Schindler’s List

Schindler’s List

by

Thomas Keneally

Schindler’s List Characters

Oskar Schindler

Oskar Schindler is a Sudeten German-born industrialist from the region of Moravia who becomes an unlikely hero to the over 1,200 Jewish people from Cracow, Poland, that he saves from the Holocaust. He is handsome… read analysis of Oskar Schindler

Itzhak Stern

Itzhak Stern is Oskar Schindler’s Jewish accountant, as well as his constant companion and co-conspirator. Stern is also Schindler’s “confessor,” acting at times as his conscience, and he arguably inspires all of Schindler’s ventures… read analysis of Itzhak Stern

Amon Goeth

Amon Goeth is a big, imposing man who was an early joiner of Germany’s National Socialist Party (the Nazis) and who becomes the commandant of the concentration camp called Płaszów, located near Cracow in… read analysis of Amon Goeth

Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg

Poldek Pfefferberg is a young Jewish man from Cracow and one of Oskar Schindler’s most trusted companions. According to author Thomas Keneally, Pfefferberg is also one of the driving forces who helped get Schindler’sread analysis of Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg

Emilie Schindler

Emilie Schindler is a patient, religious woman who married Oskar Schindler at relatively young age and who has a similar temperament to Schindler’s mother. Emilie and Oskar live together in Zwittau until Oskar heads… read analysis of Emilie Schindler
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Helen Hirsch/Lena

Helen Hirsch is the Jewish maid of the cruel Płaszów concentration camp leader, Commandant Amon Goeth. Goeth abuses her—she is thin and often sports visible bruises. During a fateful party at Goeth’s villa, Hirsch… read analysis of Helen Hirsch/Lena

Victoria Klonowska

Victoria Klonowska is Oskar Schindler’s attractive, blonde Polish secretary and lover. A hard-headed and efficient Polish nationalist, she often works on Schindler’s behalf in order to get him released from SS prison. From the… read analysis of Victoria Klonowska

Henry and Leopold Rosner

Brothers Henry and Leo Rosner are a pair of Jewish musicians, Henry on the violin and Leo on the accordion. They are some of the many Jewish people who owe their lives to Oskar Schindlerread analysis of Henry and Leopold Rosner

Julian Scherner

Julian Scherner is a police chief in Nazi-occupied Poland and an officer in the SS. As a middle-ranked man in the Nazi Party, Scherner oversees atrocities against Jews but is arguably more interested in… read analysis of Julian Scherner

Rolf Czurda

Rolf Czurda is, along with Julian Scherner, a police chief in Nazi-occupied Poland and an officer in the SS. He attends raucous parties at the villa of Płaszów concentration camp leader, Commandant Amonread analysis of Rolf Czurda

Franz Bosch

Franz Bosch is a manager of various businesses inside the Płaszów concentration camp, some legal and others illegal. He drinks and parties with Oskar Schindler, Julian Scherner, Rolf Czurda, and Julius Madritschread analysis of Franz Bosch

Julius Madritsch

Julius Madritsch is the owner of a very profitable factory at the Płaszów concentration camp, but like Oskar Schindler, he treats his Jewish prisoners humanely. With the help of his manager, Raimund Titschread analysis of Julius Madritsch

Olek Rosner

Olek is the young son of Henry and Manci Rosner, who is five years old at the beginning of the German occupation of Cracow. He is initially hidden so that he will not be… read analysis of Olek Rosner

Manci Rosner

Manci Rosner is an Austrian woman living in Cracow; she’s Henry Rosner’s wife and Olek’s mother. Manci makes Oskar Schindler’s list and is rescued from the Płaszów concentration camp, but like the… read analysis of Manci Rosner

Lisiek

Lisiek is a Jewish orderly and a compatriot of Poldek Pfefferberg who meets an unfortunate early end at the hands of the Płaszów concentration camp leader Commandant Amon Goeth. Before Lisiek’s death, he and… read analysis of Lisiek

Abraham Bankier

Abraham Bankier is a Jewish businessman who plays a critical role in Oskar Schindler’s plan to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. He excels at both legal and illegal business matters, helping Schindler secure the… read analysis of Abraham Bankier

Eberhard Gebauer

Eberhard Gebauer is an agent in a German intelligence agency called the Abwehr. He notices Oskar Schindler’s gregariousness and sends him to Cracow for a position in the Abwehr. Perhaps Schindler accepts… read analysis of Eberhard Gebauer

