Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401220097
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAL VINCENT LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I told Schindler in 1945 that I would tell his story," said Page, tears welling in his eyes. "I've tried to do that. Oskar could have got away with $2 million in 1944 and lived the high life. Instead, he chose to stay and save the people he did."
It is because of Page, now 84, that "Schindler's List" - the novel and the film - were made.
For 30 years, Page ran a leather store in Beverly Hills. In 1980, an Australian novelist named Thomas Keneally came in to have a briefcase repaired; while he was waiting, Page told him about Schindler, the factory and the list that saved the lives of 1,200 Jews.
Page had told the same story for years to every writer and Hollywood type who would listen. Keneally was the first intrigued enough by the heroism of Schindler. His book was published in 1982.
Martin Scorsese showed interest in making it into a movie. MGM bought the rights and considered Sean Connery to play Schindler. Connery, however, turned it down, and the studio thought the project was not commercial without a big name. The book was later bought for young Steven Spielberg, but script problems persisted; Spielberg even felt he was not yet mature enough to direct it.
Ten years later, his film is the front-runner in every Oscar poll.
As to the mystery of what turned Oskar Schindler from profiteer to hero, Page reasons:
"He was raised a Catholic but he was never religious. As a boy, he played with his Jewish neighbors. True, he came to Poland only to make money. He was never prejudiced against anyone. I don't think he was into politics one way or the other. He just wanted profits.
"But he saw the Jews die. The Jews, I believe, became his family. When you interact on a daily basis, it's impossible not to become family.
"Oskar hated injustice. Also, he hated authority. He was a charmer. He could get anything he wanted. I think, aside from everything else, he liked the idea of defying the Nazis right under their nose."
The young Pfefferberg was a physical education teacher before the war.
"Initially, I didn't want to work in Schindler's factory," he said. "I thought I could escape in some other way, but I came to realize that to be on Schindler's list was to be saved." He hastily learned to weld.
"There was no way that you could plan to survive," Page said. "The world was insane. They say 6 million Jews were killed. Actually, it was 11 million. People were shot in the streets for no reason. It was happenstance. I trusted my life, 100 percent, to Schindler."
Page, portrayed in the movie as a young man told to clear suitcases from the street in one scene, was a consultant on the project.
"Steven [Spielberg] was adored by some 32,000 people involved in making the movie," he said. "Even the generals of the greatest armies didn't have the devotion he had from us. We cried during the filming, but we knew this is a story that had to be told."
He remembers that late in his life Schindler "didn't have money to buy a pack of cigarettes, but he never asked for help." In the early 1960s, Page raised $7,000 for Schindler by urging his fellow survivors to donate one hour's pay. Today, he administers the Oskar Schindler Humanities Foundation, which honors those individuals "whose actions best exemplify man's humanity to man."
With pride, the Schindler survivor says, "I have a way of persuasion and I kept the Schindler name going."
by CNB