Schindler’s List

Schindler ‘s List is a1993 American film directed by Steven Spielberg . The film tells the story of Oskar Schindler , a German businessmanwho saved the lives of about 1100 Polish Jews during the Holocaust . It is based on the historical fiction novel Schindler’s Ark ( Schindler’s Ark ), written by Thomas Keneally . It starred Liam Neeson (as Schindler), Ralph Fiennes (as SS officer Amon Leopold Goeth ), and Ben Kingsley (Schindler’s accountant, Itzhak Stern ). The film won seven Oscars , including Best Picture , Best Director and Best Soundtrack . He also won 7 BAFTA Awards and 3 Golden Globes . It is part of AFI’s 10 Top 10 in the category “Epic films”.

It tells the story of a businessman of German origin, Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson ), a member of the Nazi Party who had just arrived in Krakow . Initially it takes advantage of the situation in Poland (recently invaded by the Nazi army ) to create a factory of kitchen articles, and for this it reaches an agreement with the director of a field of forced labor to use Jewish labor from the ghetto Of Krakow, the most economical work option available. Schindler depends on his Jewish accountant , Itzhak Stern (played by Ben Kingsley ).

But soon, Oskar tries to help his workers by preventing them from going to concentration camps or extermination camps. To do this, he has to buy the Jews to save them from their cruel fate at that time.

Argument

Start of the film

In the darkness, a couple of candles are lit, on a quiet afternoon, while a Jewish family blesses the Sabbath . The color scene, emphasizes little by little in the pair of candles, that while they are consumed the color disappears, being little by little black and white. At the moment the candles are completely consumed, the smoke from the wick rises (enters the black and white color that will last the rest of the film except an exception, in a girl’s coat of the ghetto) and gives rise to a Image of a newly arrived train at an outdoor station.

It is September 1939 and it has only been a week since the German troops have marched with victory to Poland . Thousands of Krakow Jews are ordered to register with their families in a census issued by the Reich Governor-General Hans Frank . Oskar Schindler is a German man, young and enigmatic, whom for the first time we see (without even seeing his face) in a small apartment, listening to the melancholy Hungarian song ” Gloomy Sunday “, full of suitcases , some unopened, which shows Who is newcomer to Krakow , as he smokes, drinks and prepares his finest and most elegant clothes, huge wads of money, and finally a huge golden pin with the swastika , the emblem of the Nazi party , of which he is a member.

He manages to enter an elegant Polish restaurant, while listening to the tango “Por Una Cabeza” by Carlos Gardel , thanks to bribing the waiter at the door with money to let him in. The waiter, named Martin, asks his partner, Jerzy, if he knows who the haughty and enigmatic gentleman has just entered, to which Jerzy responds that he does not know. Meanwhile, Schindler, smoking a cigarette with gallant style, with his gaze, examines the place and the people, the beautiful women , who addressed them flirtatious smiles, and especially the SS officers, looking at their ranks, Looking for the highest positions with the aim of establishing “friendship” with them. Then, Schindler, sees Rolf Czurda, an SS Nazi officer with his girlfriend and a subordinate at a table; Schindler raises his hand showing some bills, Jerzy approaches and Schindler asks him to send them a bottle from him. “Very well, sir,” says Jerzy, somewhat intimidated by such a man. “And who do you say sends her?” To which Schindler responds with serenity “Tell them it’s on my side”, and this is how Jerzy brings a bottle to Czurda’s table, this one, somewhat surprised, asks his girlfriend Agnieszka and his subordinate if they know the mysterious man who Has invited. Czurda orders his subordinate to find out who he is, the subordinate arrives and is invited by Schindler to stay, and Czurda, who has tried to court his girlfriend, is interrupted by the surprise of seeing that his subordinate has also been enchanted by Schindler, and Far from fulfilling the mission of finding out who he is, is now sitting at his table talking to him. Something annoying and willing to end this, Czruda tells his girlfriend to wait for him, and stands determined to scold Schindler, however, he is barely steps away from Schindler’s desk when he is, smiling, more upright And loudly than Czurda, greets him politely and questions him why he leaves a beautiful woman alone at a table, walks towards Agnieszka and taking the arm, kissing his hand and inviting Czurda to his table and a drink of vodka. The confused Czurda finally smiles fascinated by his new comrade. As the night progresses, Schindler, gazing with delight at some cabaret Polish dancers , hands Jerzy a new roll of bills, to fill his table with the best banquets they have. More tables are added to Schindler’s, SS, SD officers and dancers, as well as some women and party members, including Czurda and Hermann Toffel, who mock the Jews who have taken the newly issued order The band with the Star of David , as an opportunity to do business, and also make fun of the tendency of the Jews to always escape the storms. Schindler, makes sure that no one lacks food and drink, and it does not take long for everyone to laugh, adoring him as the soul of the party. More people join the table, tempted by the fact that no one at the party is having a better time than those with Schindler. Moments later, everyone is a little drunk, singing happily, while Schindler, leading the singing, equally cheerful remains sober, despite having drunk the same or perhaps more than all his guests. At that moment, the Oberführer Julian Scherner arrives with his wife, they sit at the diagonal table, and Scherner will not be slow to call Martin to ask who is the man from whom all the fun emanates, and Martin, now responds with great enthusiasm : “It’s Oskar Schindler!” Scherner, intrigued, fixed his gaze on him.

