Schindler’s List
Part II: Engaging with the text
Characters
The characters in Schindler’s List are very different because of their attitudes towards the Holocaust. The three main characters that will be focused on are Oskar Schindler, Itzhak Stern and Amon Goeth. These characters were very influential during the Holocaust; therefore, it is important to analyze these characters to gain a better understanding of the film.
Oskar Schindler
Our first introduction to Oskar Schindler was as a customer in a fancy restaurant. My first impression of Oskar Schindler was a rich and powerful business man. He was well-dressed and well-mannered; therefore, he must be from a higher class. He flashed his pile of money a couple of times to pay for
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This means that Oskar was unaware of the mass-murdered that rampaged throughout Germany, until he saw that little girl. Oskar’s treatments towards the Jews clearly changed after he saw that little girl. Others also recognized that Oskar treated the Jews with kindness unlike other Germans. For instance, a girl came begging for Oskar to help her parents from the concentration camp. She stated other Jews claimed that Oskar’s factory was like heaven. The word heaven shows that Oskar was a very good man because it was rare to hear the Jews describing German factories in a positive way. Also, the change in Oskar was shown when he told Amon that power is not the ability to kill. Power is when a man had every justification to kill but chose not to. This was one of the most powerful lines in the film because it greatly contrasted with the Nazi’s point-of-view. Furthermore, Oskar was trying to persuade Amon to think before killing an innocent Jew. Itzhak Stern is another person who influences Oskar to change his attitudes towards the Jews.
Itzhak Stern, who was Jewish, worked with Oskar as Oskar’s accountant. Oskar generally treated Stern very kindly but I suspected that it was only because Stern was running his business. However, Oskar started to show his caring side towards Stern later on in the film. For instance, Stern was about to be transported because he forgot his work transcript. Oskar used his influence to threaten the guards and finally rescue
He also wrote the memoir to help people see that Oscar Schindler was a hero for the Jews and that he saved so many lives, including the lives of Leon and his family. They, without a doubt, would not be here today without Schindler’s help, and the author didn’t want people to think of Schindler as a bad guy just because he was a Nazi. The tone that the author uses throughout the memoir is one of pain and suffering, but also gratefulness in spite of all of the torture. He looks back on his experience, and believes that he is lucky because he and his family survived when millions of others weren’t so lucky. This is very admirable because if most people had gone through this, they would feel nothing but self-pity. This memoir was a fantastic read, that gives readers great insight into the world of the Holocaust, and it vividly describes the pain that the Jewish people went through for years. The book gives readers a new appreciation for
Oskar Schindler’s identity drastically changes from the beginning to the end of the movie. At first, Schindler was a greedy, selfish, and rich man, who was a member of the Nazi party and profited from the war. He also was a womanizer who constantly cheated on his wife. He only cared about making money and he only hired Jewish workers because they were cheaper. He saved his workers initially because he did not want to pay to train other workers and protected them since he believed that their welfare impacted his business. He saw Jewish people differently than other Germans, he saw them as workers, and he inadvertently developed a reputation for kindness. He did not do this at first to be a
In the movie Schindler's List, the story of the Holocaust is told from a dual point of view; that of the Jewish people who are downtrodden,
Oskar Schindler was not one to pass up an opportunity to make some money. He marched into Poland with the SS and dove head first into the black market. He soon began to make friends with the Gestapo, the secret state police, by softening them up with women, money and alcohol. His newfound connections helped him to acquire a factory, which he ran with the cheapest labor around, Jews. At first, it seemed like he was another German money-driven industrialist but somewhere along the way something changed.
Only of bread.” Night, Elie Wiesel, page 115. The Jews were finally spared in both Night and Schindler’s List. Luckily, the ones that were saved, or bought, by Schindler were still in one piece. In Night, however, by the time that the Red Army arrived at Auschwitz, all the generations and technically only one generation before Elie were already executed, leaving their children, which are not even in one piece, with no parents. This is the difference. Both Schindler and the army could have done more for the Jews. If only the army just arrive a little sooner, the execution wouldn’t have taken place. And if only Schindler just realized how much a “human” life worth sooner, he could’ve used his money to save so much more innocent lives, but he didn’t because of his society, the Nazi, taught him to show no mercy towards Jewish. The society which have ruined these innocent people so much that they didn’t even want to revenge because they have nothing left to fight
However, emotion is not only conveyed through the actions of the main characters. Colour also has a significant impact on how good and evil is portrayed within the film. Perhaps the most moving image in Steven Spielberg?s epic, Schindler?s List, condenses all of the sadism of the Nazi regime into one small pictorial area. One of only four colour images in a black and white film spanning over three hours, the little girl in a red coat, making her way, aimless and alone through the madness and chaos, compels Schindler?s attention during the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto. Schindler identifies with the child, the plight of the little girl touches him in a way the sheer numbers make unreal ? this image transforms the faceless mass around him into one palpable human being. This figure serves as a moral reawakening for Schindler, his conscience consequently kicks into gear. The poignant yet subtle musical score also adds to the haunting atmosphere created by the
Oskar Schindler was a true hero during World War II. He risked life and limb for people he did not even meet before. He saved his accountant Itzhak Stern from death and Itzhak helped change his views and help save the Jews. Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jews from subsequently being sent to the gas chambers and he gave them food and work. Not a single S.S. officer got suspicious because they knew that the Jews would be working for a German cause, but on the contrary, they did not know that they were being treated affectionately and compassionately. Overall we believe that Oskar Schindler was a source of optimism and expectancy for the Jewish people. Oskar Schindler was the Moses of
The Holocaust appeared to be a time of darkness and it seemed like on Earth and in heaven, each doorway of humanity, empathy, and kindness had been closed down. Those who did not encounter the Holocaust cannot begin to comprehend what it was like, however, those who did cannot begin to express it. Torture, genocide, and cruel acts started to fill brains and souls. The Holocaust was an event where millions of people were being murdered during World War II. The memoir, Night by Elie Wiesel is based on Wiesel’s experiences in concentration camps, in order to give readers an insight of someone who was a victim of the Holocaust. The young narrator, Elie Wiesel, faces countless struggles for survival among the horrors of the Holocaust. In the memoir, Eliezer, the passionately, devoted boy with a benevolent family, is taken from his home and sent to a concentration camp. Through their unstable and dangerous journey, Elie is detached from his mother and sisters but lingers on with his father, only to be relocated from camp to camp. Elie mentions the death of numerous family members, the death of his own identity and innocence, to an extent in which living or dying did not matter anymore. In Night, Wiesel reveals that the exposure to an unsympathetic, bitter world generates to the destruction of the three main themes throughout the memoir which are; religious faith, identity, and family.
