Oskar Schindler is one of the most famous rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. During World War II, Schindler ran an enamelware factory, known as "Emalia," in German-occupied Kraków. There, he employed Jewish forced laborers from the Kraków ghetto and the Plaszow camp. After witnessing the Nazis’ brutality and violence against Jews, Schindler decided to protect as many Jewish forced laborers as he could. In 1944, he transferred part of his factory to the town of Brünnlitz in the Sudetenland. He brought about 1,000 Jewish workers with him to the factory, which was a subcamp of Gross-Rosen. Schindler’s most significant rescue efforts took place at the Brünnlitz camp during the last desperate months of the war. From the establishment of the camp in October 1944 until its liberation in May 1945, Schindler devoted himself to saving its Jewish prisoners.
![Europe 1933, Krakow indicated [LCID: kra64010]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/cd345296-c815-47c7-abee-1cec87ef6079.gif "Europe 1933, Krakow indicated [LCID: kra64010]")
![Krakow, Poland: Schindler's factory site [LCID: kra79070]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/2ff32e72-1163-440f-81a8-9454c4010c58.gif "Krakow, Poland: Schindler's factory site [LCID: kra79070]")
During World War II, Oskar Schindler ran an enamelware factory that employed Jewish forced laborers from the Kraków ghetto. The factory, commonly called "Emalia," was located in the Zabłocie suburb of Kraków. It was near the ghetto and several kilometers from the Plaszow camp. Eventually, a subcamp of Plaszow was established on the grounds of the Emalia factory complex. Jewish forced laborers lived in the subcamp and worked for Emalia and other nearby factories. Thanks to Schindler, conditions at the subcamp were much better than at the Plaszow main camp. Prisoners received additional food and were shielded from random acts of violence.
Item View![Krakow ghetto, May 1942 [LCID: kra54010]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/c0ea9818-8a46-436c-b80c-aed33cd910df.gif "Krakow ghetto, May 1942 [LCID: kra54010]")
![Plaszow concentration camp, January 1944 [LCID: pla22044]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/2c331789-b9bf-4110-a2d5-6884eb7b97a4.gif "Plaszow concentration camp, January 1944 [LCID: pla22044]")
We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.