A photographer begins to take pictures of Schindler with all the restaurant, smiling: Czurda, who blocks Agniezka to get closer to Schindler, the dancers, the officers, all smiling, neither wants to miss the opportunity of a photograph with him . Finally, Julian Scherner and his wife end up sharing the fun, along with Schindler, who has had victory in entering the circle of Nazi aristocracy, and now will not hesitate to use such an advantage for their own benefit.

Itzhak Stern

Some time later, in the streets of Krakow, where the Nazis humiliate and mistreat Jews by cutting their curls or beating them, the Jewish ghetto has just been finished. Schindler, meanwhile, visits the Judenrat , the Jewish council of Krakow , a place where there are innumerable complaints from many resident Jews, all elegantly dressed, but with the Star of David in their arms. Mr Judah Dresner is one of those responsible for attending two well-to-do Jews in the Judenrat: Schoolmaster Chaim Nowak and Rabbi Jakob Levartow, who criticize the fact that the Nazis violate the constitution’s articles on privacy Of abode and respect for religion and individual beliefs. Maria Mischel, a young Jewish woman, complains about the SS officers who arrive at her house and take them out saying that it no longer belongs to them but to the Reich. In questioning what the Nazis would do if she decided to remove the band with the star, Mr. Dresner replies that they would kill her. Schindler, as imposing as ever, arrives at the Judenrat’s chamber and asks loudly for the accountant Itzhak Stern to whom, in a private conversation, he offers the accountant job of a company, asking him to contact him with important Jewish businessmen to Thus being able to buy a company of enamelled metal manufacturing that was bankrupt. Schindler and Stern are extremely different men. Very unlike Schindler, Stern is calm, serene and serious, often silent and always speaks with great wisdom. Schindler, very clever, cunning and full of vigor, reveals to him his plan: Taking advantage of the SS to remove belongings to the Jews, they would take away their citizenship, they would block their bank accounts and they prevented them the entrance to restaurants, stores and Other public places, Schindler intends to hire only Jewish workers, since being cheap labor, paid by the employer to the Reich’s Office of Economics (ie the pocket of the Nazis), Schindler would practically be putting in A cycle in which they would always win) and offer them as payment, kitchen items, which they could use for their own use or exchange on the black market. Stern doubts much of Schindler’s intentions and refuses at first, however, analyzing that Schindler does not seem to be a tyrannical German like the others, he accepts. Schindler gets the help by having Stern as his official accountant, and then he orders him to go recruiting labor.

At that time, Catholic churches were centers for gathering Jews who were engaged in smuggling . It is there that two dealers, Goldberg and Chilowicz, and a young buyer named Poldek Pffeferberb, who demand to Chilowicz the delivery of 10 thousand units of shoes bitumen in metal containers as he had requested, instead of glass that Chilowicz Had given him, that it was addressed to the German army and that because of the cold broke. Pfefferberg threatens to betray Chilowicz unless he does what he asks, and Schindler, who has been in front of them all the time, turns around and deals with Pfefferberg over the shirt he is wearing. Fearing the swastika that Schindler has on his lapel, the other Jews leave the church. Pfefferberg, somewhat reluctant, decides to continue making deals with Schindler.

March 1941, the deadline for entering the Jewish ghetto. The Jews of Krakow are forced to leave their homes and cram in the ghetto . Poles throw mud at Jews, beat them or insult them. Meanwhile, Schindler takes possession of the luxurious home of a newly evacuated Jewish family. You see the horrible situation of the ghetto in which in a single room had to live many people, many times unknown. Goldberg and Chilowicz have joined the OD, a branch of Judenrat police working for the SS, and Goldberg offers Pfefferberg a post, which Pfefferberg rejects, and enters the ghetto along with his young wife, Mila. Schindler, on the initiative of Stern, negotiates with two wealthy men, owners of the bankrupt factory, and after some hesitation, agree to give Schindler the factory and all his money in exchange for the kitchen items. The factory is now officially owned by Schindler.

