Typist of Schindler’s List Dies at 91
The Polish-born Jew who typed up Schindler’s list is being buried today in Augsburg, Germany, where flags will fly at half-mast in his honor.
Mietek Pemper, who typed the names of more than 1,000 Jews saved by the ethnically German industrialist, was 91, and had lived in Augsburg since 1958, working as a consultant and taking on German citizenship.
Born Mieczyslaw Pemper in Krakow, he had been enslaved during the war in the work camp of Plaszow, serving as the personal typist for Amon Goeth, the head of the camp. After secretly reading Goeth’s mail, Pemper compiled a list of more than 1,000 Jews who Oskar Schindler could save with employment at a factory. Pemper ended up testifying after the war against Goeth, who was hanged, and stayed friends with Schindler until the latter’s death in 1974.
His story was told on the big screen by Steven Spielberg, of course, but Pemper also wrote a memoir of his own, releasing “”The Road to Rescue: The Untold Story of Schindler’s List,” in 2005.
“Fate had placed me between the [Schindler and Goeth], and it was like having an angel on one side and a demon on the other,” he wrote.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
