Schindler's List (film)
Schindler's List is a 1993 biographical film directed by Steven Spielberg, telling the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust. It was based on the book Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, and starred Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as the SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's accountant Itzhak Stern. The film was a box office success, and won several Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Score.
Filming
Shooting for Schindler's List began on March 1, 1993 in Krakow, Poland,
and continued for seventy-one days. The crew shot at the real life locations,
though the Plaszow camp had to be reconstructed in a pit adjacent to the original
site, due to post-war changes to the original camp. The crew were also forbidden
to enter Auschwitz, so they shot at a replica outside the camp. The Polish locals
welcomed the filmmakers. There were some antisemitic incidents; anti-Semitic symbols
scrawled on local billboards near shooting locations. An elderly woman mistook
Fiennes for a Nazi and told him "the Germans were charming people. They didn't
kill anybody who didn't deserve it", while Kingsley nearly entered a brawl
with an elderly German speaking businessman who insulted Israeli actor Michael
Schneider. Nonetheless, Spielberg stated that at Passover, "all the German
actors showed up. They put on yarmulkes and opened up Haggadas, and the Israeli
actors moved right next to them and began explaining it to them. And this family
of actors sat around and race and culture were just left behind."
"I
was hit in the face with my personal life. My upbringing. My Jewishness. The stories
my grandparents told me about the Shoah. And Jewish life came pouring back into
my heart. I cried all the time."
Steven Spielberg on his emotional state
during the shoot
Shooting Schindler's List was a deeply emotional time for
Spielberg, as the subject matter forced him to confront elements of his childhood,
such as the anti-semitism he faced. He was furious with himself when he didn't
"cry buckets" while visiting Auschwitz, and was one of many crew members
who did not look on during shooting of the scene where aging Jews are forced to
run naked being selected by Nazi doctors to go to Auschwitz. Kate Capshaw and
Spielberg's five children accompanied Spielberg on set, and he later thanked his
wife "for rescuing me ninety-two days in a row- when things just got too
unbearable." Spielberg's parents and his rabbi also visited him on set. Robin
Williams called Spielberg every two weeks to cheer him up with various jokes.
Spielberg forwent a salary, calling it "blood money", and believed the
film would flop.
Plot
The film begins with the relocation of Polish Jews from surrounding areas to Krakow in late 1939, shortly after the beginning of World War II. Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), an unsuccessful businessman, arrives from Czechoslovakia in hopes of using the abundant slave labor force of Jews to manufacture goods for the German military. Schindler, an opportunistic member of the Nazi Party, lavishes bribes upon the army and SS officials in charge of procurement. Sponsored by the military, Schindler acquires a factory for the production of army mess kits. Not knowing much about how to properly run such an enterprise, he gains a contact in Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), a functionary in the local Judenrat (Jewish Council) who has contacts with the now underground Jewish business community in the Ghetto. They loan him the money for the factory in return for a small share of products produced (for trade on the black market). Opening the factory, Schindler pleases the Nazis and enjoys his new-found wealth and status as "Herr Direktor," while Stern handles all administration. Stern even suggests that Schindler hire Jews instead of Poles because they cost less (the Jews themselves get nothing; the wages are paid to the Reich). Workers in Schindler's factory are allowed outside the ghetto though, and Stern falsifies documents to ensure that as many people as possible are deemed "essential" by the Nazi bureaucracy, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps, or even death.
Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes) arrives in Krakow to initiate construction of a labor camp nearby, Plaszów. The SS soon clears the Krakow ghetto, sending in hundreds of troops to empty the cramped rooms and shoot anyone who protests, is uncooperative, or for no reason at all. Schindler watches the massacre from the hills overlooking the area, and is profoundly affected. He nevertheless is careful to befriend Göth and, through Stern's attention to bribery, he continues to enjoy the SS's support and protection. The camp is built outside the city at Plaszów. During this time, Schindler bribes Göth into allowing him to build a sub-camp for his workers, with the motive of keeping them safe from the depredations of the guards. Eventually, an order arrives from Berlin commanding Göth to exhume and destroy all bodies of those killed in the Krakow Ghetto, dismantle Plaszów, and to ship the remaining Jews to Auschwitz. Schindler prevails upon Göth to let him keep "his" workers, so that he can move them to a factory in his old home of Zwittau-Brinnlitz, in Moravia, away from the "final solution", now fully underway in occupied Poland. Göth acquiesces, charging a certain amount for each worker. Schindler and Stern assemble a list of workers that should keep them off the trains to Auschwitz.