Stern generally seeks those who are not considered “essential workers” and are deported (“essential” to the Nazis were those who provided industrial development such as workers, builders, etc.). Stern stresses that all they have to say is that they have experience in handling metals and he will speak for them. Among them is the school teacher Chaim Nowak, along with Mr. Dresner and his wife Chaja, along with their children Jonas and Danka.

Those who are declared “essential workers” receive a blue card, the Blauschein, with which they will be handed over to Schindler. Meanwhile, he looks for a secretary, and attends a long line of beautiful young secretaries. Schindler cares little about her ability as secretaries compared to her beauty and ends up hiring them all. Finally, its factory Deutsche Emailwaren Fabrik is inaugurated.

Schindler and his company, plus some problems

While; Schindler, with products such as chocolates , cigars , fruit and liquors , illegally obtained by Pfefferberg, flatters his Nazi friends, such as Czurda, Toffel or Scherner, to partner with the DEF (Deutsche Emailewaren-Fabrik), the enamelled metal company By Schindler. For this time, Schindler has become a colleague of two party members, also owners of factories like him: Franz Bosch and Julius Madritsch, a man of good heart, owner of a fabric factory that also hires Jewish workers. Little by little, DEF begins to thrive considerably. Schindler, pleased, calls Stern to his office to thank him for his help and invites him in for a drink. As on the occasion they met, Stern remains impassive and refuses to accept the drink. Schindler rages and asks Stern to quit.

Schindler has entered into a love affair with one of his secretaries, Victoria Klonowska. One day, they ring the doorbell of Schindler’s house, and Klonowska, wearing only a night coat, opens the door to a beautiful, refined-looking woman, fresh from afar, holding a home address. When he sees Klonowska, he considers to have been wrong, but when he hears Oskar’s voice from the inside, asking Klonowska who he is, he has no doubt that he is in the right place, and Klonowska has no doubt who this woman is: Emilie , the wife of Oskar.

Oskar is not shy of the situation, but Emilie, although already accustomed to the constant infidelity of its husband, is annoyed. Schindler then decides to invite her to the restaurant where she made her appearance, to compensate. As she walks down the stairs to the house, the guard tells Emilie, “Watch your step down, miss.” Emilie takes some offense, and Schindler answers the guard: “Mrs. Schindler, Marek.” The guard can not hide his surprise, and Schindler can not hide his embarrassment. In the restaurant, Emilie asks Schindler if all luxury is just a facade, and Schindler replies that it is impossible to be a facade, since it has more than 300 workers who work every day for the sole purpose of Make money for it.

Schindler asks about his family and his home in Czechoslovakia , and confesses to his wife his dreams about the future, in which the name “Schindler” would not be easily forgotten, being remembered as a man who did an extraordinary work, a A man who did something no one else did (a prophecy about what was to be his destiny, but at that point he focused on having gotten a bankrupt company and turning it into a major factory). Schindler tells Emilie that he now understands why in previous business he had failed, due to the absence of the only thing in the world that makes the difference between success and failure: war. As they dance, Schindler sets his sights on a beautiful young woman, dancing with an SS officer. The next morning, Emilie asks Oskar if he should stay in Krakow with him. Schindler tells her that it’s a beautiful city, but that’s not the answer she wants and he knows it, Emilie asks again and Schindler tells her that it’s up to her. Emilie tells him plainly: If he can promise that no one will ever mistake her for any woman other than “Mrs. Schindler” she will stay with him. He can not promise you that. The next scene shows Emilie on a train back home, while Schindler fires her from the station , and once away from the train, she returns to her business.

In his factory office, Schindler, while having lunch, receives a visit from Stern, who after a cold report of the prosperity of the factory asks Oskar a minute to see Mr. Lowenstein, an elderly Jew without an arm that Repeatedly thanks the work until Schindler is fed up, later challenging Stern for disturbing him in that way and for hiring a physically limited worker.

One day, as Schindler’s workers left the ghetto on their way to work, they were detained by SS officers to clear the snowy road. In a parallel scene, Schindler claims to Rolf Czurda the loss of a day of production and the death of a worker. Czurda replies that the matter of putting the Jews to remove the snow is more a ritual than a necessity. Mr. Lowenstein is separated by officers and carried to the end of the row of Jews. Lowenstein claims that he is an essential worker of Oskar Schindler while the officers make fun of that also qualifying Schindler of German tinsmith . That’s when he gets shot in the head and dies. Schindler demands compensation from Czurda, who, laughing, tells him that he can only file a complaint with the Bureau of Economics. Then he tells him plainly: “Oskar, the German government might consider it a crime to consider a lame Jewish” essential worker “ , to which Schindler responds: ” He was very skilled in the metal press, very clever “ trying to defend man at Which I had discriminated for some time.

