Lately I've started reading "Schindler's List" in class, and I've got to say it's a lot more compelling than I thought it'd be. I've always found the WWII era really interesting and I love watching or reading thing about it (usually watching). I saw the 1993 film version of Schinder's List, with Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and directed by Steven Spielberg. I saw it when I was in 6th grade and it struck me like very few other movies have. It was such a dramatic story that I was shocked that it was true- a true life story of a hero, a villain and a series of dark and inspirational events. I picked up the book in class when I realized I had nothing to read, and I found myself getting really into it by the end of the period. It was so compelling, and all I was reading was the prologue.
For those not familiar with it, Schindler's List tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, a successful entrepreneur who does business with the Nazi Party during the start of the Holocaust. As he becomes more and more disturbed by the mass misery the genocide is causing, he begins saving Jews through business deals and having them work for him in order to save them from the death camps. He mainly saves them from one specific camp run by Commandant Amon Goeth, a sadistic sociopath Nazi officer.
Just from the prologue, I was getting into it. It is just a long scene setting up our opinions of some major characters. Schindler goes to a dinner party at Goeth's to discuss business with him and several high ranking Nazi officials. From this we learn how clever Schindler is- he is a great manipulator, and is able to work almost everything in his favor. We see that he is well liked and well respected, but also that he is a good man beneath it all, like how he converses with an abused Jewish maid (basically a sex slave) and agrees to help rescue her sister from a death camp. On the contrary, we see Goeth's vicious nature, raping his maids, abusing them, shooting random Jews for sport when he wakes up in the morning.
I'm getting really pulled in so far and I intend to get as far through it as time allows me.
I think it is really interesting that you can pick up a book in class because you don't have something to read and become so engaged by the prologue that you can't put it down. Oskar Schindler is a strong man who shows the importance of leadership and shows what one person can do to make a change. I really admire a person like Oskar Schindler because of his courage to do the right thing no matter the consequences. You talk about how clever he is and how he is a successful business man who, "is a great manipulator, and is able to work almost everything in his favor."
ReplyDeleteIt is very powerful for me to hear stories like Schindler's not only because he is a man I want to be, but because of my jewish heritage and the many of my people that he saved. Every year I am remembered of the horrible tragedy that was the Holocaust, and the one silver lining for me is the constant recollections of stories like Schindler's.
I am glad that the book could engage you and this post just reassures my point that I really need to see that movie...
I am interested in Schindler, too. The human. I love his story, but I believe that the book complicates him more than the movie does, and I will be interested to see what you think when you get in deeper into the book (I think you should be by now, so I will look forward to your post on Dec. 4).
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