Like many others before him, Schindler began thinking it was all about him and realized at the end that it was for this purpose he had been placed in that place at that time, and he stepped up. I have a lot more respect for a man like him than I do for a Pope who after all was following his job description.
Not that I devalue the Pope, far from it. But remember there is more rejoicing in Heaven over the one reclaimed than over the 99 who never strayed.
I am not detracting from Schindler. But neither should we denigrate Pius XII who did more than any other single human being during the war--more than FDR or Churchill, for instance--to save Jewish lives. He did grow silent eventually. But this was because he wished to deflect attention from himself in order to protect the lives dependent on him. Ironically, this became the handle that his enemies used later on to smear his reputation.
But it would be wrong, as you are suggesting, to suppose he was "just doing his job". He went far beyond what was merely required in the name of justice. For instance, since the food refugees were given was necessarily of the coarsest fare, Pius himself refused anything other than what they were given to eat. This illustrated, I think, how closely he identified with those he was hiding, despite the extraordinary danger involved. His own palace basements were packed with thousands of Jewish men, women and children.
It is well-known he was instrumental in saving around 800,000 lives. But did you know that documents recently released indicate that he pleaded with the President of Roumania, then under Nazi rule, to stop a shipment of almost a million Jews to Auschwitz? He worked behind the scenes continually to rescue those being hunted-down. In fact countless lives were saved by this means alone--in addition to those the Pontiff was hiding. The truth about all this is finally getting out--thanks to some Jewish and Catholic scholars--but very belatedly, in my opinion.
By the way, that pleading with the President of Roumania was SUCCESSFUL. The transportations to Auschwitz were halted.
Sort of like a fire man who saves someone from a burning building. It's heroism at it's finest but he's "just" doing his job. It's only big news if he fails to do it.
Some more facts:
1. Over 85% of the Italian Jewish population was rescued by the Church in the war, despite Nazi occupation midway in the war.
2. Italian zones of occupation in France, Yugoslavia and Greece were hotbeds of rescue activities.
3. It is estimated that 25% of Slovakian Jews were rescued by means of Vatican interventions.
4. Roumania was the only country in Europe besides Germany fully committed to implementing the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews. But though only 8% of the population of Roumania was itself Catholic, and though the Church itself was subject to harsh repression, nevertheless the Chief Rabbi of Roumania, Dr. Alexander Shafran, was able to state in his diary, "At this moment the Catholic Church is the one and only body which can intervene usefully. Nuncio Cassulo continues to bring every problem we ask him about to the Government. It sometimes happens that he appears before them twice on one day."
In September of 1942 as a result of such incessant intervention the deportations ceased, and in spite of several strong Gestapo and SS protests, they were not resumed.