Raimund Titsch

Raimund Titsch is the manager of Julius Madritsch’s uniform factory in Cracow (which becomes part of the Płaszów concentration camp). He is a quiet Austrian Catholic with a limp. He supports Madritsch’s efforts to… read analysis of Raimund Titsch

Majola

Majola is the German mistress of the Płaszów concentration camp leader, Commandant Amon Goeth. She is sensitive and generally keeps away from the more gruesome parts of the camp. A rumor starts that she… read analysis of Majola

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler is the leader of Nazi Germany and a driving force behind many of its nationalist, anti-Semitic policies. His voice haunts Oskar Schindler, who listens intently after an assassination attempt on Hitler’s life… read analysis of Adolf Hitler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler is one of the most powerful Nazis and a key force in carrying out the Holocaust. Near the end of the war, he secretly tries to position himself as a logical successor to… read analysis of Heinrich Himmler

Mina Pfefferberg

Poldek Pfefferberg’s mother, Mina, is a Jewish woman from Cracow. When Oskar Schindler comes to visit her, looking like an SS agent, Pfefferberg nearly shoots him—but instead they get to talking and find out… read analysis of Mina Pfefferberg

Hans Frank

Hans Frank is the governor of Poland under the Nazis, and he earns a reputation for being brutal, particularly toward the Jewish population. Despite his party-line ideology and his anti-Semitism, however, he initially favors deporting… read analysis of Hans Frank

Ingrid

Ingrid is Oskar Schindler’s Sudeten German mistress. They live together, and some even assume that she’s his wife. Like Klonowska, Ingrid seems to have few hard feelings about Schindler’s many relationships with other… read analysis of Ingrid

Alexander Biberstein

Dr. Alexander Biberstein is the official doctor of the Judenrat and the brother of Judenrat president Marek Biberstein. He helps Poldek Pfefferberg get out of the OD by diagnosing him with a bad back… read analysis of Alexander Biberstein

Reichert

Marek Biberstein tries to get Reichert, a man with connections in the SS, to pass on bribe money so that more Jews will be allowed to remain in the Cracow ghetto, despite orders for… read analysis of Reichert

Szymon Jereth

Szymon Jereth is the owner of Jereth’s Box Factory, which is forcibly turned into the German Box Factory after the German invasion of Poland. The factory ends up being the backyard of Oskar Schindler’s… read analysis of Szymon Jereth

Mrs. Dresner

Mrs. Dresner is Genia’s aunt, Juda Dresner’s wife, and Danka Dresner and Janek Dresner’s mother. During the liquidation of the ghetto, she has a close call when her neighbors, who promised they… read analysis of Mrs. Dresner

Genia

Three-year-old Genia is Juda and Mrs. Dresner’s niece and Danka and Janek Dresner’s cousin. She is originally from the country but comes to live with her aunt and uncle, and they pass her… read analysis of Genia

Danka Dresner

Danka Dresner is Juda and Mrs. Dresner’s daughter, Genia’s cousin, and Janek Dresner’s sister. She works as a clearing woman in a Luftwaffe (air force) base near Cracow. During the liquidation of… read analysis of Danka Dresner

Janek Dresner

Janek Dresner is Juda and Mrs. Dresner’s son, Genia’s cousin, and Danka Dresner’s brother. Schindler saves Janek and other members of the Dresner family from the Płaszów concentration camp and moves them… read analysis of Janek Dresner

Symche Spira

Symche Spira is an Orthodox Jew in the OD who helps carry out the Nazis’ orders in Cracow. At one point, he is Poldek Pfefferberg’s boss. Spira acts loyal to the Germans and helps… read analysis of Symche Spira

Mordecai Wulkan

Mordecai Wulkan is a jeweler who is approached by Spira’s OD about sorting through the mountains of valuables left behind by dead Jewish people. Later, his workshop provides a ring for the wedding of… read analysis of Mordecai Wulkan

Albert Hujar

Albert Hujar is a low-ranking SS officer who gets into an argument with a Jewish prisoner and is then ordered by Amon Goeth to shoot her. Reluctantly, he does. Later, he seems to have fewer… read analysis of Albert Hujar

Adam Garde

Adam Garde is a Jewish engineer in the concentration camp Płaszów whom Schindler recruits for Emalia. Commandant Amon Goeth allows the transfer but first makes Garde build a conservatory for him (and during the… read analysis of Adam Garde

Regina Perlman

Regina Perlman is a young Jewish woman with a dark complexion who lives in Cracow with forged papers saying she’s South American. Eventually, however, she gives up this cover to enter the concentration camp Płaszówread analysis of Regina Perlman

