By 1943, the Second World War was not progressing as favorably for the Nazis as they had anticipated. In need of more resources, they expanded their efforts to “Aryanize” Jewish assets, which involved seizing these resources for their own use. On March 13, 1943, the Nazis escalated this program by destroying the Krakow ghetto, which housed a large Jewish population.

Over the course of 4 days, SS troops and the local police killed approximately 2,000 Jewish residents of the ghetto, transferred another 2,000 to the Plaszow camp for forced labor, and transferred about 3,000 more to the Auschwitz concentration camp. At Auschwitz, 50 women and 499 men were selected for forced labor. All the rest were murdered in the camp’s gas chambers.

There was one bright spot during the dark time, however. Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party, had moved to Krakow to take advantage of the Aryanization program and taken possession of some Jewish-owned factories. Having been warned in advance of the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto because of his party ties, he saved the lives of his Jewish laborers by keeping them in his factory for “overtime,” thus keeping them out of the way of the SS. He went on to use similar tricks to save the lives of as many Jewish people as he could and sabotage Nazi Germany’s ammunition supply while he was at it. After his death he was awarded the title of “Righteous among the Nations” by Israel.