Schindler’s List: An Educational Story

Yesterday I decided to watch a famous film called the Schindler’s List. If you have seen it you know what I’m talking about, if not then definitely go watch it. It’s a true story.

Oskar Schindler (1908-1974)

It presents the story of a man called Oscar Schindler and especially his actions during the WW2 in Poland. Schindler was a supporter of the Nazi Party, and a bussinessman determined to take advantage of cheap labour in order to make money. He was sure that the war was a great chance for him to rise and the “cheapest” people he could find were the Jewish. So he started a pot factory. He chose a Jewish accountant to help him: He was called Itzhak Stern. Stern was an intelligent man: he knew he couldn’t deny, he knew he wouldn’t survive anyway, so he accepted Schindler’s suggestion. Schindler asked him to find capable Jewish labour. And that’s what he did. While the Nazis where separating the Jewish people into those who were capable (able to work on manual jobs) and those who were incapable ( teachers, musicians etc. ), Stern helped a lot of them to be presented as capables and promoted them to work in Schindler’s factory. The business went really well and Schindler understood his success was because of his labour. He was a savior for the Jewish people even though he was denying it. This wasn’t his goal. His goal was to make money…at least that’s what he thought in the beggining.

But things weren’t so advantagious later on. A german officer called Amon Göth decided to create Płaszów labour camp forcing all of the Jewish – including those who were working for Schindler – to go to the camp. Schindler convinced Göth to keep his labour telling him his factory would be like a smaller labour camp. The situation became worse the summer of 1944, when it was decided that the Płaszów Camp  would be converted to a concentration camp. Everyone would have been headed to their death. It was a matter of time. When Schindler was informed about it, he tried to take back as many of his workers as he could. Göth didn’t agree. But Schindler knew how corrupted Göth was and he took advantage of him. He suggested that he would give him a certain amount of money for every single one Jewish he wanted in his business and mentioned that he needs every single one of them-even kids- to make weapons for the war. Göth agreed.

The unbelievable thing though was that Schindler didn’t make this agreement for the business. He respected the hard work of his workers who weren’t only capable ones and he came close to them… for him they were just humans. He knew each one of them and he was dedicated to save as many as he could…He spent all of his money on getting his workers  back. He had seen the evil face of the war. He understood his mistakes. He was just an ignorant man who let the Nazis take over his spirit and his human instincts. But he managed to open his eyes and  see the truth.The Jewish he took in his weapon business were saved from certain death. And guess what: he weakened the weapon’s production by making defective shells. 

When the war ended he set his workers free. Now it was him they were after. He had to leave. He asked for forgiveness: he thought he could save more but he was ignorant. He expressed his gratitude to the Jewish people and they thanked him for saving their lives.

In his list there were 1200 names of Jewish people. He was a lifesaver…

“I could have saved more…” (Schindler’s List, film)

Oskar Schindler is an example of a human who managed to see the truth with his own eyes, even though he used to live in the fallacy that war can be a good thing.

Did you like the story? Let me know!

Written by Irene Valkana