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The little-known original article telling the Oskar Schindler story. #holocaust

Ruth
 

Years ago one of the members of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto gave me a copy of Schindler's list -- not the book but an actual list of names. One condition was that I deposit in our library. I haven't done so yet. Perhaps it belongs in the Montreal Jewish library?
--
Ruth Chernia, Editor, Shem Tov
Toronto, Canada
searching for
TSCHERNIA of Copenhagen, Denmark, & Genichesk, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine
SHLAMOWITZ/SZLAMOWICZ/BIRENCWEIG of London, England; Lodz & Jezow, Poland
SEIDLER/ZAJDLER/LANDAU of Lodz & Sulejow, Poland
ROSENFELD of Raków, Kielce, Poland
SHKOLNIK/TICK[ER] of Ladyzhyn & Bershad, Vinnytsia, Ukraine
Stanley Diamond
 

- 
In my post yesterday, I mentioned the publication of the little-known, first article about Oskar 
Schindler by Canadian Broadcasting Company journalist, Hebert Steinhouse in the April 1994 
Canadian "Saturday Night" magazine, and also indicated that it was attached and could be 
downloaded.  As the link for downloading was deleted, the article has now been uploaded to 
the website of the Ostrów Mazowiecka Research Family website at:  

https://www.ostrow-mazowiecka.com/Steinhouse-Herbert_Saturday-Night_1994-April_relevant%20pages%20only.pdf

The preface to the article has illuminating details of Steinhouse's introduction to the SchindlerJuden,
his initial intrigue and then skepticism to what they were telling him.  The article also has many 
photos of the 1949 reunion of 35 Schindlerjuden with Schindler, and a sidebar with Steinhouse's 
description of “The First Reunion,” of the Schindlerjuden in which he wrote: 

"Early in 1949, a group of some thirty-five Schindlerjuden gathered privately at Aux de Colmar, an Alsatian restaurant in the north of Paris, to fete their friend Oskar Schindler, who was then passing through the city.  All were gay and exuberant as they surrounded the beaming and perspiring Schindler.  “Sto Lat!” they toasted him with passion as they roared out the traditional Polish song “A hundred years may he live!”   Glasses of white wine flashed in the air and, on raised arms, sleeves slipped back to reveal the tattoos of the concentration camp.
 
The speeches were full of florid tributes.  “It was known throughout Poland that whoever went to Schindler’s factory was safe,” said an industrialist movingly. “At the Sudetenland factory they sneered at as ‘Schindlerjuden,’ ” said a textile worker.  “Today we are proud of that name.”
 
Schindler spoke with tears in his eyes, stammering his thanks for the warm demonstration.  “Germans today seem to share a collective innocence," he told them, “not the collective guilt they should.”  When his speech was over, he rushed from table to table embracing each of them with his strong arms.   As we ate our Alsatian meal, everyone eagerly plied me with new details of the common experience and confirmed the stories originally recounted by Stern, as well as those I had heard from Schindler himself when I had visited him a few months earlier in his modest room in a Munich suburb."  H.S.

Stanley Diamond, M.S.M.   (Montreal)
 

10a. 
The little-known original article telling the Oskar Schindler story. #holocaust
From: Stanley Diamond
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2022 09:57:52 EST
-
I would like to touch on another aspect of the Oskar Schindler story of which the 
majority of the public are unaware.
 
Only one journalist knew Oskar well and wrote his story long before Thomas Keneally 
penned "Schindler's Ark."  That journalist is the late Montrealer, Herbert Steinhouse, 
at the time the Western Europe News Correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting 
Company.  
 
The article he wrote in 1949 lay untouched in his voluminous files for 45 years after
it was rejected by Atlantic Monthly and several other leading magazines...at a time 
when few people wanted to hear stories about good Germans.
 
He finally agreed to the publication of the original article after viewing the film and 
satisfying himself that Stephen Spielberg had captured the essences of the man
and had not given the story a whitewashed Hollywood treatment.  It was finally 
published in the Canadian "Saturday Night" magazine (attached). You can also 
 
Following the publication in "Saturday Night," Steinhouse was interviewed on the 
Canadian nightly news.  The interview can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/XGSzuNNImGY.
 
The Steinhouse files are now in the Canadian National Archives and the fond 
which in part states:
 
"The appearance of Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” in 1993 convinced 
him to submit his old manuscript “The German Who Saved a Thousand Lives”, 
written half a century earlier, to “Saturday Night” magazine. Its publication as 
“The Real Oskar Schindler” brought Steinhouse belated recognition as the 
journalist who had first discovered the Schindler story and whose hard research 
backed up the claims of the “fictional” film and novel. The article was translated
and reprinted throughout the world.”
 
For the sake of full disclosure, the late Herbert and I are first cousins. 

Stanley Diamond, M.S.M.   (Montreal)
Stanley Diamond
 

-
I would like to touch on another aspect of the Oskar Schindler story of which the 
majority of the public are unaware.
 
Only one journalist knew Oskar well and wrote his story long before Thomas Keneally 
penned "Schindler's Ark."  That journalist is the late Montrealer, Herbert Steinhouse, 
at the time the Western Europe News Correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting 
Company.  
 
The article he wrote in 1949 lay untouched in his voluminous files for 45 years after
it was rejected by Atlantic Monthly and several other leading magazines...at a time 
when few people wanted to hear stories about good Germans.
 
He finally agreed to the publication of the original article after viewing the film and 
satisfying himself that Stephen Spielberg had captured the essences of the man
and had not given the story a whitewashed Hollywood treatment.  It was finally 
published in the Canadian "Saturday Night" magazine (attached). You can also 
read it here:  http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/holocaust_new/steinhouse.php
 
Following the publication in "Saturday Night," Steinhouse was interviewed on the 
Canadian nightly news.  The interview can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/XGSzuNNImGY.
 
The Steinhouse files are now in the Canadian National Archives and the fond 
starts with his biography https://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000741.pdf)
which in part states:
 
"The appearance of Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” in 1993 convinced 
him to submit his old manuscript “The German Who Saved a Thousand Lives”, 
written half a century earlier, to “Saturday Night” magazine. Its publication as 
“The Real Oskar Schindler” brought Steinhouse belated recognition as the 
journalist who had first discovered the Schindler story and whose hard research 
backed up the claims of the “fictional” film and novel. The article was translated
and reprinted throughout the world.”
 
For the sake of full disclosure, the late Herbert and I are first cousins. 

Stanley Diamond, M.S.M.   (Montreal)
  
 
3a. 
Re: Information on descendants of Schindler's List #poland #holocaust
From: Susan J. Gordon
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2022 14:04:08 EST
 
I suggest that you try looking through the book, Schindler's Legacy, by Elinor J Brecher, (pub 1994), which contains chapters/stories about 30+ survivors, but Jakob Kornblau is not listed on the contents page where those in the book appear. However, he might be in one or more of the chapters/stories. Unfortunately, the book lacks an index, which is a serious flaw. Other than that, it's a good book, and probably available in libraries or for sale at Amazon....

Years ago, I heard Poldek Pfefferberg speak at a college in CA, and met him afterwards. He's not in this book, also, but he's the person who inspired Keneally to write Schindler's list.(PP owned a shoe store in Beverly Hills, where Keneally walked in, looking for shoes. When PP heard he was a writer, he said, "I've got a story for you!"  I wrote about our meeting for The Jewish Week of NY but it's not online. (If you'd like to read it, I can send you a copy).

Good luck!
Susan
Susan J Gordon
New York
 

PDF
Steinhouse-Herbert_Saturday-Night_1994-April_relevant pages only.pdf

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