Introduction
Oswald Bosko was an Austrian from Vienna who became a sergeant in the German Army stationed at the Jewish ghetto of Kraków. He supported Julius Madritsch in rescuing Jews during World War II. Bosko was posthumously honored by the State of Israel as a Righteous Among the Nations, meaning a non-Jew who risked his life during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis.
Heroic deeds
In March 1943 the Nazis decided to liquidate the ghetto in Kraków 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.
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.
The Gestapo found out about the rescue. Bosko was arrested, accused and then executed on 18 September 1944.
Later developments
In 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Oswald Bosko as Righteous Among the Nations. In 1982, Bosko appeared in the historically-based novel Schindler's List, written by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally.