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Schindler’s List
In the shadow of Auschwitz, a flamboyant German industrialist grew into a living legend to the Jews of Cracow. He was a womaniser, a heavy drinker and a bon viveur, but to them he became a saviour. This is the extraordinary story of Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland and who was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy.
429 pages, Paperback
First published October 18, 1982
About the author
Thomas Keneally
128 books1,028 followersThomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982, which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. The book would later be adapted to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Often published under the name Tom Keneally in Australia.
Life and Career:
Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.
Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List (1993). Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.
Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie, The Devil's Playground (1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage called rumspringa).
In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.
He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject in Our Republic (1993). Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.
Keneally is a keen supporter of rugby league football, in particular the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the NRL. He made an appearance in the rugby league drama film The Final Winter (2007).
In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's Lincoln biography to President Barack Obama as a state gift.
Most recently Thomas Keneally featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama, Our Sunburnt Country.
Thomas Keneally's nephew Ben is married to the former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally.
Often published under the name Tom Keneally in Australia.
Life and Career:
Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.
Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List (1993). Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.
Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie, The Devil's Playground (1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage called rumspringa).
In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.
He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject in Our Republic (1993). Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.
Keneally is a keen supporter of rugby league football, in particular the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the NRL. He made an appearance in the rugby league drama film The Final Winter (2007).
In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's Lincoln biography to President Barack Obama as a state gift.
Most recently Thomas Keneally featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama, Our Sunburnt Country.
Thomas Keneally's nephew Ben is married to the former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,966 reviews
December 4, 2013
Much has been said about the 1993 Stephen Spielberg Oscar-winning movie. In 2007, it ranked 8th in the 100 Best American Movies For All Times list. I saw it twice in the movie house when it was released. I bought copies of it. Copies... because you know how technology progresses: VHS, then VCD, then DVD, then Blue Ray. (when will this ever stop?) Every time I bought me a copy, I watched it. Every time I watched it, I cried.
But surprisingly, I did not cry reading the book, 1982 Thomas Keanally’s (born 1935) Booker Prize winning Schindler’s List. Rather, I was enthralled by it. Do you know the feeling when you're eyes are wide awake and your brain is busy trying to absorb what you are reading especially facts and figures? You do not have time to cry. It is normally “the book is better than the movie” for me. Not this time. The book made me understand the movie more. So, saying that the movie is better than the book is an injustice to the book. After all, the movie was based on that and Spielberg was so faithful to it, you will easily recall the scene in the movie while reading the book. Spielberg tried to tell us a story by showing glorious black-and-white moving pictures on the screen. Keneally tells us the background of each mostly harrowing scene and each of the many unforgettable characters: their stories, their background, and their fates. Spielberg was constrained by the length of his reel(s) of film, i.e., production cost. Keneally did not have any limit on how many pages his novel would take. He has a rich source of information: Poldek Pfefferberg (1913-2001), one of the 1,100 Holocaust survivors saved by Schindler, called Schindlerjuden and who has made his life’s mission to tell the story of his savior, Oscar Schindler (1908-1974).
As in any of Holocaust novels, my heart bleeds most when it comes to the innocent children caught in the midst of it all. Who would forget the 8-y/o Olek Dresden who hides in the man’s toilet hole? Olek is the son of Henry Dresden who is the guy playing the piano in one of the scenes inside the house of Herr Kommander Amon Goethe, the heartless camp commander.
Who could forget the red little girl? Red dress. Red hat. Tiny red boots. This 3-y/o girl innocently roaming around inside the ghetto while executions are happening left and right while horse-riding Oscar and his girlfriend are watching from atop of the hill?
If I keep on giving you what I learned from this book, I will have a very long review. I also find enjoyed the last parts of the book giving the information on what happened to Oscar and Emily Schindler (his legal wife) after the war very interesting. Of course, you should know that Oscar Schindler is not a saintly person and so the moral is that even how bad some people seem to be, there is something good in them. Sometimes, God provides the opportunity for us to do good things to others.
When He come knocking, harden not your hearts. You may not have a tree in the Avenue of Righteous people but it always pays to be a good person.
But surprisingly, I did not cry reading the book, 1982 Thomas Keanally’s (born 1935) Booker Prize winning Schindler’s List. Rather, I was enthralled by it. Do you know the feeling when you're eyes are wide awake and your brain is busy trying to absorb what you are reading especially facts and figures? You do not have time to cry. It is normally “the book is better than the movie” for me. Not this time. The book made me understand the movie more. So, saying that the movie is better than the book is an injustice to the book. After all, the movie was based on that and Spielberg was so faithful to it, you will easily recall the scene in the movie while reading the book. Spielberg tried to tell us a story by showing glorious black-and-white moving pictures on the screen. Keneally tells us the background of each mostly harrowing scene and each of the many unforgettable characters: their stories, their background, and their fates. Spielberg was constrained by the length of his reel(s) of film, i.e., production cost. Keneally did not have any limit on how many pages his novel would take. He has a rich source of information: Poldek Pfefferberg (1913-2001), one of the 1,100 Holocaust survivors saved by Schindler, called Schindlerjuden and who has made his life’s mission to tell the story of his savior, Oscar Schindler (1908-1974).
As in any of Holocaust novels, my heart bleeds most when it comes to the innocent children caught in the midst of it all. Who would forget the 8-y/o Olek Dresden who hides in the man’s toilet hole? Olek is the son of Henry Dresden who is the guy playing the piano in one of the scenes inside the house of Herr Kommander Amon Goethe, the heartless camp commander.
In the book, it is not Olek who hides in this disgusting hole. It is an unnamed 11-y/o boy and the book’s description, the scent is revolting and flies swarming the boy’s eyes, ears and mouth. This is one of the many information that you don’t get from watching the movie.
Who could forget the red little girl? Red dress. Red hat. Tiny red boots. This 3-y/o girl innocently roaming around inside the ghetto while executions are happening left and right while horse-riding Oscar and his girlfriend are watching from atop of the hill?
She survived the Holocaust and when she saw the movie, she identified herself to the press. She is Genia Dresner cousin to another character, Danka Dresner the 14-y/o bespectacled girl who also survived the holocaust together with her mother, Chaja Dresner and father, Juda Dresner. It’s just that I cannot find a copy of Danka’s picture to remind you of her. I also failed to find Lisiek’s. Lisiek is that 8-y/o boy who Amon shoots while traversing the field inside the concentration camp because he fails to clean the stain in Amon’s bathtub.
If I keep on giving you what I learned from this book, I will have a very long review. I also find enjoyed the last parts of the book giving the information on what happened to Oscar and Emily Schindler (his legal wife) after the war very interesting. Of course, you should know that Oscar Schindler is not a saintly person and so the moral is that even how bad some people seem to be, there is something good in them. Sometimes, God provides the opportunity for us to do good things to others.
When He come knocking, harden not your hearts. You may not have a tree in the Avenue of Righteous people but it always pays to be a good person.
October 10, 2021
Schindler's Ark = Schindler's List, Thomas Keneally
Schindler's Ark (Schindler's List) is a Booker Prize-winning historical fiction novel published in 1982 by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally, which was later adapted into the highly successful movie Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg.
The United States version of the book was called Schindler's List from the beginning; it was later re-issued in Commonwealth countries under that name as well. The novel was also awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction in 1983.
This novel tells the story of Oskar Schindler, self-made entrepreneur and bon viveur who almost by default found himself saving Polish Jews from the Nazi death machine.
Based on numerous eyewitness accounts, Keneally's story is unbearably moving but never melodramatic, a testament to the almost unimaginable horrors of Hitler's attempts to make Europe judenfrei (free of Jews).
