In the novel Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally, the story of the Holocaust is told from a dual point of view--that of the Jewish people who are downtrodden, rounded up and taken to camps, murdered and degraded by the Nazis, and that of the German industrialist who takes it upon himself to save a large number of Jewish people from their fate. The question raised by the book is not as much why does he do this as why does everyone else not. Some of the reasons have been given before--many of the most culpable, the Nazi bureaucrats who assisted directly in the deportation and murder of millions of people, argued that they were under orders and had no choice, and they pleaded during their trials that they had all acted under orders. The novel and the film both tell the story of a man who did not leave it to others and who saw it as a personal need to do what he could to alleviate if not change the situation. Much of the critical response to the film has centered on issues related to this central character and to why he acted as he did.
Interestingly, early critical argument over the novel centered on a very different issue. The book was originally published in Australia under the title Schindler's Ark, and a discussion erupted in the pages of various literary publications over whether or not the book should be classified as fiction. Michael Hulse wrote that the historical truth of the book was beyond doubt, and the book carries an acknowledgment of a list of survivors (much as the film brings forth survivors and their families at the end) who provided the author with testimony as to the events described. Hulse thus concludes that the book is a history. However, the book received the Booker Prize, an award for fiction, which is the reason for the controversy. The controversy produced arguments on both sides. Paul Ableman stated that what differentiates a novel from any other prose work is the power of the creative imagination w...