Remembering Schindler’s Secretary

Stand for Israel  |  April 11, 2022

Most of us know the story of Oskar Schindler, the businessman who saved the lives of thousands of Jews during World War II, and whose story was famously told by filmmaker Steven Spielberg. But perhaps you haven’t heard of Schindler’s secretary, Mimi Reinhardt, who assisted in saving these Jewish lives. Our friends at The Jerusalem Post tell us about Ms. Reinhardt, a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust, saved thousands of her fellow Jews, and who just passed away at the age of 107:

Mimi Reinhardt, Oskar Schindler‘s secretary, died in Israel on April 8 at the age of 107.

Born Carmen Koppel in Vienna to a Jewish family, Mimi Reinhardt worked for Schindler during the latter half of World War II, 1942-1945, drawing up lists of Jewish workers to be employed at Schindler’s factory.  

Reinhardt’s skills in shorthand landed her a job in the administration of the Plaszow concentration camp, where she was deported after the evacuation of the Krakow ghetto and the death of her husband at the hands of the Nazis. There she met Schindler and became his personal secretary, assisting him in saving hundreds of her fellow Jews.

After the war, Reinhardt was reunited with her son Sasha Weitman…

In 2007, at the age of 92, Reinhardt joined her son in Israel where she lived out her last fifteen years. 

May her memory be a blessing.