Oskar Schindler, page 61
One of the most difficult aspects of Brünnlitz life was the living conditions. More than a thousand men and women were forced to live in extremely cramped conditions in the upper floor of the factory. Initially, the men had to sleep on straw until the standard three-tiered SS bunks arrived. Conditions were so tight for the women in the bunks that they had to turn over from one side to another in unison. And it was impossible to walk through the crowded living space. Stella Müller-Madej said that “there was bedlam when one woman got a stomach ache and couldn’t make to it through the crowd in time.” Some of the more ill-tempered women would scream out that she was a “pig.” Very often such problems were caused by typhus.119
But some of the inmates tried to balance the harshness of camp life with adherence to traditional religious values and beliefs. Oskar acquired a Teffilin for Simon Jeret. The Teffilin are two small leather boxes worn by a male adult Jew on his head and forearm during morning prayer. Each leather box contains passages from the Jewish scriptures. Jeret kindly shared his Teffilin with anyone who wanted to use them. Each day, a line of men would gather near Jeret’s bunk waiting to put on the Teffilin and then say the Sh’ma, the basic statement of Jewish faith from Deuteronomy 6:4:120
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is our Lord.121
As each man finished the Sh’ma, he would take off the Teffilin and Jeret would say, “Next one.” Rabbi Moshe Taubé called it “a Sh’ma assembly line.”122
During Passover, some of Brünnlitz’s most observant Jews would literally “put their lives on the line” by not eating bread. Instead, “they ate the roots of the grass” because Jewish law prohibited eating leavened bread, or hamets, during Passover. Rabbi Moshe Taubé struggled with this question and finally decided to fast during the Seder, the special meal on the first night of Passover. As he explained, “We had to do everything possible in spite of ourselves to show that physical needs and deprivation would not annul the commitment to the Torah. When you are committed to your way of life and the past of your people and the continuance of your people your personal needs do not take precedence over the larger picture.”123
Moses Goldberg remembered cooking rice for Abraham Bankier and Rabbi Jakob Lewertow during Passover because they also refused to eat hamets. He said the rice was not Kosher, meaning that it did not meet the standards of Jewish religious dietary laws, but it was better than eating hamets. Goldberg said that Schindler knew about the oven in the warehouse that he used to cook the rice for Passover; whenever Oskar smelled something cooking in the warehouse, he would ask, “What’s cooking?”124 Henry Slamovich was able to get potatoes for his friend, Josl (Josek) Ryba, who also did not want to eat hamets during Passover. But Henry chose not to observe his faith during his imprisonment. He said that he had seen too much violence and evil during the Holocaust and had lost his faith. He particularly remembered the taunts of German soldiers in Kraków, who would abuse and mock Orthodox Jews in their prayer shawls and beards and then ask, “Where is your God? Why doesn’t he help you now?” After the war, Henry settled in San Francisco and became active in synagogue life there.125
Brünnlitz: The Final Weeks
By the middle of March 1945, Mährisch Ostrau, which was about 136 miles northeast of Brünnlitz, was the center of an assault led by the Soviet Fourth Ukrainian Front (Group) as part of its effort to break into the Sudetenland in its drive towards Dresden. By the end of March, German forces had momentarily halted the Soviet advance towards Mährisch Os-trau and Opava, both considered essential to Soviet efforts to enter the Sudetenland. The Germans put up staunch resistance and units of the Fourth Ukrainian Front did not reach the Brünnlitz area until May 8. Some Schindlerjuden reported hearing the fighting in the distance. What they did not know, of course, was that Czechoslovakia had become the last battleground of World War II. German forces under Generalfeld-marschall Ferdinand Schörner, a fanatical Nazi whom Hitler had designated his military heir, staged a last-stand defense with his Army Group Center about halfway between Prague and Brünnlitz. Though the German High Command surrendered on May 7, Schörner’s forces continued to fight for four days. Needless to say, the situation in the Brünnlitz area was extremely unstable, particularly in light of a Czech uprising in Prague on May 5. 126
