Schindler’s List Characters

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 owns a pharmacy in Plac Zgody in Cracow, which becomes a place where Nazis round up Jewish people (including Genia).

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 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 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 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 is a tall young SS officer, known for leading particularly brutal death squads in Cracow.

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 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 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 is a young SS officer who is the bodyguard of the Płaszów concentration camp leader, Commandant Amon Goeth.

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 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 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 is a Jewish prisoner in the concentration camp Płaszów who falls in love with and marries Josef Bau.

Mrs. Bau Josef Bau’s mother. She helps him arrange his secret wedding to Rebecca Tannenbaum.

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.

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 is an engineer whom Colonel Erich Lange recommends to Oskar Schindler. Together, he and Schindler figure out the details of Brinnlitz.

Eckert is a senior SS investigator who brings down Amon Goeth on account of his black-market dealings.

Büscheris the replacement commandant at the Płaszów concentration camp after Goeth is arrested.

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 is a Holocaust survivor who is left off of Oskar Schindler’s list due to Marcel Goldberg’s manipulation.

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 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 is a Nazi official in Oranienburg, where many decisions are made about Jewish prisoners’ lives in concentration camps.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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.

When Germany surrenders World War II, Oskar Schindler blasts of voice of Winston Churchill, Britain’s prime minister, throughout his Brinnlitz camp.

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 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).