What distinguishes Schindler in Keneally's version is not, superficially, kindness or idealism, but a certain gusto. He was a flawed hero; he was not "without sin". He was a drinker, a womaniser and, at first, a profiteer.
After the war, he was commemorated as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but was never seen as a conventionally virtuous character.
The story is not only Schindler's, it is the story of Kraków's Ghetto and the forced labor camp outside town, Płaszów. It is the story of Amon Göth, Płaszów's commandant.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز نهم ماه ژوئن سال 2009میلادی
عنوان: فهرست شیندلر؛ اثر: تامس کنیلی؛ مترجم: الگا کیایی؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، نشر سمن، 1379، در 312ص، شابک 9646298141؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان استرالیا - سده 20م
اسکار شیندلر، تاجری معمولی، و از اعضای «حزب نازی» بوده، او برای طبع خوشگذران خویش، و با توجه به دوستی، بین او و مقامات رده بالای ارتش «نازی»، که بیشتر برای دست و دلبازیش بوده، «شیندلر» کارخانه ای را، پنهان از نگاه دیگران با پول «یهودیانی» که، با آنان شریک شده، میخرد؛ سپس با توجه به همین روابط خود با ارتش، «یهودیان» را، به عنوان کارگر، در کارخانه ی خویش، به کار میگیرد؛ رفته رفته همین، راه فراری، برای گروهی از یهودیانی فراهم میشود، که در قرنطینه مانده اند، و خطر مرگ هر لحظه آنان را تهدید میکند؛ ...؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 17/09/1398هجری خورشیدی؛ 17/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Schindler's Ark (Schindler's List) is a Booker Prize-winning historical fiction novel published in 1982 by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally, which was later adapted into the highly successful movie Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg.
The United States version of the book was called Schindler's List from the beginning; it was later re-issued in Commonwealth countries under that name as well. The novel was also awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction in 1983.
This novel tells the story of Oskar Schindler, self-made entrepreneur and bon viveur who almost by default found himself saving Polish Jews from the Nazi death machine.
Based on numerous eyewitness accounts, Keneally's story is unbearably moving but never melodramatic, a testament to the almost unimaginable horrors of Hitler's attempts to make Europe judenfrei (free of Jews).
What distinguishes Schindler in Keneally's version is not, superficially, kindness or idealism, but a certain gusto. He was a flawed hero; he was not "without sin". He was a drinker, a womaniser and, at first, a profiteer.
After the war, he was commemorated as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but was never seen as a conventionally virtuous character.
The story is not only Schindler's, it is the story of Kraków's Ghetto and the forced labor camp outside town, Płaszów. It is the story of Amon Göth, Płaszów's commandant.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز نهم ماه ژوئن سال 2009میلادی
عنوان: فهرست شیندلر؛ اثر: تامس کنیلی؛ مترجم: الگا کیایی؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، نشر سمن، 1379، در 312ص، شابک 9646298141؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان استرالیا - سده 20م
اسکار شیندلر، تاجری معمولی، و از اعضای «حزب نازی» بوده، او برای طبع خوشگذران خویش، و با توجه به دوستی، بین او و مقامات رده بالای ارتش «نازی»، که بیشتر برای دست و دلبازیش بوده، «شیندلر» کارخانه ای را، پنهان از نگاه دیگران با پول «یهودیانی» که، با آنان شریک شده، میخرد؛ سپس با توجه به همین روابط خود با ارتش، «یهودیان» را، به عنوان کارگر، در کارخانه ی خویش، به کار میگیرد؛ رفته رفته همین، راه فراری، برای گروهی از یهودیانی فراهم میشود، که در قرنطینه مانده اند، و خطر مرگ هر لحظه آنان را تهدید میکند؛ ...؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 17/09/1398هجری خورشیدی؛ 17/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
March 26, 2019
I was sort of familiar with the Schindler legacy--probably seen the film 5 or 6 times. (Isn't it peculiar that although it is regarded as one of the best biographies/films of all time it hardly ever makes it on any person's personal favorites lists? Blame the subject matter entirely.) So this is basically a reading that concentrates most of its attention on all the details that Steven Spielberg failed to bring to the screen. Because that inevitably occurs with all adaptations.