Schindler’s greatest concern as the front moved closer to Brünnlitz was the safety of his Jewish workers. He knew that Leipold would probably receive orders to liquidate the camp, but he was not certain whether this would simply mean moving the workers westward. There were instances where inmates were murdered as part of the liquidation process. His worries intensified after the arrival of thirty prisoners from Geppersdorf, another Groß Rosen sub-camp in southern Poland, on April 11, 1946. According to Henry Weiner, the prisoners from Geppersdorf were in “bad shape,” though their condition was much better than that of the men on the Golleschau transport. It was at about this time that Schindler and Leipold had a big argument about how to deal with some of the prisoners who continued to arrive in Brünnlitz. Leipold wanted to take those in bad physical condition and shoot them in the nearby woods. Oskar told Leipold that if he did this he would have the SS men involved in the killings sent to the front as malingerers. Leipold said he would hold off on the executions because he needed the SS men.127
But this was not the end of Schindler’s concerns over Leipold’s eagerness to liquidate the camp. This is probably the reason for the April 18, 1945, list, which was drawn up to include all the Jews who were now in Brünnlitz. Groß Rosen had closed two months earlier, so any orders that Leipold received about an evacuation of the camp would come from WVHA D2 in Oranienburg. Oskar was also concerned about the presence in the area of units under General Andrei Vlasov, a Russian defector who had created, with the blessing of the Germans, two Russian Liberation Army divisions in the Wehrmacht. Only one became fully operational, and it was involved in the German defense of the Oder River line. Its most meaningful action was the aid it gave to Czech partisans in the Prague uprising on May 6, 1945. Actually, Schindler was wrong about the presence of Vlasov’s units in the area. Though now theoretically under Field Marshal Schörner’s command, Vlasov’s units were trying to flee to the American lines and did not enter Czechoslovakia until late April. By then, they were well to the northwest of Brünnlitz.128
Stella Müller-Madej said that each day Leipold would take Oskar into the woods “to show off how carefully and precisely he had the ditches dug” that would hold the remains of the Schindlerjuden.129 Betty (Bronia) Groß Gunz told a somewhat different story. She said that after Oskar received the order to close the factory and “execute all of us,” he decided to dig graves to “deceive the Nazis.” Bronia said that she helped dig the phony graves for two days until Oskar showed up with some documents with a red seal on them that he had gotten while on a trip to Germany. He walked into the factory and said, “Children, you are safe. You are going to make it. The war will not be forever.”130 On the other hand, another Schindler Jew, Ignacy (Israel) Falk, said that Leipold had “ordered Russian inmates of a neighboring camp to dig graves.”131 Thomas Keneally wrote that during the second half of April Leipold received a telegram from Hasse-broek, Groß Rosen’s commandant, ordering him to prepare to march Brünnlitz’s Jews to Mauthausen. But first he was to execute the elderly and the sick. But Leipold never saw the deadly telegram because Mietek Pemper, who worked in Leipold’s office and served as liaison between Schindler and the commandant, intercepted it. He steamed it open and immediately told Oskar about its contents.132
According to Keneally, Schindler had already laid the groundwork for what would happen next. He lodged complaints with Richard Glücks, the head of WVHA Office Group D in Oranienburg about Leipold’s treatment of the prisoners. He shared copies of these reports with Has-sebroek and Max Rausch, the regional HSSPF in Brno. Then, Keneally says, on April 27, the day before Schindler’s birthday, Oskar put his scheme into motion. He invited Leipold to a party and got him very drunk. Around 11:00 P.M., Oskar brought Leipold onto the factory floor where the commandant raged against the camp’s Jewish workers and cried out, “You fucking Jews. See that beam, see it! That’s what I’ll hang you from. Every one of you!” The next day, Oskar called Hassebroek “and others” to complain about Leipold’s most recent outburst. His workers, Oskar proclaimed, were “not laborers!” They were “sophisticated technicians engaged in secret-weapons manufacture.” Two days later, Keneally wrote, Leipold was transferred to a Waffen SS unit near Prague.133
Accounts by Stella Müller-Madej and Itzhak Stern tell a very different story. Moreover, there are some serious inconsistencies in Keneally’s version of Leipold’s departure. For one thing, Groß Rosen was closed in February 1945 and, though quite a bit has been written about Hassebroek, there is a mystery surrounding his last months in the SS. So it is doubtful that Oskar would or could have contacted the former Groß Rosen commandant. And there is no way he could have contacted Glück’s office on April 28 in Oranienburg, on the outskirts of Berlin, because Soviet tanks had entered the suburb on April 24. So we have to look elsewhere to find out how Oskar Schindler managed to get rid of Josef Leipold and his SS contingent.134
