Oskar Schönbrunner

Oskar Schönbrunner (born September 15, 1908 in Munich ; † November 18, 2004 in Bernau am Chiemsee ) was a career officer in the German Wehrmacht and was honored as Righteous Among the Nations because he saved Jews in Vilnius .

Act

Schönbrunner was stationed in Vilnius between 1941 and 1943 as paymaster of the German military administration . He set up sewing workshops and employed Jews as shoemakers and in tree nurseries . These workshops were classified as "important to the war effort", but provided the workers with only limited protection from destruction. When some of these workers were taken to prison, Schönbrunner went to Lukiszki prison and untruthfully claimed that he had permission from the local chief of the security police to surrender his workforce.

When reading out the list of names, Schönbrunner noticed that his foreman had added several people who were not employed by his companies. Schönbrunner did not show anything and eventually led back 150 Jews, for whom he issued new employment certificates. Schönbrunner also provided heating material and special allotments of food and ensured these Jews survival until 1943.

Schönbrunner appeared in 1950 in Würzburg as a witness in a war crimes trial . On April 20, 1977, Yad Vashem recognized Oskar Schönbrunner as “Righteous Among the Nations”.

literature

• Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations: Germans and Austrians. Edited by Israel Gutman et al. a. Göttingen 2005, p. 246f.
• Kim Priemel: The Rescue of Jews by Wehrmacht Members in Vilnius. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 52, 2004, pp. 1017-1034.

Web links

• Yad Vashem
• Memorial sites Europe