In the beginning of the film, Oskar Schindler is a man who is intrigued by anyway to make money. In the past, he has mostly been a failed businessman who is extremely persistent and will stop at nothing to become a profiteer. Schindler however, has an idea, unlike any idea he has ever had in the past. In the beginning of the film, he bribes and communicates with many German officials just as the war is beginning so he can gain access to jews and their free labor. He is an exceptionally greedy man who will abuse his power and social status to make money even if it’s through the blood, sweat, and tears of other individuals. At the beginning of the film, Schindler proclaims, “In every business I tried, I can see now, it wasn't me that failed. Something was missing.” He expresses that the reason for his success in his newly found business can be credited to war. This quote clearly indicates his extreme desire for wealth. However, over time he begins to adjust and modify his behaviors as a result of his friendship with a Jewish man named Itzhak Stern, who also is a manager of his business. As time goes on he begins to protect his workers and save them from concentration camps proclaiming that they are “essential workers” for the war effort. Schindler has now begun to understand that jews
Oskar scheduler being the main character is an example between good and evil. The film follows oskar from a money hungry, womanizing, business man. Whose only aim was to make a profit for the war. His materialistic attuned is toned down, when he is exposed to the harsh treatment towards Jew face. We then see the good in oskar layout when takes his wealth and power to save the live of 1,110 jews, while risking his wealth and power. In the end Oskars proxies of money and women are no longer important to him. He was unlikely role model that become one of the greatest
Oskar Schindler faced many conflicts in his life. The main conflict he faced was overcoming the Nazis and saving over one thousand Jewish People. Schindler, with out a job at the time, joined the Nazi Party and followed on the heels of the SS when the Germans invaded Poland. This is when Schindler took over two previously Jewish owned companies that dealt with the manufacture and sales of enamel kitchenware products and opened up his own enamel shop right outside of Krakow near the Jewish ghetto. There, he employed mostly Jewish workers, which saved them from being deported to labor camps. Though twice the Gestapo arrested him, he got released because of his many connections and with many bribes. Most
Watching Schindler's list I decided to focus on Oskar Schindler. Throughout the movie Schindler personal emotions change on the war. In the beginning we see that it was a good thing for business that nothing else mattered as long as he made money. When Jews would come up he wouldn't care about them because he knew he could manipulate them and earn more money since they needed him. Schindler didn't really care for the Jews and what would happen to them. We see that Schindler only concern is that his business profits in the war. His concern for going to parties were to make connection that would better his money earning business. Money was his only concern which is why he went out seeking a jew. Since having a jew made it so they could be payed less than a normal person and they would be to scared to not do work. If he got a Jew it would earn him more money than hiring a German accountant. After getting an accountant he goes and seek workers for his factory. The workers are Jews since they don't need to be payed to be working. We later learn that his wife influences him with making business and wanting to succeed. He came from a place where he had nothing and is just beginning to make it. Hes making so much money he doesn't know what to do and he thanks the war for that. With his business doing so well he starts to care about his workers. He cares about them because he needs them to continue making the money.He starts really caring about his accountant Stern he makes sure he
‘Schindler’s List’ is no less a “Jewish story” or a “German story” than it is a human story. And its subject matter applies to every generation.’ [Stephen Spielberg] Discuss.
From this moment on, the people that worked for Schindler were not just Jews, they were Schindlerjuden, people who he had the responsibility of protecting. Itzak Stern was no longer just his accountant and business manager, he was Schindler’s go-to person vital to the survival of the Schindlerjuden. Schindler grew closer to Stern as the war progressed and he began to regard Stern as an equal, sharing personal thoughts and decisions with him. After the war, Schindler relied on Stern and the other Schindlerjuden for support as he was never able to live a secure life because of the effect the war had on him.
The novel describes his family life in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his rebellious teenage years in the newly created state of Czechoslovakia. The novel informs the reader of Oskar Schindler’s relationship with his