Fortunately, Stella Müller-Madej and Itzhak Stern have given us more reliable testimony about how Oskar Schindler finally got rid of Leipold. Stella got her information from Mietek Pemper, who was close to her family in Brünnlitz. On April 27, Oskar invited Leipold to a party in his apartment, where he got the commandant drunk. Beforehand, Oskar had prepared forged documents that said Leipold and his SS men were requested “as great patriots who believe in the victory of the Third Reich and its great leader, to be transferred together to the front line.” When Leipold was drunk, Oskar put the document in front of him and told him to sign it. It was, Oskar explained, the order “to liquidate the camp.” Leipold, who had longed for this moment, signed willingly. Oskar then had someone in his office take the document to SS headquarters.135
Stern’s account of how Oskar got rid of Leipold is much more complex. In mid-April, 1945, he and Mietek Pemper were working on the top floor in the Brünnlitz office building next to the factory. Only a glass partition separated their office from that of the German civilians who worked for Schindler. The Germans would listen three times a day to the radio, trying to find out the location of the front. As it moved closer and closer, the German staff became more nervous. One day, Stern was looking out the window and saw an SS-Scharführer walk over to Leipold’s house. A few minutes later he came out with a letter in his hand. As he mounted his horse, he put the letter in his pocket. Stern asked Pemper, who served as “Leipold’s unofficial secretary,” how they could find out what was in the letter. Pemper said he had not written anything for Leipold that was important, so Stern concluded that there was something in the letter about the Jews because Pemper “would write all secret letters for Leipold.” Stern and Pemper decided that it must have been written by Leipold’s official secretary, a young SS officer.136
They agreed that they should talk to the young SS officer to see whether they could find out what was in the letter. But they needed an excuse to enter the SS offices on the floor below them. As they walked downstairs, they decided they would ask the officer’s permission to see the sheets that were used to determine whether workers were to receive “so-called work bonuses.” They explained that there were some errors on the sheets. The young officer became angry and began yelling at the two Jews. He said it was essential that these lists be correct. When he got up to check on the lists, Stern opened the notebook on his desk and found a copy of the letter Leipold had recently sent out with the SS courier. Stern took the letter out of the notebook and took it to Schindler. The letter “was a request by Leipold about what to do with the Jews.”137
In the meantime, Leipold had received a response from the SS about the liquidation of the camp and called Schindler in to talk about it. His new orders were as follows:
All elements of disorder, young, old, and sick people to be deported, only 10% are allowed to stay. These absolutely essential workers are supposed to continue operating the factory or demolish it.138
Schindler quickly paid a visit to the regional Armaments Inspectorate office and then came back to talk with Leipold. He took the commandant to one of the storage rooms, where he noticed several large bottles on the shelves. Though Oskar knew what was in them, he asked Leib Salpeter, who was in charge of the storage room, what they contained. Salpeter said that they contained Slibowitz, a plum liqueur. Oskar told Leipold that they needed to find out what was in the bottles. Oskar gave Leipold glass after glass of Slibowitz and then walked him through the camp. While they were walking, Oskar put a velour cover on the commandant’s head, which “made him look like a Chassidic Jew.” Oskar then took Leipold into Emalia’s office, where he introduced him to his staff. Afterwards, Oskar took Leipold on a drive to Brno, where he convinced Leipold to volunteer to join the fight at the nearby front.139
But Leipold changed his mind when he actually received his orders to report to the front. During their drive to Brno, Leipold told Oskar that he did not know how to use hand grenades and this was evidently the excuse he used to avoid joining the Waffen SS in the field. Schindler told him that he had a secret cache of hand grenades to protect the factory against the Russians and said he would teach Leipold how to use them. Emilie, Stern, and a few others criticized Oskar for telling Leipold about the secret weapons. But Oskar thought it was important for Leipold to know about them. One night, Oskar told Stern not to become concerned if he heard some explosions. He wanted the workers to go to their living quarters and remain quiet. He explained that he was going to show Leipold how to use hand grenades.140