"Schindler's List" comprises these "skilled" inmates, and for many of those in Plaszów camp, being included means the difference between life and death. Almost all of the people on Schindler's list arrive safely at the new site, with exception to the train carrying the women, which is accidentally redirected to Auschwitz. Schindler rushes immediately to Auschwitz and stops their gassing. He bribes the camp commander, Rudolf Höß, with a cache of diamonds to spare the women. As the women board the train to the site of the factory, several SS officers attempt to hold some children back and prevent them from leaving. However, Schindler, who is there to personally oversee the boarding, steps in and demands the officers release the children. Once the Schindler women arrive in Zwittau-Brinnlitz, Schindler institutes firm controls on the Nazi guards assigned to the factory, permits the Jews to observe the Sabbath, and spends much of his fortune bribing Nazi officials. In his home town, he surprises his wife while she's in church during mass, and tells her that she is the only woman in his life (despite having been shown previously to be a womanizer). She goes with him to the factory to assist him. He runs out of money just as the German army surrenders, ending the war in Europe.
As a German Nazi and self-described "profiteer of slave labor", Schindler must flee the oncoming Soviet Red Army. After dismissing the Nazi guards to return to their families, he packs a car in the night, and bids farewell to his workers. They give him a letter explaining he is not a criminal to them, together with a ring engraved with the Talmudic quotation, "He who saves the life of one man, saves the world entire." Schindler is touched but deeply distraught, feeling he could've done more to save many more lives. He leaves with his wife during the night. The Schindler Jews, having slept outside the factory gates through the night, are awakened by sunlight the next morning. A Soviet dragoon arrives and announces to the Jews that they have been liberated by the Red Army. The Jews walk to a nearby town in search of food. As they walk abreast, the frame changes to another of the Schindler Jews in the present day at the grave of Oskar Schindler in Israel. The film ends by showing a procession of now-aged Jews who worked in Schindler's factory, each of whom reverently sets a stone on his grave. The actors portraying the major characters walk hand-in-hand with the people they portrayed, also placing stones on Schindler's grave as they pass. We learn that the survivors and descendants of the approximately 1,100 Jews sheltered by Schindler now number over 6,000. The Jewish population of Poland, once numbering in the millions, was at the time of the film's release approximately 4,000. In the final scene, a man (the unseen face of Liam Neeson) places a rose on the grave, and stands contemplatively over it.
Cast
Liam Neeson - Oskar Schindler
Ben Kingsley - Itzhak Stern
Ralph Fiennes - Amon Goeth
Caroline
Goodall - Emilie Schindler
Jonathan Sagall - Poldek Pfefferberg (as Jonathan
Sagalle)
Embeth Davidtz - Helen Hirsch
Malgoscha Gebel
- Victoria Klonowska
Shmuel Levy - Wilek Chilowicz (as Shmulik Levy)
Mark Ivanir - Marcel Goldberg
Béatrice Macola - Ingrid
Andrzej
Seweryn - Julian Scherner
Friedrich von Thun - Rolf Czurda
Krzysztof Luft - Herman Toffel
Harry Nehring - Leo John
Norbert Weisser - Albert Hujar
Adi Nitzan - Mila Pfefferberg
Michael
Schneider - Juda Dresner
Miri Fabian - Chaja Dresner
Anna Mucha - Danka
Dresner
Albert Misak - Mordecai Wulkan
Michael Gordon - Mr. Nussbaum
Aldona Grochal - Mrs. Nussbaum
Jacek Wójcicki - Henry Rosner
Beata Paluch - Manci Rosner
Piotr Polk - Leo Rosner
Ezra Dagan
- Rabbi Menasha Lewartow
Beata Nowak - Rebecca Tannenbaum
Rami Heuberger
- Josef Bau (as Rami Hauberger)
Leopold Kozlowski - Investor
Jerzy Nowak
- Investor
Uri Avrahami - Chaim Nowak
Adam Siemion - O.D. / Chicken
Boy
Magdalena Dandourian - Nuisa Horowitz
Pawel Delag - Dolek Horowitz
Shabtai Konorti - Garage Mechanic
Oliwia Dabrowska - Red Genia
