3. Schindler became a full member of the Nazi Party in 1939
Schindler was arrested for espionage in July of 1938. While he was imprisoned the crisis over the Sudetenland reached its climactic point. The Munich Agreement in the fall of 1938 ended the crisis and gave Germany the Sudetenland, effectively dismembering Czechoslovakia, though the Czech government continued to function for a time, and later in exile. The agreement also provided for the release of “political prisoners” including those who had lobbied for the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany. Schindler was classified as one such political prisoner and released in the fall of 1938. On November 1, 1938, Oskar Schindler applied for membership in the Nazi Party, which was granted in 1939.
Schindler was promoted within the Abwehr and he and his wife relocated to the town of Ostrava, located on the Polish border, arriving there in January 1939. Aware of the German plans to occupy all of Czechoslovakia, Schindler continued to be involved in spying for them, operating a network of spies of his own choosing. Schindler developed a network of more than two dozen spies and agents which operated in Czechoslovakia and Poland. His Polish agents provided information about critical military bottlenecks and checkpoints, as well as the disposition of the Polish Air Force and other crucial military units. They also provided useful information about the Polish railways and critical bridges and tunnels around the country. The information obtained by Schindler was used by the German Wehrmacht planning the blitzkrieg against the Poles.