Schindler is having sex with one of his lovers when he is interrupted by Poldek Pfefferberg, who tells him that there has been a problem with Stern. Stern is boarded a train on the way to an extermination camp . Schindler arrives at the train station, where an officer instructs the Jews to leave all their luggage and belongings on the platform, clearly marked with their names and surnames, promising them to retrieve them later. Schindler makes clear the situation and seeing the list that appeared Itzhak to be sent there, he faces the charge, the Hauptscharführer Kunder, scoring his name and that of his assistant, Klaus Tauber, convincing them to help him with the phrase ” Gentlemen, both will be in southern Russia at the end of the month. “ This intimidates them and bring Stern in time; When they ask Schindler to sign the list, Tauber tells them that for them there is no difference between one Jew and another. Stern tries to explain to Schindler that it was a mistake, in which he had forgotten his work card at home, while walking, Schindler says: “And if I had arrived five minutes late, what would have become of me ?” , Which shows that he only cared for him.

At the moment when Schindler and Stern leave the station, the DOs take in wagons all the luggage that the Jews have left on the platform. Far from fulfilling their promise, the Jews’ belongings are taken to warehouses, where things of value are set apart and distributed among the Nazis, and things of no economic value like photographs are destroyed. The jeweler Jewish Markus Wulkan is exploited working polishing and shaping hundreds of gold teeth removed from Jews.

The arrival of Goeth

Life in the “Jewish city” of the Krakow ghetto in the winter of 1942 was already very different for its inhabitants than it had been for some time. Life in the ghetto was miserable and decadent. The Jews were forced to crowded, many in the same room, sharing a day in a circle. Poldek and Mila, Chilowicz in his OD uniform, Chaim Nowak, Fischer and the Nussbaum, among others, about the living conditions of the ghetto. Everyone agrees on one thing: Although it is deplorable to live like this, they finally feel at peace and believe that they have already touched the bottom, which now nothing more inhumane to fall.

Wilhelm Kunde , a senior SS officer, traversing the ghetto inside a convertible, describing the situations and sections of it to a young Untersturmfuhrer (equivalent to a lieutenant) named Amon Goeth . The ghetto is divided into two halves, ghetto A, dedicated to civil engineers and industrial workers and ghetto B, where the surplus workers, the elderly and the sick were, which was naturally the place for which Goeth wished to begin .

Amon Goeth is a few months younger than Oskar Schindler. High, erect and passive aspect. Kunde takes him from the Krakow ghetto to a sector on the outskirts of the city where he was about to finish building a new Arbeitslager called Plaszow , where Goeth’s residence villa is located high on A little low rise, right on the field. Kunde comments to Goeth who have dentists , shoemakers , doctors a kindergarten , and a synagogue soon to be converted into a stable. An Unterscharführer named Albert Hujar is approaching with a small group of Jewish women. Goeth tells them that one of them will be fortunate to leave the slave labor they had in the field, so as to work for him in his new villa. When asking which of them has previous experience in domestic service, note that they all raise their hands with one exception, a young and beautiful girl. Amon, noticing her, approaches her saying that she has changed her mind, since she does not want the maid of another person with annoying habits to correct. The girl, shivering with cold, tells Goeth that her name is Helen Hirsch. Goeth looks at it for a few moments and turns to Hujar saying that he has already chosen.

At that precise moment, Goeth returns the look to a Jewish woman, shouting strongly the necessity to disarm a barrack due to the instability of the foundations. The woman, Diana Reiter, approaches Goeth to explain to him that the whole structure of the tent must be cast down to rebuild it and thus prevent a collapse. Goeth looks at her sympathetically and asks if she is an engineer and Reiter answers yes, a graduate of civil engineering at the University of Milan . Goeth responds smiling, “An educated Jewess, just like Karl Marx himself .” Goeth returns to the tent and looks for a moment, then turns to Hujar giving him an order: “Kill her.” In the face of Reiter’s resistance and the incomprehension of Hujar and Kunde, Goeth replies that he does not intend to have discussions with the Jews. Under Goeth’s jurisdiction and in front of Helen Hirsch’s eyes, Hujar kills Reiter with a bullet in the head. Once the order is fulfilled, Goeth gives it a new one: Knock down the tent and build it again, according to the instructions of Diana Reiter.

On March 13, 1943, Goeth gathers the SS soldiers and gives them a speech about how the Jews had invaded Krakow for more than six centuries, and encouraged them to turn those six centuries into a rumor in one night. While these things happen in the ghetto, Oskar Schindler prepares to go out with Ingrid, one of his secretaries. Stern, within the ghetto, realizes that something terrible is going to happen, as well as the Dresner and Poldek Pfefferberg family.

