Oswald Bosko (also spelled Bousko or Bouska) was an Austrian policeman from

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

later stationed at the Jewish ghetto of Kraków from 1942 to 1944. He supported Julius Madritsch in rescuing

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Bosko was posthumously honored by the

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

as a Righteous Among the Nations, an award for a non-Jew who risked their life during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

to save Jews from extermination by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

Heroic deeds

In March, 1943, the

decided to liquidate the ghetto in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

and to deport all children who lived there in order to kill them. Oswald Bosko and Julius Madritsch helped hundreds of children to escape the ghetto. He also found people who were willing to house them temporarily. Bosko once had studied to be a Catholic monk but then abandoned that vocation and joined the Nazi Party; he even joined "an illegal SS unit set up by einrich

Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

to act as a fifth column against the Austrian government" after the Nazi Party was outlawed in Austria in the summer of 1933. Yet Bosko turned against the Nazis after Hitler's annexation of Austria in 1938. In Kraków, the "tall and blond" Bosko "used his loud scream to hide his deeper feelings" to aid Jews. Bosko also occasionally accepted bribes and "when he fled Kraków in the summer of 1944, he carried a suitcase of his ill-gotten contraband with him." While accepting compensation in rescuing Jews ran counter to the requirements for naming someone Righteous Among Nations, according to

Oskar Schindler Oskar Schindler (; 28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a German industrialist, humanitarian and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and amm ...

biographer David M. Crowe, several writers who have examined Bosko's efforts, "all agree that many Jews and Poles owed their lives" to Bosko. After the liquidation of the ghetto, Bosko looked for Jewish families that hid from the Nazis. Whoever he found, he managed to bring to Madritsch's textile factory. Then he organized a rescue. In historian Crowe's telling, Bosko sought to avoid transfer to the Eastern Front when he "injected himself with a drug that made him severely ill" and he was hospitalized. He then fled with a Polish mistress and two Jewish children. He wrote his commanding officer that partisans had kidnapped him, but the officer soon determined otherwise. Bosko was ultimately captured, court-martialed for treason, desertion, and disobedience, and sentenced to death. Israel's

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

website cites September 18, 1944 as the date of Bosko's execution, while Crowe lists it as October 18, 1944.

Later developments

In 1964,

recognized Oswald Bosko as Righteous Among the Nations.Oswald Bosko
Yad Vashem website. In 1982, Bosko appeared in the historically based novel '' Schindler's List'', written by Australian novelist

Thomas Keneally Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. He is best known for his non-fiction novel ''Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, wh ...

.Keneally, Thomas. ''Schindler's List'', pp. 97, 117, 118, 138, 139 (Simon and Schuster, 2013).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bosko, Oswald 1907 births 1944 deaths People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust Austrian Righteous Among the Nations People from Vienna Kraków Ghetto Austrian police officers Austrian people executed by Nazi Germany Year of birth missing Bartenders People executed for desertion Police officers executed for treason People executed for treason against Nazi Germany People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad

Heroic deeds

Later developments

See also

References