Poldek Pfefferberg - Post-War

Post-War

After the war Pfefferberg settled first in Budapest, then in Munich where he organized a school for refugee children. In 1948 he emigrated to the United States. He and his wife settled in Los Angeles, eventually opening a leather goods business in Beverly Hills. In the United States he used the name Leopold Page, although in later years he apparently reverted to Pfefferberg. He tried on a number of occasions to interest the screen-writers and film-makers he met through his business in a film based on the story of Schindler and his actions in saving Polish Jews from the Nazis, arranging several interviews with Schindler for American television. Schindler's death in 1974 seemed to end any possibility of a film.

In 1980 Pfefferberg met Thomas Keneally in his shop, and, learning that he was a novelist, showed him his extensive files on Schindler. Keneally was interested, and Pfefferberg became an advisor for the book, accompanying Keneally to Poland where they visited Kraków and the sites associated with the Schindler story. Keneally dedicated Schindler's Ark to Pfefferberg: "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written."

Pfefferberg explained the reasons behind his efforts to have the Schindler story told as:

"Schindler gave me my life, and I tried to give him immortality."

After the publication of Schindler's Ark in 1982, Pfefferberg worked to persuade Steven Spielberg to film Kenneally's book, using his acquaintance with Spielberg's mother to gain access. Pfefferberg claimed to have called Spielberg's office every week for 11 years. When in 1992 Spielberg agreed to make the film, Pfefferberg worked as an advisor, again making the trip to Poland to show Spielberg the sites, and he appears in the film's epilogue. Pfefferberg and his wife were Spielberg's guests on the night Schindler's List won seven Academy Awards. In his acceptance speech Spielberg thanked "a survivor named Poldek Pfefferberg ... I owe him such a debt. He has carried the story of Oskar Schindler to all of us."

Pfefferberg was a founder of the Oskar Schindler Humanities Foundation, which recognises acts by individuals and organizations, regardless of race or nationality. He remarked on the Foundation:

"Only when the foundation is a reality will I say I have fulfilled my obligation. Because when I am no longer here, when the Schindler Jews are not here, the foundation will still go on."

Pfefferberg died 9 March 2001, aged 87, in Beverly Hills. He is survived by his wife Mila, a son and daughter.