Menasha Levartov

Menasha Levartov is a Rabbi in the concentration camp Płaszów. After Commandant Amon Goeth takes notice of him and just barely holds back from killing him, it’s arranged for Levartov to go work at… read analysis of Menasha Levartov

Josef Bau

Josef Bau is a Jewish artist from Cracow who falls in love with a girl named Rebecca Tannenbaum while they are both prisoners in the concentration camp Płaszów. He is married to her in… read analysis of Josef Bau

Mietek Pemper

Mietek Pemper is a young Jewish typist who works in the office of Płaszów concentration camp leader Commandant Amon Goeth along with Frau Kochmann. Though Goeth initially is intrigued by Pemper’s photographic memory, ultimately… read analysis of Mietek Pemper

Marcel Goldberg

Marcel Goldberg a Jewish personnel clerk who ends up overseeing who does and doesn’t make Oskar Schindler’s list of Jews to transfer from the Płaszów concentration camp to Schindler’s new factory at Brinnlitzread analysis of Marcel Goldberg

Commandant Johannes Hassebroeck

Hassebroeck is the Nazi commandant of the concentration camp Gröss-Rosen, which Oskar Schindler’s new Brinnlitz camp is a part of. Hassebroeck sends a telegram to Commandant Liepold near the end of the war about… read analysis of Commandant Johannes Hassebroeck

Commandant Josef Liepold

Josef Liepold is the commandant of Oskar Schindler’s Brinnlitz camp. Unlike many of the middle-aged SS officers in the garrison at Brinnlitz, Liepold is not indifferent and is fiercely devoted to the concept of… read analysis of Commandant Josef Liepold

Dolek Horowitz

Dolek Horowitz is Richard Horowitz and Niusia Horowitz’s father and Regina Horowitz’s husband. He and his family make Oskar Schindler’s list. When Richard is rounded up from Brinnlitz for medical experiments… read analysis of Dolek Horowitz

Regina Horowitz

Regina Horowitz is Richard Horowitz and Niusia Horowitz’s mother and Dolek Horowitz’s wife. Like the other Jewish women rescued by Oskar Schindler, Regina and her daughter Niusia are detained in Auschwitz before… read analysis of Regina Horowitz

Richard Horowitz

Richard Horowitz is Dolek and Regina Horowitz’s son and Niusia Horowitz’s brother. Though he makes it safely to Oskar Schindler’s factory in Brinnlitz, he is rounded up for medical experiments in… read analysis of Richard Horowitz

Niusia Horowitz

Niusia Horowitz is Dolek and Regina Horowitz’s daughter and Richard Horowitz’s sister. Like the other Jewish women Oskar Schindler rescues, Niusia and her mother are detained in Auschwitz before finally making it to… read analysis of Niusia Horowitz

