Oskar Schindler – since Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List,” this name has become known. He has become a synonym for humanity during National Socialism. But what role did his wife, Emilie Schindler, play? Emilie, who was often ridiculed as the betrayed wife, is a forgotten heroine of history who fearlessly and courageously saved Jews.

Emilie Pelzl was born in 1907 in the Sudetenland. From a young age, she worked on her parents’ farm and cared for relatives. At 20, she fell in love with the charming Oskar Schindler. Although he was known as a heartbreaker, she married him. Oskar had affairs and squandered her dowry, but Emilie stayed with him. Together, they first became wealthy through their factory under the Nazis and then saved many Jews from certain death.

The director Annette Baumeister sensitively reconstructs the life of Emilie Schindler. Reenacted quotes convey the image of a woman who broke free from the role of the passive wife and actively helped people. For “her Jews,” she procured food, medicine, and saved those condemned to death under the eyes of the SS. In the documentary, historians, as well as Emilie Schindler’s Argentine caretaker Leandro Coseforti and her niece Traude Ferrari, describe a forgotten heroine.