The ghetto liquidation begins, the SS soldiers enter violently and remove the Jews, taking their luggage and belongings, ordering them to meet in the main square. They murder in the instant those who consider. Goeth is responsible for the liquidation of the ghetto, and it violently takes away many Jews who would be deported. The sixteen-block area of ​​the ghetto would be plunged into an atmosphere of chaos and terror, which Schindler would witness from high ground riding with Ingrid. There he sees the slaughter of Jews, sometimes luck, or want to escape.

Here comes one of the most poignant moments of the film, when in the chaos sees a girl, whose dress stands out for being red, and not be in black and white. The director argues an interesting fact about this part of the film; “For the rest of the Allies, the massacre that takes place in Germany is as visible as a girl walking in the midst of a massacre,” and indeed it is so, as the girl walks boldly between the soldiers of the SS and the Jews. Schindler sees the girl passing between soldiers and Jews, between bullets and corpses, representing the innocence and insignificance of children. This impacts Schindler until his companion asks him to leave.

Other Jews

In the course of history you can see some Jews who knew Schindler during his attempt to buy the factory, who were now escaping from death in the hands of the SS , hiding in unpredictable places.

It is seen how Poldek Pfefferberg, who helped Schindler get products for him in the black market, is hidden in the sewers, being in the street with the same Goeth, to whom orders the bags thrown to the ground by the Germans under the pretext of “Remove obstacles from the road”. Goeth leaves laughing next to his company of soldiers.

In another scene Danka Dresner and her mother try to escape, and only the girl fits in the shelter on the floor where her friend was; With much regret, leaves his daughter and escapes meeting with an old friend of his son, who was also Jewish and was now in the service of the Nazis . Incredibly the child, although small, recognizes the mother of Danka and the girl of whom he was in love, and helps them, who came down from the building in search of his mother. The child helps them and leads them to the rank in which they will not be deported. In the meantime Stern is seen nervously watching his comrades fall dead around him, although this would not be the last time. The Jews who were kept in small hiding places are killed by the SS.

Plaszow

Days later, Goeth is commissioned to construct the field of Plaszow, where it gathers all the Jews of Cracow .

Goeth and other businessmen are preparing an agreement for their companies to settle in the countryside and take the Jews as labor, in this comes Schindler, who greets everyone present (almost all “old friends”) under the watchful eye Of Goeth whom he greets later.

There he knows Goeth more deeply, and speaks to him when he was already drunk. Goeth tells him that the reason the Jews fear them is that they have the power to kill, and Schindler responds by saying that this is justice, and that “Power is when we have justification to kill and we do not do it. What the Emperors had.A man steals something, they lead him to the Emperor.He falls to the ground before him and begs for mercy, he knows he will die.But the Emperor forgives his life, that miserable man and let him go That’s power. “

This momentarily convinces Goeth, who forgives a Jewish boy for having spotted his saddle and a girl who was supposedly smoking at work. When Lisiek, the boy in charge of cleaning his bathtub, can not remove the stains of these lets go, and from the balcony kills him of a shot in the head.

Another of Goeth’s atrocities is when he walks out to the balcony of his house in Plaszow, which gives him a perfect view of the countryside, takes a rifle, and shoots two people as a hobby. In the meantime, Itzhak Stern continued to recruit Jewish inmates in Plaszow, including people who were not good at work but who, according to him, had positive characteristics. Many Jews, with the consent of Goeth, went to the hands of Schindler. They were constantly tested, and at night they returned to the country.

Extermination

But the vacancy of Plaszow would begin. One day doctors kept all the adult Jews, ordered them to undress and ran them, separating the healthy from the sick. The sick would obviously be deported to extermination camps to be executed.

After the test, it shows the joy of the sector of women declared healthy, while they dress, come to pass trucks with their children in them. Despair spreads among the mothers who tried to get them out, but the German guards were enough to stop them.

Shown in another scene are some children who hid themselves, knowing what would happen if they were taken in trucks using once again the great ability to hide from sight, even in the dirty latrines of the field.

Schindler’s list

In April 1943, the city of Krakow is surprised to see small flakes falling from the sky, in the same way that snow would fall in winter. Schindler is one of the few who acknowledges that it is not about snow. These are human ashes.

