Where Light and Shadow Meet: A Memoir

This is a terrifoc book. It really gives insight into what happened with Oskar Schindler, and his wife. Great addition if you are a fan of Schindler's List, which seems not to credit Emilie fairly fpr all she did as well as Oskar. Awesome. Very informatibe - I could not put it down!

The account of the Schindlers is very well known. For this reason, my review intentionally focuses on some little-known information relative to this interesting memoir provided by Oskar Schindler's widow. Emilie Schindler recounts the challenges her husband faced in keeping his Jewish workers. Yet, all over the Reich, Jews were being spared from death and diverted into forced labor. A few hundred thousand known Jews survived the Nazi period in this manner. This fact contradicts Holocaust-uniqueness proponents, who had argued that ALL Jews were targeted for extermination, and, moreover, that practical matters were invariably shunted aside in the effort to locate and kill every possible Jew. The Schindlers' experience exemplifies the fact that the Germans were willing to spare some Jews provided that they would be useful to the Reich. And, with few exceptions, these Jewish forced laborers were not killed in the final hours of the war. Finally, the Schindlers' experience shows that the Germans WERE willing to let practical matters (namely the need for forced laborers) to get in the way of killing as many Jews as possible. Emilie Schindler believes that Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, did not commit suicide. She believes that he was kidnapped from his home and forced to swallow poison (p. 95). It is interesting to note that Oskar Schindler spoke Polish quite well (p. 49). Moreover, he had been involved in anti-Polish intelligence before the war. It also turns out that he was involved in the action of procuring Polish army uniforms for German intelligence (p. 32). These were later used in the German propaganda stunt in which "Polish" soldiers attacked the Germans, giving the latter a pretext for launching their war of aggression against Poland. Emilie Schindler (p. 43) informs the reader that Polish forces were able to resist the German invaders for only 8 days. This is manifestly incorrect. Regular Polish forces fought both the invading Germans and Russians for 35 days. Then Polish guerilla warfare began and never stopped during the entire German occupation of Poland. Very few non-Poles realize the fact that, as a final act of cultural genocide, the Germans planned to blow up the cultural cities of Krakow (Cracow) and Czestochowa (Tschenstochau). Emilie Schindler mentions the former (p. 50). Only the speedy arrival of the Red Army (and, not mentioned, Polish guerilla resistance) prevented this from happening. (I myself visited Krakow and saw the holes that the Germans had cut into the foundations of the historical buildings. These holes were to be filled with explosive charges. After the war, the holes were left unfilled as a testimony to German barbarism). The Schindlers apparently had some sympathy for Poles. Emilie Schindler recounts an experience (pp. 58-59) during which she expressed anger and defiance to an SS man, whose dog had just bitten a Polish woman. In the plant at Brunnlitz, Oskar Schindler had not only Jewish forced laborers, bu

Through print and screen we have learnt how Oskar Schindler, that Sudenten charmer, saved the lives of his Jewish workers in occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia during World War II. What was less recognised is the role in Oskar's activities of his wife, Emilie. She appears of course in Kenneally and Spielberg, but she is a small bit actor, confined to the margins. Now, finally, we hear from Emilie.In a series of reminiscences, she tells us of her Catholic upbringing in Bohemia and her first meeting with Oskar. Entranced by his "mysterious, undefinable nature", marriage followed soon after. The coupling was not always a happy one though and Emilie says she was aware of her husband's extra-marital wanderings from the early days. Still, she stayed with him. Like other women, she couldn't pull herself away from what she described as Oscar's natural seductiveness. Emilie's views on Oscar are insightful but the real story is her part in Oskar's acts of deliverance. Most noteworthy was her leadership and devotion to the surviving Jews of Goleschau, who arrived unannounced, emaciated, near death in frozen cattle cars in the middle of the night. In what was already a hellish situation, her quick thinking saved many at a time when Oskar was away on some business trip.Some will be disappointed by this book's brevity and the narrative is a little disjointed in parts. But we now know more about Oskar's long-suffering wife and her part in the drama. It's well known that in 1967 Yad Vashem recognised Oskar as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. It is less publicised that in 1993 it correctly extended this recognition to Emilie. In the concluding lines to her story she invites us to toast her, as well as her husband. It's now time we did.

Ever since I saw Schindlers List I wanted to know more. This story draws you in and makes the reader think he/she is experiancing what the people in the story are. Truly a wonderful book.