The Schindlerjuden, literally translated as "Schindler Jews", were roughly 1,000 to 1,200 Jews who were saved by Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust. They survived the years of Nazi regime primarily through the intervention of Schindler who found them protected status as industrial workers, and after 1944, in an armaments factory in occupied Czechoslovakia. They avoided being sent to death camps and survived the war. Schindler expended his personal fortune as an industrialist to save the Schindlerjuden.
Their story has been depicted in the book Schindler's Ark, by Thomas Keneally, and Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the novel, Schindler's List. Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the survivors, convinced Thomas Keneally to write the novel and Steven Spielberg to produce the film. The end of the film shows actual, color footage of the Schindlerjuden depicting each putting a stone on Schindler's grave. They (or their surviving relative) are each accompanied by the actor who portrayed them as they do so. Other mourners in the scene include the widow of Itzhak Stern, accompanied by the actor who portrayed her husband in the film, Ben Kingsley; Schindler's widow, Emilie Schindler; and the actor who portrays Schindler himself in the film, Liam Neeson. Neeson is the last one to approach the grave, and instead of a stone he places two red roses in the center. Appropriately, he is accompanied by no one, and his face is not shown.
In 2006, there were estimated to be over 7,000 descendants of Schindler's Jews living in the US, Europe, and Israel.
In April 2009, a list (including 801 names) was found in Sydney among the documentation Thomas Keneally gave as a donation to an Australian library. Another list with 1000 names, compiled by former camp stenographer Mieczyslaw Pemper upon the prisoners' arrival October 21, 1944 at Schindler's Brünnlitz factory, was presented by Pemper to the International Tracing Service in 1958.