In Chujowa Gorka, Amon Goeth is given the order to exhume and incinerate the bodies of more than 10,000 Jews murdered in Plaszow and the massacre of the Krakow ghetto. The degree of dehumanization that Schindler, from the height of a mountain, presence, is radical and incomprehensible, and therefore, more macabre than anything he has seen. The smoke, heavy and black, covers the sky, making it dark and infernal. As the Nazis shout insults and orders with violence and indifference, the horribly emaciated and slim prisoners, some dressed in striped uniforms or in miserable rags of what once were their finest clothes, such as Poldek and Mila, dig enormous graves , Or drag corpses eaten by the fire, to pile them in the pits, one on the other, while the Nazis burned the corpses. The infernal scene shows enormous mountains of bodies already without human form, burning. Schindler, who must cover his nose with a handkerchief, listens to Goeth speak quietly, even with some tedium, that has been assigned the order to incinerate the dead and send the survivors to Auschwitz, since it is the maximum order of extermination And there is nothing to do to oppose. Goeth tells Schindler that he will send the prisoners from Plaszow to Auschwitz within a little more than a month. Schindler is horrified to see the prisoners carrying miserable trucks, packed with bodies, one after another. In one of those wheelbarrows, Schindler can not contain his pain and horror, he discovers a small body brutally burned, wrapped in a red coat. Schindler has no words or heart to describe such inhumanity.

Once alone with Stern, Schindler tells his friend that he should not fear anything, since Goeth promised to recommend him and give him a good job at Auschwitz. Stern knows, however, where they are led and that there is no longer any hope of salvation. On the contrary, it encourages Schindler to continue with the company, which has reached a great apogee, even though it can no longer count on its Jewish workers, who are cheaper than the Poles. Schindler says with great sadness in his eyes that he has nothing to do in Poland and will return home in Czechoslovakia, as he achieved the ambition of his life, he fulfilled the purpose that was made when he arrived: To earn more money than a man Could spend in a lifetime. But to Stern’s surprise, there is no delight in Schindler’s gaze, there is no sense of accomplishment or complacency in fulfilling such a goal, there is the joy with which Schindler once described himself to Emilie. Schindler, trying to comfort Stern and himself, tells him that someday all the horror would end, and that then the two of them could together drink a drink. Shedding tears, Stern decides to take it at that moment. And with a sad smile, both toast.

Some days later, one morning, Schindler is dressed in a nightgown, next to his bed, where a beautiful, naked woman lies. Schindler’s gaze expresses sadness and discouragement. Walk slowly throughout the room and find the suitcases already ready for your trip back home. The void, however, that Schindler feels is enormous, and goes to the window, where he is silent for a few seconds, meditating. His gaze then suddenly gains a brief flash, an idea illuminates his spirit and his eyes seem to recover life. He’s made up his mind. Then, Schindler, elegantly dressed and with great animosity, takes all his money and stores it in huge suitcases. All are full of money. All the fortune Schindler has made since his arrival.

In these last days of Plaszow, Schindler and Goeth, sharing one of their usual chats of camaraderie, talk about a plan of Schindler, so without meaning that Goeth fails to understand it. Schindler explains that it is simple: He plans to return to Czechoslovakia, no one has any doubt, but because business is so good, he wants to bring his source of wealth with him: He wants to transport all his workers with him. Goeth tells him that that does not make any sense, since only transporting the prisoners and the machine would require an even greater amount than the Jews can make him gain from his work, and that there is something Schindler is keeping secret. Schindler tells him that there is nothing secret, that it is simply a matter of comfort, since he knows them and knows that they are efficient and so he does not have to hire and train new workers. Goeth tells his friend that he will accept any treatment that he proposes, but that it irritates him not to know what is in his hands. Schindler only tells him to set the price, and Goeth, shrewdly, tells Schindler to adjust it. Schindler smiles, victorious.

In Stern’s office, Schindler, smoking, dictates names of his memory, and Stern scores them on a typewriter in a list. “Poldek Pfefferberg, Mila Pfefferberg, Paul Stagel, Investors, Ismail Fischer, Josef Scharf, Children.” All children, “says Schindler, and Stern, with feverish speed, writes non-stop. The names of the list are increasing very rapidly: HOROWITZ. LEWARTOW. GOLDBERG. WULKAN. Stern tells Schindler that they already have 450 names, and Schindler strongly asks him to add even more. Simultaneously, Schindler is seen, elegantly dressed, heading to the village of Amon with a large black briefcase in his hand. While all this happens the sound of Stern typing does not stop being heard. Time advances in Stern’s office, where only he and Schindler are. Goeth opens the briefcase that Schindler brings: A huge stack of banknotes.

