Brunnlitz, the 800men – among them 700 Jews – and the 300 women on Schindler’s list were diverted to Gross-Rosen and to Auschwitz. When Schindler learned what had happened, he first secured the release of the men from the Gross-Rosen camp, and then got the release of the women from Auschwitz, which was done by agreeing to pay the Gestapo 7 Deutchemarks (DM) daily per capita. This is the only recorded case in the history of the extermination camp of such a huge group of people being allowed to leave while the gas chambers were still in operation. (“German Rescuers...”).One of the most remarkable acts of kindness performed by Schindler and his wife was in the case of 120 Jewish male prisoners from Goleszow, a sub-camp of Auschwitz. The men had been working there in a quarry plant that belonged to a company called German Earth and Stone Works, which was an SS-operated company. With the approach of the Russian forces in January of 1945, they were evacuated from the camp and transported westward in sealed cattle cars without food or water. At the end of a seven-day journey in the middle of winter, the SS guards finally stationed the cattle cars, with their human cargo, at the gates of Brunnlitz. (“Oskar Schindler”).Mrs. Schindler was just in time to keep the SS officer at the gate from sending the train back. Schindler, who rushed back to the camp from some errand outside, just barely managed to convince the guard that he needed the people in the cars for work. When the cars were finally opened, no less than thirteen frozen bodies were found. Schindler stood up to the guard who planned to have the bodies burned in one of the factory’s ovens, and arranged for them to be buried with full Jewish rites on a plot of land near a Catholic cemetery that he had bought for just that purpose (“Oskar Schindler”). The 107 remaining men, who had terrible frostbite and were extremely ema...
