Steven Spielberg is arguably the most well-known director of our time. His credibility has grown since the beginning of his first film and continues to this day. During his late thirties, he received a movie script that struck the very heart of him. This movie was Schindlers List but at that point in his career, he did not feel mature enough to work on it. There was heavy pressure on him due to the fact that this movie was about the Holocaust, making it the most important film of his career. He waited almost ten years after receiving the script to even begin working on the film (“Steven Spielberg”). The film touched home for him since he grew up as a Jew and was even smacked and kicked around in high school for being one. On top of this, he had relatives that died in Poland and Ukraine during the Holocaust (Weinraub). Instead of making a movie with a Jewish protagonist, Spielberg decided to instead make a movie about Oscar Schindler who was part of the Nazi Party. Many criticized this decision, since many believed a Holocaust film should be about the Jewish struggle and not about a Nazi party member.
Schindlers List is centered on Oskar Schindler with the Holocaust in the background. He was a business man, womanizer and heavy drinker throughout his life. He was also married to Emile Pelzl but was always caught with many
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Schindlers List tries to accomplish this goal, by educating us on the horrible events that took place in Plaszow. Spielberg decided to go with a Nazi protagonist turned good instead of a Jewish protagonist struggling through the Holocaust. Schindlers List is a significant film in understanding the Holocaust because of clever film techniques, powerful scenes depicting Nazi ideology, the overall theme of the lists, and Oscar Schindler’s close ties with
There were many aspects in World War two, but the Holocaust is likely the most famous to date. A particular interest is shown for the Holocaust simply because of the unbelievable amount of inhumanity that was exhibited. Although saddening, the attention that has been focused on uncovering the truths of this terrifying event is necessary. Truly understanding how awful the Holocaust was helps to ensure that something similar will never happen again. The book Night and the movie Schindler’s List are two recollections of the Holocaust written from two, very different, perspectives.
Jews, a religious group of people originating from Israel, have lived in Europe, including Germany, for about 1500 years (Carr; Shyovitz). As Jews moved away from Israel, agriculture was no longer their main form of breadwinning. They have become more educated and many acquired skilled professions. In Europe, Christians were not allowed to lend money and the Jews have become the main money lenders. The knowledge, skills, and money lending abilities that Jews possessed allowed them to become extremely prosperous. During 1000-1500, most Rulers in Europe were Christians, who disliked the Jews (Carr). Although they lived peacefully with their neighbors, Christians blamed
Oskar Schindler was a German spy in the Nazi Party.He was also a very wealthy businessman who owned a war goods manufacturing factory in the World War II era. Schindler managed to employ 1,200 Jews in his factory in an effort to save them. While Schindler did this, a new concentration camp opened up near him that was run by the notorious Amon Goth. Schindler cultivated a relationship with Goth, so whenever Goth would try to take the Jews to his camp, Schindler would bribe him with black market goods. Later on in the war the camp was forced to shut down due to the advance of the Allies. Schindler got word that all of his Jewish workers would be shipped to Auschwitz with the other Jews. Schindler, upset by this, decided to build a new factory
...a film it is not simply a work of art, it is a story of a historical tragedy that would deem economically successful; Schindler's List is about 200 Jews who lived, while the Holocaust is about 6 million that died, the film required a Hollywood nature around it in order to be popular and consumable (Kubrick, 2000).
Oskar Schindler was a German Industrialist and a previous member of the Nazi Party (Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) ). Schindler had many jobs, including working in his father’s machinery business, opening a driving school, selling government property, and serving in the Czechoslovak army (Oskar Schindler). At first, Oskar was motivated by money and he did not care if the way he got that money was unfair or illegal, but then his mindset changed when he noticed all of the victims from the Holocaust (Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) ). He then changed his goal from making as much money as possible to saving as many Jews as he could from Plaszow and Auschwitz (Oskar
The Holocaust was the state sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Six million Jews were killed through the process of identification, exclusion, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation and extermination. Many who fought against the Nazi’s are seen as heroes which is clearly portrayed in the film “Schindler’s List” through the protagonist Oskar Schindler as he saves the lives of 1100 Jews. Schindler was prepared to make his fortune from World War II. Joining the Nazi party for political convenience, he staffs his factory with Jewish laborers. At the point when the SS starts eradicating Jews in the Krakow ghetto, Schindler organized to have his workers secured
The movie starts out in a Jewish home, where a Jewish family is celebrating the Sabbath. Candles are lit while songs are sung, and when the Jews leave the house, the candles slowly burn out. The German forces have just defeated the Polish, and now the Jews are being forced out of their homes. They are reporting to the train station where they register their names, and then are shipped off to Krakow. In Krakow the Jews are gathered together in the ghetto where they are forced to live in overcrowded conditions. The Judenrat, a Jewish council, organizes the Jews into working groups according to their abilities. Oskar Schindler, a German business man, visits the ghetto to talk to Itzhak Stern, a Jew who owns a pot-making factory. Oskar and Itzhak make a deal in which Schindler will take over the factory but Stern will be the plant manager. The Jews are once again sorted according to their education and working ability, those who cannot work are sent to extermination camps while some of those who are able to, reported to Schindler’s factory. The Nazi’s decide that all of the Jews should be confined in forced labor camps. Schindler, who is now starting to feel some empathy and responsibility towards his workers, volunteers to confine his workers in his factory.