Uri and Moshe Bejski

The Bejski brothers are two of the Jewish people Oskar Schindler saves. Moshe specializes in forged documents, while Uri specializes in weapons. At Brinnlitz, Uri begins stockpiling weapons and keeping a small militia of… read analysis of Uri and Moshe Bejski
Minor Characters
Hans Schindler
Hans is Oskar Schindler’s father and Louisa Schindler’s husband. Like his son, Hans is a gregarious, charming man who enjoys going out drinking. Louisa’s death solidifies a growing rift between Hans and Oskar, although near the end of Hans’s life, the two make amends.
Louisa Schindler
Louisa is Oskar Schindler’s mother and Hans Schindler’s wife. A patient, religious, and reserved woman, her death contributes to a long rift between Oskar and Hans.
Sepp Aue
Sepp Aue is a middle-aged German official who employs Itzhak Stern as an accountant. Though he seems more indifferent than sympathetic toward the Jews, he is instrumental in introducing Stern to Oskar Schindler.
Mila Pfefferberg
Mila Pfefferberg is Poldek Pfefferberg’s delicate young wife. She suffers many hardships, including being separated from Poldek in the ghetto while he’s out in the sewers and again when the “Schindler women” are sent from Płaszów to Auschwitz. Ultimately, though, Mila is able to persevere and survive.
Herman Toffel
Herman Toffel is one of Oskar Schindler’s sources in the SS in Cracow. It’s from him that Schindler learns of an upcoming Aktion and attempts to warn some of his Jewish friends in the city.
Dieter Reeder
Dieter Reeder is another one of Oskar Schindler’s sources in the SS, who gives him information that Schindler later passes on to his Jewish allies.
Martin Plathe
Martin Plathe is one of Oskar Schindler’s contacts in the SS. When Schindler goes to jail, Plathe is second on Schindler’s list of influential people for his secretary Klonowska to contact, right under Scherner.
Marek Biberstein
Marek Biberstein is president of the Judenrat in Cracow and the brother of Alexander Biberstein. For the most part, he is respected by fellow Jews in Cracow for his efforts to be a buffer between them and the Nazis—but ultimately, this leads to his arrest by the Nazis.
Edith Liebgold
Edith Liebgold is a Polish Jew living in the ghetto who hears rumors about Oskar Schindler’s enamelware factory but doesn’t believe them. After she meets Schindler in person, however, she begins to feel hope, and she stays with him until the end of World War II.
Juda Dresner
Juda Dresner is Genia’s uncle, Mrs. Dresner’s husband, and Danka Dresner and Janek Dresner’s father. He is the purchasing agent at Franz Bosch’s plant. Oskar Schindler saves most of the Dresner family, and Juda is one of the mourners who shows up in person at Schindler’s funeral.
Kucharska
Kucharska is a Polish-Jewish woman whom Oskar Schindler kisses on his 34th birthday while he’s drunk. Because of Nazi laws, this gets Schindler sent to prison, though he is bailed out when Klonowska reaches out to some of Schindler’s connections in the SS.
Philip
Philip is a handsome SS officer who has a breakdown and briefly shares a prison cell with Oskar Schindler. Though Schindler initially suspects Philip of being a plant, the two begin to get along better, particularly after Schindler bribes a guard to get them some vodka.
Szepessi
Szepessi is an Austrian bureaucrat in charge of providing Blauscheins (work permits) to Jews. Given his line of work, he is relatively humane, helping Poldek Pfefferberg doctor his papers to look like a more essential worker—but his efforts ultimately get him sent to Auschwitz.
Tadeus Pankiewicz
Tadeus Pankiewicz owns a pharmacy in Plac Zgody in Cracow, which becomes a place where Nazis round up Jewish people (including Genia).
Bachner
Bachner is a young pharmacist who is shipped off to a concentration camp but who escapes and returns eight days later. He is one of the first in Cracow to report about the pyramids of corpses and mass gassings in Nazi concentration camps.
Sedlacek
Sedlacek is an Austrian dentist involved with a Zionist rescue organization that operates out of Budapest. His role is to recruit Oskar Schindler, get detailed information from him about the concentration camps, and provide Schindler with money to continue his rescue operations.
Franz Von Korab
Franz Von Korab is a member of the Wehrmacht who is rumored to have a Jewish grandmother. He is a patient of Sedlacek and becomes an important connection for him.
Springmann and Kastner
Springmann and Kastner are associates of Sedlacek in the Zionist rescue organization. They meet with Oskar Schindler to learn more about the state of Jews in Cracow.
Horst Pilarzik
Horst Pilarzik is a tall young SS officer, known for leading particularly brutal death squads in Cracow.
Dr. Blau
Dr. Blau is a physician with many adolescent patients suffering from scarlet fever. Albert Hujar executes Blau and all the patients.
Dr. B and Dr. H
Dr. B and Dr. H are physicians who decide that rather than leaving their patients to be executed (like Dr. Blau’s patients were), they will administer cyanide to them.
Wilek Chilowicz
Wilek Chilowicz becomes head of the Jewish camp police in the concentration camp Płaszów. He is Commandant Amon Goeth’s agent on the black market. As with Spira, his loyalty gets him nowhere, and Goeth eventually invents a pretext to execute him.
Grün
Grün is a young SS officer who is the bodyguard of the Płaszów concentration camp leader, Commandant Amon Goeth.
