Oskar Schindler's Evolution

Schindler's List is a fictionalized account of a man named Oskar Schindler who lived in German occupied Poland and saved the lives of thousands of Jews. However most people that have read the book agree that the main character doesn’t start out being quite the hero that he ends up as. The simplistic view of his evolution is that he begins his journey as a stereotypical businessman, someone who cares only for himself and about making money, but then when he sees the horrible murders of Jews in the ghetto he instantly decides to do all he can to save them. However, there were plenty of other times prior to that event where the SS did nasty things, like when the police kicked the Nussbaum family out of their home in order to give Schindler a nice apartment, so why did this specific event prompt Oskar to change his mind? A deeper reading of the book suggests a more interesting and subtle change in Schindler’s character, starting with the passage in Chapter 3 where Oskar compensates the Nussbaum’s for getting kicked out of their home. From that moment, his personality begins to gradually evolve between scenes, until in Chapter 15, he sees a little girl watching the cruel murder of a mother and her son. This moment signifies a turning point after which Schindler is fully resolved to help the Jews and defeat the Nazis in any way that he can. There were bound to be many other people, even other businessmen, who knew the terrible things Nazis were doing, so why was Oskar the only one who decided to help the Jews, and why did it take him so long to act?

In the simplistic view of the book, Schindler switches from a selfish profiteer with no sense of right or wrong, to an ethical and selfless savior. However in the sophisticated view, Schindler is always a decent man, but the main thing that changes is the kind of morality he lives by. Throughout the first few chapters, his morals are that of a businessman; primarily looking out for himself, but otherwise believing that things should be fair. One who accepts these morals deals with unjust actions between individuals, and thinks that if you treat someone fairly you should expect the same thing from them in return. However throughout the later events leading up to the scene in Chapter 15, we see that Oskar’s morals evolve to those of a humanitarian. Someone with this view primarily looks out for others, and thinks that in general everything should be good. This approach focuses more on the interaction between groups of people, and one who accepts these morals deals with bad, evil, and wrong actions by a majority onto a minority. This is who Schindler ends up as once he realizes that the whole German government is attacking the entirety of the Jewish population, not just that some individual soldiers or officials are acting unfairly towards specific Jewish families.

One of the first important moments to look at when studying the evolution of Schindler’s morals is in Chapter 3, when it is stated that “A number of Schindler’s friends would claim later—though it is not possible to prove it—that Oskar had gone looking for the dispossessed Nussbaums at their lodgings in Podgorze and had given them a sum close to 50,000 zloty in compensation [for their home].” In this passage Schindler does something unexpected, and while there are two possible explanations for his decision, each with realistic evidence, one is a simple interpretation, and one is sophisticated.

For a reader focusing on the simplistic view, the main character’s actions don’t seem like something a stereotypical, selfish businessman would do freely. Later in this paragraph, it explains that some of his friends would say that “generosity was a disease in Oskar, a frantic thing”. This is like an excuse that the book makes for the inconsistency with the simple theory. The text explains that this is a special circumstance, that what Schindler did was considered something bad for him, a disease, and that he wouldn’t have done it normally, if he was in “good health”. However a deeper reader might notice that as an entrepreneur, Schindler seems to care about things being fair. This is why, when the SS demonstrates the saying “nothing personal, it’s just business” by kicking the Nussbaum family out of their apartment to make room for Oskar, he feels that it’s his responsibility to balance the involuntary “deal” by repaying the Nussbaums himself. When it says in the text that “[Oskar] thought the Reich housing authorities were unjust”, we are first shown evidence for the sophisticated view, that at the beginning of the book Schindler thinks about the government’s actions with terms like “unjust”, so, as someone with a businessman’s morals, he resolves to make things fair by compensating the Nussbaum

family.

In Chapter 4, the book hints at an element of doubt and suspicion growing in Schindler’s loyalty to his country. However this uncertainty is not directed at the individual Nazis as before, but towards the entire state. When the text says that “After all, both Oskar and the Jews told themselves, the Germans were a civilized nation”, one can notice that the words ‘told themselves’ are used here, and not ‘thought’. This implies that Schindler and the Jews wanted their home to be a reasonable and civilized place, but that they were starting to doubt this fact, and so began feeling the need to reassure themselves that everything was fine. In terms of Oskar’s morals, a civilized nation could still do unfair or unjust things to some of its citizens, but it would never go around systematically killing innocent groups of people or purposely undertaking evil operations. Another piece of evidence for Schindler’s newfound discomfort is in Chapter 5, where he invites some acquaintances of his to a party. All of these people are described as Oskar’s friends, however the text also emphasizes their use as possible contacts. Moreover “they were all variously uneasy under the regime”, so Schindler chose each of them strategically in preparation for worse things to come. In summary, Oskar starts gathering friends and contacts that feel uneasy about the current events, just like him, and begins to acknowledge his looming feelings of uncertainty and suspicion about the future.