The names on the list keep popping up: WEIN. FEIGENBAUM. DRESNER. They already have 600 and Schindler asks that they add more. Simultaneously you see the fabric factory Julius Madritsch, and Schindler at his side telling him that he already knows that he gives them food and extra clothing paid out of his own pocket and that he joins his plan, since by combining their efforts they could draw more Of 4000 Jews and take them to a safe place in Moravia . Madritsch doubts that the plan will succeed but Schindler insists. Madritsch tells Schindler that he has done too much for the Jews and that he can do no more. Schindler is not willing to accept that answer. But Madritsch’s decision is firm. Meanwhile, Stern continues to write and write non-stop. They already carry more than 850 names. After a few hours, in the middle of the night, Schindler, with an air of realization, asks Stern to finish that page and stop. Twelve pages of names. 1200 people now in the hands of Schindler. Stern discovers with astonishment the radical spiritual growth of the man who five years ago had in mind the sole purpose of getting rich, when he realizes that by each name Schindler pays Goeth a fortune. Finish the page , says Schindler, and leave a space at the end. . Stern obeys and finishes the last page. The list is complete. Stern, with great pride and a smile of happiness and hope takes it in his hands and puts it in front of Schindler’s eyes. The list is the absolute good , says Stern, the list is life. Around the edges lies the abyss .

The space at the bottom of the last page has a special purpose. A promise that Schindler must fulfill: It is a space reserved for Helen Hirsch, the Jewish employee of Goeth, whom he was in love with and did not know whether to mistreat her or to worship her; This tortured him. Schindler proposes to Goeth a game of 21. If Goeth wins, Schindler will pay 7400 marks, with 21 drawn in the first, he will pay 14800 marks, but if Schindler wins the game, then Goeth must let Schindler add Helen to his list . Goeth refuses to accept. Schindler tells Goeth that whatever he does will send Helen to Auschwitz. Goeth says he would never let Helen go to Auschwitz and that he wants to take her with him to his native Vienna . Fearing madness, Schindler makes Goeth see reality, he can not take her with him to Vienna. Goeth knows that no, even though it is what he most desires with all his soul, the most merciful thing he can do for Helen would be to take her to the woods and shoot him painlessly at the nape of her neck. A few seconds later, Amon accepts the card challenge.

The Schindlerjuden tell their names to the editors, who have copies of Schindler’s twelve-page list. The list of life, in Stern’s words. The Dresner family, the Rosner family, the Pfefferberg family, the Horowitz family, Goldberg, Rabbi Levartow, Itzhak Stern, the jeweler Wulkan, Adam Levy, the Nussbaum, Rebecca and Josef Bau, as well as a huge number of people. Altman, Luftig, Rothberg, Zuckermann, and the last name of the list: Helen Hirsch.

Once enlisted, they separate men and women, and send them to Brünnlitz, Czechoslovakia, on cattle trains.

Brünnlitz

The men’s train arrives in Schindler ‘s home town of Brünnlitz (Brněnnec), which greeted them warmly in its new artillery materials factory, such as grenades and bushings.

The problem arises when the train of women is sent by mistake to Auschwitz , reason why Schindler is forced to travel there to rescue them. It shows a scene in which women and girls are put in a shower, where they think that they are going to kill them with gas , but finally it is only water that they would enjoy. Oskar manages to bribe the head of the field of Auschwitz Rudolf Höß and takes the women to its factory in Brünnlitz .

Epilogue

After seven months, Schindler and his company failed, since there was actually no work done there. At the end of the war, after giving a speech condemning the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis and encouraging the Jews to restore their lives, it prevents the guards of the countryside from killing the Jews of their factory by taking away the last vestige of inhumanity That they would be able to exterminate them all, this is their opportunity, but they could also leave and return to their families as men and not as murderers. One by one, the officers leave the plant. In commemoration of the countless victims of the Jewish people, Schindler asks for three minutes of silence, which are accompanied by a prayer of mourning by Rabbi Levartow.

Moments later, Stern, Mr. Dresner, Markus Wulkan and Rabbi Levartow thank one of the workers, named Jereth, while he offers his golden teeth, which Wulkan carefully removes and later melts and forms a ring, Polishing it. While this happens, Schindler and Emilie are packing their belongings in haste, with the aim of escaping. At the moment of leaving, Schindler gives Stern some instructions to distribute equitably among the workers some belongings of the factory, such as fabrics, bottles of vodka and cigarettes, in order to give them some capital to start a new life. The Jews give him a letter signed by all the workers, explaining everything that happened in case Oskar was captured by the Allies . Schindler, grateful, begins to move. Stern then gives him the ring that moments ago had forged him. The ring had a Hebrew inscription from the Talmud saying: “He who saves a life saves the whole world . “

Schindler and Stern shake hands as a sign of the true and strong friendship they have developed over the years, while Schindler confesses to Stern with great regret that he could have saved one more person if he had had more money. Schindler slowly loses more and more his composure, his voice becomes brittle while Stern, trying to comfort him, tells him that thanks to him 1,100 people are alive, and thanks to what he did, generations will live. However, Schindler can not see that. And pointing to his luxurious car he wondered aloud why he kept it, if it had been ten people with him that Goeth had given him in return, he takes his pin with the swastika, claiming that it is gold and that Goeth had Given two more people, or at least one more. One more person. Falling at the feet of Stern, devastated and full of pain, he cries out, feeling great guilt, that he could have saved one more person and did not, and weeps bitterly with the pain he had repressed for years, while he is embraced by Stern and Emilie , Who also cry, and for their Jewish workers.