Schindler later told Stern what happened next. The noise from the exploding hand grenades was extremely loud and, according to Oskar, they disturbed Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner, the head of Army Group Central, whose headquarters were nearby. Schörner came to the factory and asked what was going on. Oskar told him that Leipold was “playing around with the grenades instead of going to the front.” Schörner immediately ordered Leipold to report to his SS unit at the front. But Leipold still refused to go. So once again Oskar had to come up with a new scheme to force Leipold out of Brünnlitz.141
Several days later, Schindler had a party for some of the SS big shots from Brno. And as usual, everyone got drunk except Oskar. One of Schindler’s secretaries, Ms. Hoffmann, then blurted out that Oskar had talked Leipold, “who had fought against the Jews, into going to the front.” This, she said, was “a scandal.” Someone else at the party suggested that it would “be a good idea to send the Jews to the Russians with white flags.” When another SS officer began to criticize Schindler’s actions, Oskar pushed him down a steep flight of stairs. As he was falling, the SS officer shouted, “Oskar shot me.” One of the Jewish physicians was called in to tend to the fallen SS officer. Emilie, who was present at the party, was concerned about Oskar’s behavior, though an officer from the Armaments Inspectorate pulled Oskar aside and told him that now that the war was, for all practical purposes, over, nothing must happen to him (Schindler) because he had “done so much for the Jews.” At the end of the party, Oskar drove Leipold to the front. Stern concluded by saying that Leipold was replaced by a man of sixty-eight who was “a very calm and decent fellow.” The rest of Leipold’s SS contingent followed him to the front and was replaced with older SS men who were also “calm and decent.”142
Stella Müller-Madej remembered the departure of Leipold and the SS men a bit differently. According to Stella, Oskar did drive Leipold to the front followed by the camp’s SS contingent in a truck. Several hours later, Oskar returned to Brünnlitz with a new group of “older, jumpy” SS men who carried their “rifles under their arms like useless parcels.” Oskar told two of them to guard the front gate and the rest were put up in Leipold’s house. About an hour after he returned to Brünnlitz, Stella wrote, Schindler entered the factory wearing his Nazi Party uniform. He sat on a crate and slowly began to laugh like “a madman.” He said to anyone who wanted to hear that “the man had not yet been born who could outfox Oskar.” Schindler was finally in charge of the camp. The new SS contingent seemed bewildered by their fate, particularly after Oskar ordered them not to let any German vehicles into the camp because they could be partisans wearing German uniforms. And whenever he walked by, “they [the new SS men] stood at attention before him as if he were Hitler himself.” Oskar also ordered the machinery shutdown. He told his Schindler-juden to act as though the camp were empty.143
Yet how believable are these accounts? Though there will always be inconsistencies in any survivor’s account, there is general agreement that Oskar was desperate to rid himself of Leipold and the loyal SS unit that guarded Brünnlitz for fear of what they might do to the inmates if they were ordered to liquidate the camp. Itzhak Stern said that everyone in Brünnlitz was convinced that the “German leadership would attempt to liquidate them just before the end in some way or another.”144 Moreover, some of Schindler’s Jews gave accounts of Schindler’s role in the removal of Leipold that agree with the general thrust of the story provided by Stern and Müller-Madej. And as strange as it sounds, the story about Generalfeldmarschall Schörner is not that far-fetched. By the end of April or early May 1945, when Leipold and the original SS detachment finally left for the front, Brünnlitz sat at the edge of a German salient into the Russian lines that would have provided Schörner with a logical, protected place for his command headquarters. Though Soviet forces would ultimately force him westward to an enclave between Pardubice and Prague, it is quite possible that the ruthless and aggressive Schörner, worried and angered over explosions so near to his mobile command post, might very well have stormed into Schindler’s factory to see what was going on. And what about Oskar’s showing up on the factory floor in his Nazi Party uniform? Schindler occasionally wore the standard four-pocketed brown gabardine Nazi Party uniform to impress German military, SS, and government officials. If he put it on after he returned from delivering Leipold and his SS team to the nearby front, it was probably to give the new SS contingent, which was now under the command of a lowly SS-Scharführer, Motzek, a sense of Oskar’s newfound authority.145
