Schindler's List Blog

Schinlder's List starts out with Schindler bribing a waiter, then he starts a party and gets in real good with government and military officials.

 

Schindler has a plan to jump in to the manufacturing business using the war to give him a push start. He wants to hire Jews since they will be cheaper workers. As the movie moves on, he has a change of heart when he realizes what will happen to the Jews. He lets his right-hand man, an accountent and a Jew, get people tranferred to his factory, which the Jews call a 'haven' because no one dies there.

 

When Schindler realizes what is happening to Jews, he convinces his military friend to give him lots of jews, and he tries to get as many as possible for his factory. He no longer has money as a priority, but lives. The mens' train arrives at his hometown safely- there they will work at an ammunitions factory. The womens' train, however, gets sent to Aushwits due to an error in the paperwork. They go through quite a bit, getting their hair cut off, cloths taken off, and sent in to a place to get "disinfected"- where they are depressed and/or panicked because they think they are going to get gassed, like the stories they've heard. But, surprise surprise, they actually just get disinfected. Schindler finds out about the mistake, and get mad, gets them back.

 

They work in the ammunitions factory, which the captions on the movie say was 'a model of nonproduction'. Lol. Schindler says to his accountant Jewish assistant person, "If this facotry makes so much as a single shell that works, I will be very dissappointed." or something close to that.

 

Therefore, Schindler loses a lot of money trying to keep his factory running and to protect the Jews who work there. Finally, he goes broke. But just in the niche of time, Germany surrenders to America! Yay! But since Schindler is part of the Nazi party, he must now flee and leave is now-safe Jewish friends and employees behind. The Jews, in the time they have left with Schindler, pull out their gold fillings from their teeth, and smelt the gold down to make a ring, which they inscribe with a Hebrew quote (which I don't remember).

 

When they give him the ring as a token on their thanks, along with a letter stating the story of what he did, signed by all the Jews there, he says, "I could have got more." He breaks down with regret as he gets in his car and drives away.

 

The movie enters its ending with Schindler's Jews being found and told by a soldier that the war is over. They make their way over to the town (because the ammunitions factory is not in the town) and there is a transition from the Jews on the journey to the Jews in their elderly age remaking the journey. The caption tells how Schindler was awarded years later for how he helped the Jews, and the Jews themselves survived and thrived. Schindler's military buddies, on the other hand, were hung. And finally, the movie ends with the present-day survivors of the Schindler Jews honoring his grave with their relatives (who all bear quite the resemblence to the actors in the movie...) by placing rocks on his tombstone.

 

All in all, my favorite part of this movie was definitely the ending. Schindler's change of heart in the second half was touching, and really down to earth. Actually, the entire movie, especially the parts dealing with the hardships of the Jews during the Holocaust, was down to earth and showed how things were. The gassing, for example- the panic and despair of those who knew what was going to happen was very realistic. History books just don't do things like this proper justice. Movies, on the other hand, supply a lot of emotion, visuals, etc., that help the viewer understand.

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Comments

  • Good summary!! Glad you liked it!! Excellent point in your last sentence.
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