Schindler was born in Zwittau, Austria-Hungary (now Svitavy, Czech Republic) to a Catholic family. He joined the Nazi Party in 1939, but he later became disillusioned with the party's policies and began to use his position to help Jewish people.
In 1939, Schindler moved to Kraków, Poland, where he established a factory that produced enamelware and other metal goods. He used his factory as a front to employ Jewish workers and protect them from deportation to concentration camps.
Schindler's efforts to save Jewish lives became increasingly risky as the war progressed. In 1943, he bribed Nazi officials to allow him to move his factory to Brünnlitz, Czechoslovakia, where he continued to employ Jewish workers.
In 1944, Schindler's list, a list of 1,200 Jewish workers who were to be spared from deportation to concentration camps, was approved by the Nazi authorities. Schindler's list ultimately saved the lives of more than a thousand Jewish people.
After the war, Schindler moved to Argentina, where he lived until his death in 1974. He was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem in 1993.
Schindler's story is told in the 1982 novel "Schindler's Ark" by Thomas Keneally and the 1993 film of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg.