Schindler taken off personalities list

A Czech regional assembly tonight voted to omit Oskar Schindler, who saved hundreds of Jews from death, from a list of the region’s outstanding personalities.

Made famous by Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List, he was born in Svitavy, 100 miles east of Prague, in the Pardubice region.

His name was to be included in a brochure about important events and personalities born in the region, but a local council decided that as a member of the Nazi party, he was too controversial.

Today the assembly adopted the council recommendation that only four of the 12 - not including Schindler - be part of the list in a vote that took less than 10 minutes. There was no debate on individual names.

Schindler is credited with saving 1,200 Jews from death camps by persuading Nazi SS stormtroopers that he needed the people to work in his factory.

He died in 1974 and was buried in Jerusalem at his own request.