A Report On Schindlers List

A report on Schindlers List

A report on

Schindlers List

Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s List is the
historical account of Oskar Schindler and his heroic actions in the midst
of the horrors of World War II Poland. Schindler’s List recounts the life
of Oskar Schindler, and how he comes to Poland in search of material wealth
but leaves having saved the lives of over 1100 Jews who would most certainly
have perished. The novel focuses on how Schindler comes to the realization
that concentration and forced labor camps are wrong, and that many people
were dying through no fault of their own. This realization did not occur
overnight, but gradually came to be as the business man in Oskar Schindler
turned into the savior of the Jews that had brought him so much wealth.

Schindler’s List is not just a biography of Oskar Schindler, but it is
the story of how good can overcome evil and how charity can overcome greed.

Schindler’s List begins with the early
life of Oskar Schindler. The novel describes his early family life in the

Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his adolescence in the newly created state
of Czechoslovakia. It tells of his relationship with his father, and how
his father left his mother. His mother is also described in great detail.

Like many Germans in the south, she was a devout Catholic. She is described
as being very troubled that her son would take after her estranged husband
with his negligence of Catholicism. Oskar never forgave Hans, his father,
for his abandonment of his mother , which is ironic considering that Oskar
would do the same with his wife Emilie. In fact Hans and Oskar Schindler’s
lives would become so much in parallel that the novel describes their relationship
as "that of brothers separated by the accident of paternity." Oskar’s relationship
with Emilie is also described in detail as is their marriage. The heart
of the novel begins in October 1939 when Oskar Schindler comes to the Polish
city of Cracow. It has been six weeks since the German’s took the city,
and Schindler sees great opportunity as any entrepreneur would. For Schindler,

Cracow represents a place of unlimited possibilities because of the current
economic disorder and cheap labor. Upon his arrival in Cracow he meets

Itzak Stern, a Jewish bookkeeper. Schindler is very impressed with Stern
because of his business prowess and his connections in the business community.

Soon Schindler and Stern are on their way to the creation of a factory
that would run on Jewish labor. Around this time, the persecution of the

Jews of Poland begins with their forced relocation into ghettoes. This
turns out to be timely for Schindler as now he is able to get very cheap
labor. The next few years would go well for Schindler and his factory for
they turned a great profit. In fact he made so much money that he is quoted
as saying, "I’ve made more money than I could possibly spend in a lifetime."

His workers were also very happy. This is because "Schindler’s Jews" were
treated as humans as opposed to being treated as animals. For them, working
in Schindler’s factory was an escape from the ghetto and from much German
cruelty. They loved Schindler so much that his factory became known as
a haven throughout the Jewish community. However, things began to go sour
for Schindler, when the Germans ordered the liquidation of the ghettoes.

Soon all of the Jews in the Cracow ghetto were relocated to the Plaszow
labor camp. By this time Schindler had grown so affectionate toward his

Jewish workers that he refused to hire Poles, and instead sought of a way
to keep using the Jews that he had grown so accustomed to. As the Cracow

Jews were relocated to the Plaszow labor camp, Oskar Schindler came into
direct dealings with the camp’s director, Amon Goeth. He did not like Amon,
but he tried to get in on his best side in order to keep using his Jews
in his factory. Amon agreed to let Schindler use them, and thus saving
his Jews from some of the harshness of the Plaszow labor camp. As the war
began to go badly for the Germans, they decided to accelerate their "final
solution" by sending the Jews to more sinister concentration camps such
as Auchwitz. This is when Oskar Schindler finally comes to the realization
that he had the power to help his people. The now enlightened Schindler
decides to use his entire fortune to buy the lives of the Schindlerjuden
in order to save them from the gas chambers of Auchwitz. This is how Schindler’s
list came to be. 1100 Jewish names that had in some way touched his life
were put on a list and bought. His plan was to send the 1100 Jews to his
newly created ammunitions factory in his native Czechoslovakia. However,

Schindler’s plan does not go smoothly for an entire train load of his women
were accidentally shipped to Auchwitz instead of to his factory. Schindler
then uses more of his diminishing financial recourses to try to get his

Jews out of Auchwitz. He succeeds in doing this, and thus the Schindlerjuden
have escaped the worse. Meanwhile in Czechoslovakia his plan continues
in that he tricks the Germans into thinking that they were going to produce
quality ammunition, but instead not one good shell was ever produced to
help the German army. Gratefully, within a few months Hitler was dead and
the Germans were defeated. Unfortunately, Oskar Schindler was now penniless
for he had given everything in order to save as many Jews as possible.

Thomas Keneally wrote Schindler’s List
to be more than just the story of a man and his heroic deeds, but also
to show today’s world of the dangers of hatred. He emphasizes this latter
point through his descriptions of how cruelly the Nazis treated the Jews.

Keneally also tries to point out how one man can make a difference as is
the case with Oskar Schindler. However, perhaps Keneally’s greatest objective
with Schindler’s List is that the world should never forget Oskar Schindler
and what he did for the Jews as well as for mankind. Schindler’s impact
is so great that even the numerical facts are astonishing. In fact if one
compares the number of direct descendants of the Schindlerjuden to the
number of Jews alive in Poland after 1945, it is evident that there are
more Schindlerjuden today than the total number of Jews in 1945 Poland.

This statistical fact shows how greatly Schindler, who died in 1974, will
be missed. Perhaps Keneally shares the Schindlerjuden’s remorse for their
savior by the way he ends his novel. Keneally ends the novel with the somber
line, "He was mourned on every continent."

Schindler’s List had a great effect on
me personally. I thought that Thomas Keneally did an excellent job in making
the reader feel the events of the time. Perhaps what I found to be most
interesting in Schindler’s List is a question of morality. I began asking
myself the question, would I be as heroic as Oskar Schindler if I were
in his shoes? I think that this is exactly what Keneally wanted us to do;
he wanted us to look at ourselves and analyze what’s inside. Historically,

I find Schindler’s List to be very important not only because it is tells
of a shameful time in western civilization, but also because the events
that took place in the novel occurred only yesterday. After all fifty years
is almost nothing in historical terms. Perhaps the novel’s greatest strength
is this feeling that the events that transpired in Schindler’s List are
in fact modern history.

User Comments