Henryk Bista - Mr. Lowenstein
Tadeusz Bradecki - DEF Foreman
Wojciech
Klata - Lisiek
Elina Löwensohn - Diana Reiter
Ewa Kolasinska -
Irrational Woman
Bettina Kupfer - Regina Perlman
Grzegorz Kwas - Mietek
Pemper
Vili Matula - Investigator
Stanislaw Koczanowicz - Doorman
Hans-Jörg Assmann - Julius Madritsch (as Hans Jorg Assmann )
Geno Lechner
- Majola
August Schmölzer - Dieter Reeder (as August Schmolzer)
Ludger Pistor - Josef Liepold
Beata Rybotycka - Club Singer
Branko Lustig
- Nightclub Maitre D'
Artus Maria Matthiessen - Treblinka Commandant
Hans-Michael Rehberg - Rudolph Hoss (as Hans Michael Rehberg)
Eugeniusz Priwieziencew
- Waiter
Michael Z. Hoffmann - Montelupich Colonel
Erwin Leder - Waffen
SS Officer
Jochen Nickel - Wilhelm Kunde
Andrzej Welminski - Dr. Blancke
Daniel Del Ponte - Dr. Josef Mengele
Marian Glinka - DEF SS Officer
Grzegorz Damiecki - SS Sergeant Kunder
Stanislaw Brejdygant - DEF Guard
Olaf Lubaszenko - Auschwitz Guard (as Olaf Linde Lubaszenko)
Haymon
Maria Buttinger - Auschwitz Guard
Peter Appiano - Auschwitz Guard
Jacek
Pulanecki - Brinnlitz Guard
Tomasz Dedek - Gestapo Agent
Slawomir Holland
- Gestapo Agent
Martin Semmelrogge - Waffen SS Man
Tadeusz Huk - Brinnlitz
Gestapo Agent
Gerald Alexander Held - SS Bureaucrat
Piotr Cyrwus - Ukrainian
Guard
Joachim Paul Assböck - Klaus Tauber, Gestapo
Clerk
Osman Ragheb - Border Guard
Maciej Orlos - German
Clerk
Marek Wrona - Toffel's Secretary
Zbigniew Kozlowski - Scherer's
Secretary
Marcin Grzymowicz - Czurda's Secretary
Dieter Witting - Bosch
Magdalena Komornicka - Goeth's Girl
Agnieszka Krukówna - Czurda's
Girl (as Agnieszka Kruk)
Anemona Knut - Polish Girl
Jeremy Flynn - Brinnlitz
Man
Agnieszka Wagner - Brinnlitz Girl
Jan Jurewicz - Russian Officer
Wieslaw Komasa - Plaszow Depot SS Guard
Maciej Kozlowski - SS Guard,
Zablocie
Martin S. Bergmann - SS NCO, Zablocie (as Martin Bergmann)
Wilhelm Manske - SS NCO, Ghetto
Peter Flechtner - SS NCO, Ghetto
Sigurd
Bemme - SS NCO, Ghetto
Etl Szyc - Ghetto Woman
Lucyna Zabawa - Ghetto
Woman
Ruth Farhi - Old Jewish Woman
Jerzy Sagan - Old Ghetto Man
Dariusz Szymaniak - Prisoner at Depot
Dirk Bender - Clerk at Depot
Maciej
Winkler - Black Marketeer
Radoslaw Krzyzowski - Black Marketeer
Jacek
Lenczowski - Black Marketeer
Hanna Kossowska - Ghetto Doctor
Maja Ostaszewska
- Frantic Woman
Sebastian Skalski - Stableboy
Ryszard Radwanski - Pankiewicz
Piotr Kadlcik - Man in Pharmacy
Bartek Niebielski - NCO, Plaszow
Thomas Morris - Grun
Sebastian Konrad - Engineer
Lidia Wyrobiec-Bank
- Clara Sternberg
Ravit Ferera - Maria Mischel
Agnieszka Korzeniowska
- Ghetto Girl
Dominika Bednarczyk - Ghetto Girl
Alicja Kubaszewska -
Ghetto Girl
Danny Marcu - Ghetto Man
Hans Rosner - Ghetto Man
Edward
Linde Lubaszenko - Brinnlitz Priest
Alexander Strobele - Monterlupich Prisoner
Georges Kern - Depot Master (as Goerges Kern)
Alexander Buczolich -
Plaszow SS Guard
Michael Schiller - Plaszow SS Guard
Götz Otto
- Plaszow SS Guard (as Goetz Otto)
Wolfgang Seidenberg - Plaszow SS Guard
Hubert Kramar - Plaszow SS Guard
Razia Israeli - Plaszow Jewish Girl
Dorit Seadia - Plaszow Jewish Girl (as Dorit Ady Seadia)
Esti Yerushalmi
- Plaszow Jewish Girl
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michelle Csitos -
Ryszard Horowitz - Himself - Schindler Mourner
Kamil
Krawiec - Little Jewish Boy
Leopold Pfefferberg - Himself - Schindler Mourner
Leopold Rosner - Himself - Schindler Mourner
Emilie Schindler - Herself
- Schindler Mourner
Katarzyna Smiechowicz - German Girl
Symbols
The girl in the red coat
Schindler sees a little girl wearing a red coat
The red coat is one of the few instances of color in the black-and-white scenes
of the filmThough the film is primarily shot in black-and-white, red is used to
distinguish a little girl in a coat. Later in the film, she is seen dead. This
character is based on Roma Ligocka, who was well known in the Warsaw Ghetto for
her red coat. Ligocka in fact survived the Holocaust and, after the film was released,
published a novel in 2000 entitled The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir.
