5. Schindler lived a life of luxury through the practice of corrupt activities
Oskar Schindler saw the opportunity to make himself a fortune through the sale of products to the German government, and sought to reduce his labor costs by hiring more Jews as workers than Poles, since wages for Jews were established by Nazi law as much lower. In order to obtain the needed contracts for his products, Schindler resorted to the tried and true method of bribing corrupt officials in the German government. Many of the materials needed for the bribes were available only from the black market as the war went on, and Jewish members of his staff, especially Abraham Bankier, maintained contacts within the black market to provide the materials and products which Schindler needed. One such contact was Marcel Goldberg.
Goldberg was a clerk in the office of Arnold Buscher, the SS Commandant of Plaszow, where Schindler’s factories were located. It was Goldberg who eventually provided the names for what became known as Schindler’s List, but in the early days of the DEF Goldberg was a source of much of the black market goods which Schindler used to bribe German officials. Schindler’s use of the black market provided him with a two-edged sword, he was able to use it to enrich himself and the threat of exposing those same corrupt officials allowed him to bend them to his will. Schindler lived in Krakow in luxurious surroundings, and although joined by his wife he continued to maintain several extramarital affairs, while entertaining visiting Nazi officials and business leaders. He also continued to drink heavily, a habit which had plagued him for most of his adult life.