The Role Of Power Among Characters In Schindler's List

The most notorious for the heinous deeds were the Schutzstaffel, or the SS. This paramilitary branch of Nazis, who were highly regarded by Hitler, treated the Jewish race with no respect for their own livelihood, or had any sympathy for what they were going through. As Elie describes his time in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, he mentions one of the SS officers who came into their barracks, “...with crime inscribed upon his brow and in the pupils of his eyes. He looked us over as if we were a pack of leprous dogs hanging onto our lives.” (Wiesel 47). This excerpt from the novel displays the sincere hatred he had for the malnourished and weak Jews who stood before him. These special soldiers slaughtered Jews by the thousands, without making any sort of attempt to stop what was occurring. The SS had one goal during World War II, and that was to exterminate the Jewish race from the Earth. At any moment, someone could be killed, no matter the reason. The Germans didn't care, all they wanted was the Jews

Hitler had shown unwillingness to tolerate the Jews and once he was appointed Chancellor, he started to take elimination measures like deportation, forced emigration, and isolation to enforce his belief. He took advantage of Germany’s weakness in World War One, then used it as an opportunity to blame the Jews for Germany’s defeat. Hitler’s political party was the largest political party in Germany thus allowing them to draw very large crowds to gatherings. He had very good oratory speeches with hand gestures that easily manipulated people to adhere to his views. Hitler constantly targeted the Jews because he knew people believed in these speeches. People in Germany were already anti-semitic but Hitler made it worse by constantly consuming them in his speeches. From the way he spoke about the Jews, we could clearly see the possibility of genocide. Hitler wanted Germany to be free of any humans that anyone other than his ideal master race so he personally selected bodyguards to be part of a group called the SS. Hitler was responsible for ordering the SS to carry out the extermination of anyone who did not fit this ideal. The SS handled oppositions using force and as a result of which people were forced to give into the idea of violence. Sometimes people purposely went along with this Holocaust ideal due to the fear of getting killed. These terrors allowed the holocaust occur

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

Ian Kershaw empathetically states that “The Holocaust was the systematic, extermination of six million Jews by the Nazi government and their allies during World War II.” He further add that it wasn’t until after Adolph Hitler “became Chancellor of the German government, he began targeting the Jews as racially inferior to the German people (Kershaw, 1985).

Power, such a valuable thing that can easily be abused, but what exactly is power? Power is control, an unbreakable force obtained through higher authority, or at least that is what the dictionary states. However, is it really power if one fears the corruption of power? Imagine being crammed in a dingy barrack housed with imprisoned groups of men and women living in wretched conditions, praying for liberation. Moreover, being treated like an animal, deprived of food, beaten, and even stripped of your dignity and identity based on your religious beliefs and culture. Unfortunately, those were the living circumstances of Jews during the years of 1933 to 1945 due to the event of the Holocaust which killed approximately 6 million Jews. In the film, “Schindler’s List”, it illuminates on how crucial culture is within a society and how disapproval of differing cultures can lead to social inequality.

By Hitler taking these actions and deciding to carry out the Holocaust he killed 12 million Jewish, disabled, and communist people.. Also by carrying out the Holocaust he changed the way many saw the world, it made some realize how cruel the world can be. Although this is not the only genocide in history, it is usually the most thought about and sympathized about. Also this was the first time the term “Genocide” was used.

During the time of the holocaust, Hitler was one that had the most power during this time. In the memoir, Night, Wiesel states, “I have more faith in Hitler than anyone else. He alone has kept his promise, all his promises, to the Jews” (Wiesel 81). Hitler had made a promise to annihilate all Jews before the clock was to strike twelve. This shows that ... Hitler was a man of great power, who showed nothing more than mortality. In addition, Hitler would state his proposition of what he was planning on doing to the Jews and those taken into the concentration camp.

The Holocaust was one of, if not the worst mass murder in history. The Nazis did one of the most horrifying things you could think of, killing so many innocent people. Many different groups of people other than jews were also victims of this tragic event. Some of those other groups were: LGBTQ individuals, the physically and mentally disabled, slavs, and members of opposing political groups. These groups of people were ripped from their homes and put into concentration camps. The Nazis would either separate them from their family or they would keep them together and they would have to watch the Nazis torture their family and friends. During this very tragic point in history, more than six million Jewish lives were taken, in total there were over 12 million victims of the Holocaust. Not only did this affect the survivors it also affected families of the victims, survivors and anybody else that was connected through this tragedy. The Nazis, came to “power” in January 1933, which was during a time Germany was going through an economic hardship. They believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, were "inferior.” Adolf Hitler played a very big factor in everything that went down. Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party and was also known as the dictator of the Holocaust. The Nazis did have others that were Hitler’s “army” and they took orders from Hitler to do awful things to the victims and they were commonly known as

There was little, if any economic gain; in fact, one would think that the Holocaust brought economic loss to Germany because Jews owned a greater majority of the shops at the time. The Jews represented absolutely no threat to the German nation, nor to the Nazi party as a whole (Judy 1). The rational nature of its execution, its efficiency, calculability, predictability and control are even more inhumane in that every extermination system was planned to kill as many Jews as possible, as fast as possible. This methodical slaughter of 11 to 12 million human beings began in late 1938 and ended in 1945. Of the approximately 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, more than half were systematically exterminated in the inhumane death traps, such as furnaces and gas chambers, of the Nazi Death Camps between 1942 and 1945 (History 1).

The Holocaust was one of the most horrible and dreaded events in history. Millions of Jews were killed, leaving many families devastated and hopeless. With the goal of racial purity, Adolf Hitler- along with many other Germans believed the Jews caused the defeat of their country, and led the Nazis to the elimination of Jews. For this reason, “Even in the early 21st century, the legacy of the Holocaust endures…as many as 12,000 Jews were killed every day” (The Holocaust). Later, Hitler organized concentration camps, where mass transports of Jews from ghettoes were brought and typically killed also. However, the fortunate Jews that were not killed still had many restrictions on their

Einsatzgruppen, Murderers of the Innocent The Einsatzgruppen had killed a million Jewish and Soviet supporters by 1943. The Einsatzgruppen were one of the most devastating tools Adolf Hitler utilized during the Holocaust in an effort to exterminate the Jewish population: one might say the worst next to the death camps. The Einsatzgruppen were the mobile killing squads that hunted Jewish people down and murdered them in cold blood right there in front of others.

The Holocaust is most well-known for the organized and inhumane extermination of more than six million Jews. The death total of the Jews is this most staggering; however, other groups such as Gypsies, Poles, Russians, political groups, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals were targeted as well (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Introduction to the Holocaust). The initial idea of persecuting select groups of people began with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. In January 1930, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany after winning over its people with powerful and moving speeches. From this point forward, it was a goal for both Hitler and his Nazi Party to rid the world of deemed “inferior” groups of people (Holocaust Encyclopedia: Timeline

When one thinks of the most evil and powerful person through history, one often thinks of Adolf Hitler. However, most of the feats accomplished by Hitler would have been impossible without the help of his lesser known right-hand man, Heinrich Himmler. Deemed “the second most powerful man in Germany during World War II” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), he helped Hitler carry out his brutal genocide of the Jewish religion. Heinrich Himmler played an extremely important role in the Holocaust.

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.