According to Andy Patrizio of IGN, the girl in the red coat is used to indicate that Schindler has changed: "Spielberg put a twist on her [Ligocka's] story, turning her into one more pile on the cart of corpses to be incinerated. The look on Schindler's face is unmistakable. Minutes earlier, he saw the ash and soot of burning corpses piling up on his car as just an annoyance." Andre Caron wondered whether it was done "[t]o symbolize innocence, hope or the red blood of the Jewish people being sacrificed in the horror of the Holocaust?" Spielberg himself has explained that he only followed the novel, and his interpretation was that
"America and Russia and England all knew about the Holocaust when it was happening, and yet we did nothing about it. We didn’t assign any of our forces to stopping the march toward death, the inexorable march toward death. It was a large bloodstain, primary red color on everyone’s radar, but no one did anything about it. And that’s why I wanted to bring the color red in."
[edit] Smoke
The
beginning features a family observing the Shabbat. Spielberg said, "to start
the film with the candles being lit- would be a rich bookend, to start the film
with a normal Shabbes service before the juggernaut against the Jews begins."
When the color fades out in the film's opening moments, smoke symbolizes the horror
of bodies being burnt at Auschwitz. Only at the end do the images of candle fire
regain their warmth when Schindler holds a Shabbat service for his workers. For
Spielberg, they represent "just a glint of color, and a glimmer of hope."
Reception
The film opened for general release in the United States
on December 15, 1993. By March of 1994 the film has grossed $45.9 million dollars
in the United States and over $321.2 million worldwide. In Germany, over 5.8 million
admission tickets were sold.
Schindler's List won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively, but did not win. At the British Academy awards the film won Best Film, the David Lean Award for for Direction, Best Supporting Actor (Ralph Fiennes), Cinematography, Editing and Score. Schindler's List also won Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture (Drama), Best Director and Best Screenplay, with John Williams awarded the Grammy for the films musical score.
The American Film Institute voted it #9 on their AFI's 100 Years- 100 Movies series, and in 2007 was voted in at #8 for the tenth anniversary list. In addition, the American Film Institute voted Liam Neeson's Schindler as the 13th greatest movie hero of all time, while Ralph Fiennes' Göth was voted the 15th greatest villain in the AFI's 100 Years- 100 Heroes and Villains series. In 2006 it was selected as the 3rd most inspiring movie of all time by AFI's 100 Years- 100 Cheers. In 2004, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
In addition, Schindler's List also featured on a number of other "best of" lists, including the Time magazine's Top Hundred as selected by critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel, Time Out magazine's 100 Greatest Films Centenary Poll conducted in 1995, Roger Ebert's "Great Movies"' series, and Leonard Maltin's "100 Must See Movies of the Century". In addition, The Vatican named Schindler's List among the top 45 films ever made (in the Values subsection).
Following the success of the film, Spielberg founded and continues to finance the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, a non-profit organization with the goal of providing an archive for the filmed testimony of as many survivors of the Holocaust as possible, so that their stories will not be lost. Spielberg also used the money from the film to finance several related documentaries including The Lost Children of Berlin (1996), Anne Frank Remembered (1995) and The Last Days (1998).
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