How Did Oskar Schindler Change

“Heroes evolve; they aren’t born.” Perhaps one of the most widely known saying of all time, this quote by Ervin Straub perfectly describes Oskar Schindler’s transformation throughout his life. The film Schindler’s List portrays him and his efforts in saving as many Jewish lives as possible In an era of darkness and corruption, Hitler and the Nazi Party had tremendous influence on Germany. By 1930, Hitler had managed to convince Germans that Jewish people were “poisonous vermin” who lived off of other races ("Nazi Racism"). However, among the faithful believers were few brave souls who tried to help the Jews, either by forthright or secretive means. One notable hero was Oskar Schindler. Schindler changed from one of the most unlikely people to go against the beliefs of the Nazi Party to an advocate who ended up saving more Jewish lives than any other. Oskar Schindler was the epitome of the kind of people that were expected to be members of the Nazi Party. Being an ethnic German and an opportunist businessman, Schindler

When the Jews from Krakow are being sent to the concentration camp, the German officials laugh as they watch the Jews get shoved into cattle cars. A somewhat muted act of helping the Jews, Schindler waters down the cattle cars with the fire hose to give them water to drink, while making it seem as though he is torturing them. Later on, he makes an even bolder gesture in trying to convince fellow Germans to treat Jews equally. When he and Göth are talking, Schindler takes a leap and tells him, “Power is when we have every justification to kill and we don’t.” This could have easily ended up in Göth turning in Schindler for trying to corrupt him. However, this causes Göth to have a slight change of heart; he forgives a few of his Jewish workers the next morning, before reverting back to the murderer he