Schindler and Emilie, disguised in prisoner uniforms, escape in the middle of the night, while Schindler, through the window of his car, with his eyes still moist, watches the thousands of human beings he rescued. The following morning, a Soviet soldier announces to the Jews of Schindler that they have been released by the red army; After Stern’s question about whether any Jews remain alive in Poland, the soldier remains silent, understandably saying that he has not seen any alive. The Jews, needing food, march to the nearest village, on the recommendation of the Soviet official.

As Schindler’s Jews walk towards a new future, finally at liberty, it is shown that Amon Goeth was arrested in a sanatorium in Bad Tolz and delivered to the new authorities of liberated Poland whose newly formed National High Court condemned him to die in the Gallows for crimes against humanity. The last words of Goeth before dying hanged are “Heil Hitler!”. And as for Oskar Schindler, we are shown that after the war, he failed in his marriage and in many business he attempted, that in the late 1950s, Yad Vashem declared him “Fair Person among the Nations” and honored him Inviting him to plant a tree in the “Garden of the Righteous” which still stands today.

The final sequence takes place in the Catholic Cemetery of Jerusalem , where a long line of elders, (Schindler’s Jews today) accompanied by the actor or actress who interprets them in the film, place stones as a sign of love and devotion , In the tomb of Oskar Schindler, while it is shown that there are currently fewer than 4000 Jews in Poland, but that there are more than 6000 descendants of the Jews that Schindler saved. In the end, it is shown that someone puts a flower in the center of the tomb, among the stones, and that person is none other than Liam Neeson , the actor who played Oskar Schindler.

History

Even before its release, some media already mentioned Schindler ‘s list as a favorite for a large number of awards. ^{[ Citation needed ]} In addition to being a blockbuster, got dozens of awards, including seven Oscars (best film, best director, best adapted screenplay, best editing, best soundtrack, best art direction and best cinematography) are counted . Certain Holocaust survivors (some of whom said they were in the same list that mentions the film) said it was a detailed reconstruction of the events that occurred 50 years ago ^{[ citation needed ]} .

The director and producer worked on Schindler ‘s list for ten years, starting the same after ET, the alien in 1983. Spielberg learned of the Jewish genocide of his grandfathers, who, he said, constantly talked about genocide even without That they would have been personally affected ^{[ citation needed ]} . Spielberg says, “I have prepared for this film all my life , ” but at the same time admits that he found Judaism during the filming of the movie ^{[ citation needed ]} .

Spielberg invested some of his own money in the production of the film, and had some personal problems during the realization of it and motivated by his high dedication. There is an anecdote that says that the wife of the Jewish director was unhappy with her husband for spending much time on the set, away from his family. One day he went to see him at work, and watched the filming of the famous “shower scene”. In that scene, set in the concentration camp of Auschwitz , several Jewish women are forced to go naked in a crowded room of showers, with consequent suspense for them if the Nazis intended gasearlas or just wash them. Spielberg said that after watching the scene, his wife understood the magnitude of what the popular filmmaker was trying, and became more sympathetic to him ^{[citation needed ]} .

Schindler’s List is based on the novel by Thomas Keneally , Schindler’s Ark , though presented as a work of fiction ^{[ citation needed ]} , tells the performance of businessman Oskar Schindler to genocide practiced by the Nazis.

From this material, screenwriter Steven Zaillian created the text that would later be transformed into the film. The Universal Pictures production company announces the film as based on historical facts.

Schindler’s list in real life

At the beginning of April 2009, news was published that a book was discovered in a library in Sydney , Australia, among the work notes donated by writer Thomas Keneally, the author of the novel on which the film was based , 13 pages of fragile and yellowish paper with the list of names and nationalities of 1100 Jews. ^{2 3}

According to some publications, in January 2013, the youngest survivor on the list died. Leon Leyson was 13 years old when Oskar Schindler put him on his list along with 1,100 other Jews who managed to save themselves from death in Nazi concentration camps. ^{4 5 6}

In July of 2013, the original list was put on sale on eBay for 3 million Dollars. ⁷