Oskar Schindler and Schindler's List

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Recommended: The history of the holocaust and its effects

The Jewish Holocaust was a tragic event in world history. The containment and extermination of the Jews and other minority groups began on January 30, 1933 and lasted until May 8, 1945. During this horrific period in time millions of lives were lost. The Jewish community alone lost nearly a million people per year. In total throughout all of Europe sixty-three percent of the Jewish population was estimated to have been killed (Rutgers University). That's a total of 5,962,129 Jews. Only 3,546,211 Jewish people survived the Holocaust. 1600 of those 3,546,211 Jews lived to share their stories of horror and survival because of a greedy businessman who needed workers to make him money. That man was Oskar Schindler. Oskar was a drinker, a gambler, a cheater, a liar, and a money hungry egoist with a taste for the luxuries that life had to offer. And he was a Nazi, go figure. But according to Steven Spielberg, director of Schindler's List, Oskar Schindler was a decent man, not a saint, just a decent man.

Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908, in Svitavy (Zwittau), Moravia, it is located on the Czechoslovakian side of the German border, with the border running through the town (United Holocaust Memorial Museum). He spent his youth working in various factories and other business ventures like opening a driving school and selling government property in Brno (UHMM). He married Emilie Pelzl in 1928 before joining the Czechoslovakian army at the beginning of WWII where he rose to the rank of lance corporal in the reserves. A year later he joined the Nazi party. It was only after the invasion and occupation of Poland that he moved to Krakow. In the film he made this decision to take advantage of the new business opportunit...

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...ocaust Memorial Museum.

N.p., 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

Marrus, Michael R. “The Holocaust in History”. University Press of New England. 1987. p 126.

Rutgers University. “Holocaust Statistic”. April 28, 2013. Web. February 5, 2014.

Schindler's List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Universal. 1993. DVD.

SnakeBISHOP. “Steven Spielberg on Schindler's List” YouTube, YouTube.

July 19, 2008. Web. January 30, 2014.

Stern, Kenneth S. “Holocaust Denial”. The American Jewish Committee. 1993. pg 1.

The Sheik 1976. “20-Minute Interview "Steven Spielberg on Schindler's List"” YouTube. YouTube, June 12, 2013. Web. January 29, 2014.

United Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Sir Ben Kingsley talks about playing Itzak Stern in Schindler's List” March 1, 2011. Web. February 4, 2014.

Weinraub, Bernard. “Steven Spielberg Faces the Holocaust” New York Times. Dec 12, 1993.

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