These ideas all correlate with how we view World War II history and how Inglourious Basterds muddles our previous thoughts on how these events occurred. Many Americans have watered down the depiction of Jewish oppression during Nazi reign to swiftly round up concentration camps. What Quentin Tarantino and the Jewish film community wanted to illustrate through this film is how this is an incorrect overgeneralization. Inglourious Basterds illustrates more realistic Jewish life during Nazi reign and the constant terror they faced. This oppression was far more personal, intimate, and cordial yet brutal altercations invoked through self-defense and hatred.
During World War II, German forces pushed all Polish Jews from Krakow into the local ghetto that was already full with Polish Jews. Schindler’s List shows how a member of the Nazi Party, Oskar Schindler, saves Jews from the Krakow Ghetto and many others by opening an enamelware factory and bribing German officials. Schindler hires a Jewish official named Itzhak Stern to help him run the factory and manage finances. Eventually, the factory is up and running, but the Krakow Ghetto was ordered to be emptied, a process in which many Jews were killed. Schindler watches this massacre from a distant mountain and realizes that he wants to save Jews with his factory instead of focusing on making a profit. The man in charge of the concentration camp
feels he must turn his factory into a refuge for Jews. By doing so he
A film bursting with visual and emotional stimuli, the in-depth character transformation of Oscar Schindler in Schindler’s List is a beautiful focal point of the film. Riddled with internal conflict and ethical despair, Schindler challenges his Nazi Party laws when he is faced with continuing his ambitious business ideas or throwing it all away for the lives of those he once saw as solely cheap labor. Confronted with leading a double life and hiding his motivations from those allegiant to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, Schindler undergoes numerous ethical dilemmas that ultimately shape his identity and challenge his humanity. As a descendent of a Jewish-American, Yiddish speaking World War II soldier who helped liberate concentration camps in Poland, this film allowed for an enhanced personal
From the first moment of Schindler's List to the very last, you will be amazed by the strength and resilience of the Jewish people during this horrendous time in their history. You will witness and feel their pain and horror in this very graphic, yet painfully true story. Steven Speilberg deserves all of the awards this film had brought him. It is a time in history we should never forget and pray that we will never witness again.
Schindler’s List had a great effect on me personally. I thought that Thomas Keneally did an excellent job in making the reader feel the events of the time. Perhaps what I found to be most interesting in Schindler’s List is a question of morality. I began asking myself the question, would I be as heroic as Oskar Schindler if I were in his shoes? I think that this is exactly what Keneally wanted us to do; he wanted us to look at ourselves and analyze what’s inside. Historically, I find Schindler’s List to be very important not only because it is tells of a shameful time in western civilization, but also because the events that took place in the novel occurred only yesterday. After all fifty years is almost nothing in historical terms. Perhaps the novel’s greatest strength is this feeling that the events that transpired in Schindler’s List are in fact modern history.
In an interview in The Atlantic, Quentin Terentino stated how “Holocaust movies always have Jews as victims…We’ve seen that story before. I want to see something different. Let’s see Germans that are scared of Jews.” (Terentino). This probably sums up how much he wanted this film to be original.
I wanted to film Schindler’s List for the reason that the Holocaust was a ghastly occasion in history and should not be over and done. The Jews suffered to the highest degree, they were exposed of their soul rights, treated be fond of animals, slaughtered in the vein of animals. I Intend to remind people of what the Jews had to go all the way through , how Hitler shed them out from the social order. What happened to the Jews should never happen for a second time to anyone. I chose to spotlight Oscar Schindler, because this chap did an extraordinary thing. He saved countless Jews from foreseeable imprisonment and execution. He is evidence that one being can make a difference.