortune during the Second World War by employing unpaid Jewish laborers. Upon learning that his Jewish employees were going to be sent to Auschwitz (see Auschwitz today) to be exterminated, Schindler bought them and then spent his fortune protecting them until the end of the war. Steven Spielberg's movie portrays the transformation of a materialistic fiend into a humanitarian.

If you appreciate his story, you may be interested in two of his contemporaries, John Rabe and Chiune Sugihara. Another German industrialist and Nazi Party member, John Rabe is credited with saving 250,000 Chinese civilians from being raped and massacred by the Japanese army during its Rape of Nanking (the city has since been re-named, Nanjing) in eastern China, while Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese vice-consul to Lithuania, saved over 6,000 Jews from the Nazis by issuing them visas that allowed them to escape to Japan. Like Schindler, John Rabe and Chiune Sugihara lived and died in poverty after the war, but history remembers them as beacons of courage and conscience during a very dark era.