Schindler S List Essay, Research Paper

The once almost forgotten Hitler Jews are brought back to life by Schindler s List. The movie opens quietly with a pre-war Polish Jewish family lighting candles and saying prayers on Friday night. The family disappears, and eventually, the candles burn out.

The scene switches to a man carefully dressing, stuffing his hand with money and carefully pinning a Nazi pin to his lapel. He is a shadowy figure, paying his way to get a fine table at a fancy restaurant in Krakow, and catching the eye of some Nazi officers. His name is Oscar Schindler and he is just a business man making contacts and buying influence. Soon his wining and dining pays off, as he acquires a manufacturing plant that produces pots and pans for the Nazi Army. Oscar really didn t have any clue what was going on as far as the situation with the Jews and the Nazi Army. Reality struck him when his workers were being taken away from his ghettos and placed in concentration camps.

Jews, who worked for free were his main source of labor. Actually, what the Jews are getting in return is even more valuable than money. Freedom. He is freeing them from being destroyed. Once Schindler recognizes this tragedy, he puts his on life in danger to save all of the Jews that he can. He is so generous that people ask him to let people work in the factory so they will live. He does so. He has a heart but he also does it for his personal gain. At first, he just opens the factory to gain money. In the end, we see him spending all of his money to save the Jews. The courageous man makes up a list containing thousands upon thousands of Jews that he requested to come and work in an artillery manufacturing plant. His main goal is not to produce massive amounts of artillery, but rather to save the lives of as many Jews as possible. In fact not one round of the artillery that Oscar had made worked. By the end of the movie Oscar is broke, and all that he ends up with is a car and a gold ring that was made and given by the Jews that he rescued.

We also get a look into other lives of World War II, such as Amon Goeth and Itzhak Stern. Goeth is the mean, Nazi commander who is portrayed as the villain of the film. He chooses a Jew to be his slave and do things for him. Soon, he finds himself in love with her. In a shocking scene, Goeth goes out on a balcony and just shoots people at random. He is an evil man and for a moment in the film, when he lets a kid go for not being able to clean a bathtub, we see a compassionate man. Ten seconds later, he shoots and kills the kid. At first you thought he was going to change, but after this scene we know that he will never change.

Itzhak Stern is a Jew chosen by Schindler to work as an accountant. However, Stern has an effect on Schindler which is part of the reason Schindler decides to save all his workers. We see his compassion when he rescues Stern from being shipped to a concentration camp. Itzhak is afraid but brave enough to stand up for his beliefs.

The credits, at the end of the movie, revealed that approximately six million Jews were persecuted. With so few Jews left over, Oscar was one of the very few that helped save a small percentage of the race. Several years after Schindlers death, the Jews that he saved from the Holocaust placed stones on his tombstone out of respect for such a courageous job that he did.

Personally, I own this film and this is the third time that I have watched it. Every time I see Schindler s List I get the same results. It is a very difficult film to watch even when you know what is going to happen. It is hard to imagine that anyone could be this cruel to a human race. The sad thing about this movie is that it just touched on the horrid torture that took place. The movie was a reminder of the Holocaust, and to inform people of all the good that Oscar Schindler put forth. If you thought that the movie was bad, can you imagine what seeing the total massacre that took place against the Jews.

Hearing about the Holocaust is one thing, but viewing a visual picture of what is actually like is totally different. The movie is very graphic, yet it relays a lot of useful information to the viewers about the Holocaust. I believe that it is really important for young adults on up to watch this. I believe that it was very important to show this film to us despite the many horrific scenes. It does a great job of getting across how terrible the situation really was. As upsetting as the movie is to watch, it is gripping and extraordinary.