ON "SCHINDLER'S LIST"ON "SCHINDLER'S LIST"For those of us who are movie fans, I feel it is safe to say that we have allexperienced that moment when a movie has truly touched us. Perhaps anending scene appealed to our senses and emotions leaving us with a feelingof awe and inspiration. Maybe we found ourselves able to identify with acertain character or storyline. Possibly a particular event tapped a nervesending chills down our spine, making our hairs stand on end. For whateverreason, we were given that opportunity to share in the emotions andpassions of the characters – regardless of whether the movie is fact orfiction. In a sense, we ourselves, as movie watchers, have given a certaindegree of realism to a movie. A sequence of events may never have reallyoccurred in a fictional movie; however, they exist in our collective experience– in our hearts and in our minds. A movie based on truth may not,necessarily, be based on the truth of our own personal lives but we,nevertheless, experience a story of a character as if it were our own.Sometimes, though, a certain number of us may find that a movie doesportray a truth, which has a direct and profound impact on our own lives.“Schindler’s List”, directed by Steven Spielberg, is one such movie in which Ishare a direct connection. Even though many people my age, especiallyother guys, may find the movie boring because they are unable to identifywith the issues it presents, I find the movie interesting since it is relevant tomy family history. One reason I find the movie interesting and others maynot is because my mother, being born part Jewish and living in Germanyduring World War II, could have fallen victim to the horrors of the holocaustas portrayed in the movie. Another reason I find the movie interesting andothers may not is because I can compare my Great Aunt to the maincharacter in the movie, Oscar Schindler.Throughout my childhood, I was exposed to a great deal of family history andculture, which, in part, has shaped me into the person I am today. Iremember growing up as a small child hearing whole conversations inGerman. My mother and her brother and sister would often speak theirnative tongue when they did not want me to know what was being talkedabout. I was able, however, to pick up a few words and phrases but was notexposed to the language enough as for it to become a second language.This desire to be able to understand what they were saying influenced me totake German in high school for four years. The fact that my family was fromGermany and that I still have family living there offered my classes a topic ofdiscussion. I also remember hearing the stories of what life was like for mymother, aunt, and uncle in Germany during World War II. Everything fromthe horrors of the gas chambers to the bombings of Berlin was oftendiscussed. My aunt and uncle often remarked on how my Great Aunt savedso many Jews. After over hearing such stories I would often ask questions –sometimes I would get answers and other times I would not. Once I got alittle older, they told me everything I wanted to know. Some of it came as asurprise but still many other things I had figured out on my own throughexposure to media, which talked about the holocaust and the war.Undoubtedly, such exposure to this sort of legacy had affects on myperceptions of the world. I felt unique in that I had this past which none ofmy friends could share in. In American culture, ones ties to their ownancestry are often lost because it is often so many generations ago thatone’s family had another home on distant soil. These close connection whichhave developed over the years and later intensified because of the death ofmy mother, are what fueled my desire to write this paper on the movie“Schindler’s List”.The movie is a true story and takes place in Poland and Czechoslovakiaduring World War II. Oscar Schindler was an ethnic German born in Zwittauin Sudentland, which was an ethnically German portion of Czechoslovakia.Schindler’s family was one of the richest in Zwittau, but as a result of theeconomic depression of the 1930’s, his family firm became bankrupt.Schindler joined the Nazi Party to better his chances at economic survival.When the war broke out and Germany invaded Poland and Czechoslovakia,Schindler saw this as a great opportunity to make a fortune. He left his wife,Emilie, and moved to Krakow, where he took over a Jewish family’sapartment. This put him in the position of being able to capitalize on themisfortune of the Jews who had been forbidden from conducting businessesof their own. He managed to coax a handful of Jewish investors into fundinga new business owned by Schindler – converting an old enameled-goodsfactory into production of pots and pans for the war effort. The factory wouldemploy Jews since they were the cheapest source of labor at the time. Withthe help of his trusty Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern, Schindler’s factoryprospered and made a fortune off the backs of its Jewish workforce. As the brutality of the Nazis accelerated and despite Schindler’s greedynature, Schindler became a hero to the Jews in his factory. The movie does avery good job of showing how the heroism of Oscar Schindler saved over athousand Jews while vividly depicting the horrors of the holocaust. Thanks tohis political reliability and charismatic personality, Schindler managed toconvince top SS and German army officials to move more and more Jews intohis factory. In this way, he managed to save many intellectuals, artists, andfamilies of his Jewish workers from the gas chamber. Through careful bribes,he was able to persuade Amon Goeth, the commander of the Plaszow workcamp, to set up a little camp for his Jewish workers near the factory. Thisallowed more food and medicine to be smuggled into the factory. When thefront lines were being pushed west and the factory was in danger of beingdestroyed, sending all this workers to the death
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