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language becomes more emotionally persuasive. Paying tribute to her tireless work and commitment he explains that she “took on the sole task of looking after the factory. Her working day had sixteen hours . . . It was a gigantic task to feed twelve hundred hungry people, at a time when the monthly allotment was one week’s groceries, and the missing amounts had to be procured from the black market . . . [she] took over the supervision of the factory hospital . . . protected threatened prisoners and was able to avert misery and suffering with fearless, quick decisions. Her contempt for everything to do with the SS and the Gestapo was as great as mine, and I often became anxious when she courageously gave the highest SS leaders short shrift in concentration camp manner” (p. 39). He also recounts how, in January 1945, after he and Emilie had secured the release of a transport of sick Jewish prisoners, barely alive in the freezing conditions, and destined for certain death, “in the winter cold my wife also drove to Moravian- Ostrava (300 km) to exchange suitcases of vodka for frost ointment, medication and vitamins” (p. 38). Despite her pivotal role alongside Oskar in saving hundreds of Jews, Emilie has been progressively written out of the story. Just six years after the present work was published, an article appeared in Argentinisches Tageblatt , Buenos Aires’s major German newspaper, telling of Emilie’s wartime work and subsequent destitution, the title asking “Vater Courage bleibt unvergessen – aber wie steht es mit Mutter Courage” (“Father Courage has not been forgotten – but what about Mother Courage?”). Following the success of Thomas Keneally’s Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler’s Ark in 1983 and Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning adaptation in 1993,
Emilie found herself further in the shadow of Oskar’s posthumous fame, as her involvement was minimized in the interests of plot efficiency. “Oskar is the hero”, she reflected in 1999, “and what about me? I saved many Jews, too”. It seems clear from both the text of Oskar’s “report” and his inscription in this copy, that he fully recognized Mily’s contribution to the Schindler Case. They were far from an ideal couple, and his abandonment of her at this time is certainly not the behaviour of an ideal husband. However, it does seem that in this final rupture, perhaps symptomatic of the profound disruption and dislocation of the times, he is making, by way of farewell, a gesture of acknowledgement, that the book was a record of her courageous time as much as it was of his, and that between them, despite everything, they had achieved something of lasting importance. Octavo. Original cream cloth, spine and front cover lettered in brown. With dust jacket. Housed in a custom blue half calf flat-back folding box with marbled sides. Cloth lightly stained at edges, some abrasion to foot of spine, a few blemishes and a little fingermarking to a few pages, edges lightly foxed; in the very good jacket, spine panel and head of front panel sunned, else bright and presentable. ¶ Daniel Bernardi, Hollywood’s Chosen People: The Jewish Experience in American Cinema, 2013; David Crowe, Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activites, and the True Story Behind The List , 2004; Eva Scheuer, “Firsthand Testimony to Oskar Schindler”, The Catholic Century , 6 February 1994; Herbert Steinhouse, “The Real Oskar Schindler,” Saturday Night 109, no. 3, April 1994, pp. 43–44. £30,000 [135953]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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