Schindler's List: Portrays Of Humanity

1528 Words7 Pages

It is widely known that the Holocaust was a dark time in the world’s history, but even during this dark time, there still was a few glimmers of the light of human kindness. Schindler’s List is a film that depicts one of these rays of humanity. We are taken back to Poland, in 1939, where the Holocaust is just beginning. Jews are being forced out of their houses, and physically and verbally attacked by the German soldiers who had invaded their country. We meet Oskar Schindler, a spy for the Germans, and a man with privilege. The Jews around him see him as a danger, just like the rest of the Nazis; when in fact he ends up as the opposite. Schindler was a real man who went looking for an accountant and a loan, but ended up with so much more. He …show more content…

Schindler is depicted as a charming and generous man. He at first is opposed to bringing in jews because it is illegal, but never does much to push back against Stern for what is happening. He risks everything for these Jews in the movie, giving diamonds to nazis for bribery. He also acts as he wants to get as many people out of the camps as possible. At the end of the movie, he weeps for all the jews he couldn't save, and starts to put values in the number of people on all of his belongings. (Schindler's List) If you research Schindler, you will find that he was not exactly the same as shown in the film. Schindler had many flaws, including his womanizing, and multiple affairs. He was nothing close to a perfect person, but did have good qualities that outshone his flaws. Spielberg chose not to show Schindler as just a good guy, but as a hero. He cast Liam Neeson as Schindler, who is very tall and powerful, when Schindler was the opposite in real life. This was simply a hollywood exaggeration that did not affect the story going on. These embellishments do not really change my learning about what Schindler did, because he really did save over 1,000 Jews. It does not matter to me whether he wasn't a perfect person in real life like was shown in the movie, because he still performed a great act of kindness toward the jews.