The film SchindlerÆs List, directed by Stephen Spielberg is an unsparing and shocking account of the deportation of Polish Jews to ghettos and concentration camps. The film is based on a book about Oskar Schindler by Thomas Keneally, SchindlerÆs Ark. The book was based on interviews with 50 survivors of the holocaust who survived due to SchindlerÆs intervention. The film is very realistic because of its source material and an accurate account of history. In the accounts of many holocaust survivors we are treated to the horrors of concentration camp life. The film pulls no punches in portraying such episodes. We see how evil Nazis like Amon Goethe routinely use hard-laboring Jewish concentration camp prisoners as targets for shooting practice. We see how many Jews were forced into sexual servitude against their will. And, in a quite dramatic episode, we see how Jews like Lowenstein were routinely shot at point-blank range because they were perceived as ôundesirableö.
The film is basically shown from the perspectives of three men, Oskar Schindler, Itzhak Stern and Among Goeth. Schindler is a war profiteer and cons, schmoozes, and bribes his way to the top whether it is among Jews or SS officials. He decides to open a cookware factory and knows he needs someone with a head for business to run it. Schindler will add the ôpanacheö but it will be Stern, a Jewish accountant, who achieves success for the business. As Stern informs Schindler, ôLet me understand. They put up all the money. I do all the workö. This is after Schindler has informed him of his fatherÆs advice he puts much stock in, ôMy father was fond of saying you need three things in lifeùa good doctor, a forgiving priest, and a clever accountantö.
The film does not sympathize with Schindler, try to excuse his womanizing, gambling and conning, nor does it make him out to be the ideal hero. In fact, other than witnessing the horrors of how Jew...