Lamus
Lamus is one of Oskar Schindler’s workers at Emalia whom Grün nearly executes. Schindler is able to defuse the situation by offering Grün vodka.
Babar
Babar is a friend of Sedlacek’s who comes to the concentration camp Płaszów to meet Oskar Schindler and to take photographic evidence of conditions in the camp.
Dr. Sopp
Dr. Sopp is a physician to the SS prisons in Cracow. He blackmails Oskar Schindler for a lot of money, and Schindler has no choice but to pay up.
Rebecca Tannenbaum
Rebecca Tannenbaum is a Jewish prisoner in the concentration camp Płaszów who falls in love with and marries Josef Bau.
Mrs. Bau
Mrs. Bau Josef Bau’s mother. She helps him arrange his secret wedding to Rebecca Tannenbaum.
Frau Kochmann
Frau Kochmann is a young German woman who works as a typist in the office of Płaszów concentration camp leader Commandant Amon Goeth along with Mietek Pemper.
Colonel Erich Lange
Erich Lange is a high-ranking Nazi who is disillusioned with what he sees around him. He advises Oskar Schindler about setting up his Brinnlitz factory and later helps Schindler get out of jail.
Sussmuth
Sussmuth is an engineer whom Colonel Erich Lange recommends to Oskar Schindler. Together, he and Schindler figure out the details of Brinnlitz.
Eckert
Eckert is a senior SS investigator who brings down Amon Goeth on account of his black-market dealings.
Büscher
Büscheris the replacement commandant at the Płaszów concentration camp after Goeth is arrested.
Hans Schreiber
Hans Schreiber is a cruel SS officer who nearly executes Poldek Pfefferberg. Strangely enough, however, the event causes Schreiber to take a liking to Pfefferberg, and Schreiber helps persuade Marcel Goldberg to include Pfefferberg on Oskar Schindler’s list.
Dr. Idek Schindel
Dr. Idek Schindel is a Holocaust survivor who is left off of Oskar Schindler’s list due to Marcel Goldberg’s manipulation.
Count Folke Bernadotte
Count Folke Bernadotte is a Swedish diplomat who makes secret deals with Heinrich Himmler about what will happen after the end of World War II. This leads to a change in policy at concentration camps to make them seem more outwardly humane.
Rudolf Höss
Rudolf Höss is the brutal commandant of Auschwitz, where many of Oskar Schindler’s Jewish women will be held on their way between the Płaszów concentration camp and Brinnlitz.
General Pohl
General Pohl is a Nazi official in Oranienburg, where many decisions are made about Jewish prisoners’ lives in concentration camps.
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann is a major architect of the Holocaust who is the subject of a high-profile trial in Israel at around the same time that Oskar Schindler visits.
Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele is a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz known for his cruel and inhumane medical experiments on prisoners. Some of the Jewish children at Schindler’s camp are rounded up for his experiments, but they ultimately survive.
Huth
Huth is a civilian engineer at the Płaszów concentration camp who eventually works with Klonowska to get Oskar Schindler get out of jail a third time.
Clara Sternberg and Mrs. Krumholz
Clara Sternberg and Mrs. Krumholz are two of Oskar Schindler’s Jewish prisoners who are separated from the other women at Auschwitz, but who make an arduous journey under a fence to be reunited with them.
Otto Rasch
Otto Rasch is the SS police chief of Moravia. Though he has the potential to cause trouble for Oskar Schindler’s plant in Brinnlitz, Schindler secures his support through charm and a bribe to Rasch’s wife. Rasch eventually helps Schindler get Commandant Liepold reassigned to active combat.
Moshe Henigman
Moshe Henigman is one of 30 metalworkers who survive a grueling march from Auschwitz before being recruited to Oskar Schindler’s factory at Brinnlitz. He isn’t on Schindler’s original list but is part of a later deal.
Benjamin Wrozlawski
Benjamin Wrozlawski is an inmate at Auschwitz who escapes by jumping off a train with his friend Roman Wilner but is captured by the Gestapo. Oskar Schindler makes arrangements to take in him and some other escapees to Brinnlitz.
Roman Wilner
Roman Wilner is a friend of Benjamin Wrozlawski who escapes the Nazis with him. He’s caught by the Gestapo and then freed by a deal that Oskar Schindler makes.
Dr. Steinberg
Steinberg is a doctor at a Sudeten work camp. After the war, Steinberg tells the story about how at Brinnlitz, Oskar Schindler looked the other way while Steinberg took food back to the camp where he worked. The food may have saved up to 50 lives, according to Steinberg.
General Glücks
General Glücks is a Nazi official in Oranienburg, where many decisions are made about Jewish prisoners’ lives in concentration camps. Oskar Schindler writes a letter to him as part of his plan to get Commandant Liepold transferred to combat duty.
Winston Churchill
When Germany surrenders World War II, Oskar Schindler blasts of voice of Winston Churchill, Britain’s prime minister, throughout his Brinnlitz camp.
The Russian Officer
A lone Russian officer comes to Brinnlitz to tell the Jewish prisoners there that they are free to go. After reciting a canned speech, he becomes more personable and answers their questions.
Edek Reubinski
Edek Reubinski is a Jewish man and one of the eight in Oskar Schindler’s party when Schindler flees to find the American front (because, as a German, he is in danger of being executed by Russians).