Well, this is almost an encyclopedia! The astonishing amount of research that went into this project boggles the mind: it is a full lifetime. I'm plagued with an image of a skeleton being dressed up with flesh and meat... like giving a body of fleshy substance to a ghost.
What I didn't know about Oskar Schindler & the Schindler jews:
1)Schindler's adolescence was unique (son of rich Roman Catholics) & charming (he was a fan of motorbike racing)
2)the original proposal: all Jews were going to be relocated far far away--to Madagascar!
3)some Jews approved of the ghetto at first since they thought that they would be free to worship and carry out their affairs with the enemies outside of the walls.
4)if you were OD & failed to deliver a family to the SS, then yours would be forfeit (thus, the motivation for Jews to turn against each other)
5)there were other Schindler-like saviors, millionaires who gave up everything to save lives, though their stories are told ELSEWHERE.
6)the book gives more in-depth biographies of the survivors, like those of Poldek Pfefferberg and Amon's maid, Helen Hirsch.
7)RESISTANCE- hinted at in the film; here, it is noted that something very similar to what occurs in Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" occurred in real life-- rebels did destroy the only SS-only cinema!
8)the little girl in the red coat. For the film it is an emblem of hope, a very visual reminder. The book tells us that her name was Genia & it is because Schindler sees her from the hilltop, sees the determination in her and that invisible string that carries her to safety after the Aktion of the ghetto, that he gives up his life to the cause. Why does she survive? She's immune, like a Virgil that can accompany us down into the underworld unscathed. Because no one shields her from the horror of the massacre, because nobody cares for censorship or human dignity, because she is ALONE... it is that Schindler becomes Schindler.
& lastly, I would add that the book is somewhat more digestible than the movie. It still allows for the throat to constrict and for shivers to cover the entire body. I cannot pick one over the other since they both masterfully voice and embody the testament this great man left behind.
Well, this is almost an encyclopedia! The astonishing amount of research that went into this project boggles the mind: it is a full lifetime. I'm plagued with an image of a skeleton being dressed up with flesh and meat... like giving a body of fleshy substance to a ghost.
What I didn't know about Oskar Schindler & the Schindler jews:
1)Schindler's adolescence was unique (son of rich Roman Catholics) & charming (he was a fan of motorbike racing)
2)the original proposal: all Jews were going to be relocated far far away--to Madagascar!
3)some Jews approved of the ghetto at first since they thought that they would be free to worship and carry out their affairs with the enemies outside of the walls.
4)if you were OD & failed to deliver a family to the SS, then yours would be forfeit (thus, the motivation for Jews to turn against each other)
5)there were other Schindler-like saviors, millionaires who gave up everything to save lives, though their stories are told ELSEWHERE.
6)the book gives more in-depth biographies of the survivors, like those of Poldek Pfefferberg and Amon's maid, Helen Hirsch.
7)RESISTANCE- hinted at in the film; here, it is noted that something very similar to what occurs in Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" occurred in real life-- rebels did destroy the only SS-only cinema!
8)the little girl in the red coat. For the film it is an emblem of hope, a very visual reminder. The book tells us that her name was Genia & it is because Schindler sees her from the hilltop, sees the determination in her and that invisible string that carries her to safety after the Aktion of the ghetto, that he gives up his life to the cause. Why does she survive? She's immune, like a Virgil that can accompany us down into the underworld unscathed. Because no one shields her from the horror of the massacre, because nobody cares for censorship or human dignity, because she is ALONE... it is that Schindler becomes Schindler.
& lastly, I would add that the book is somewhat more digestible than the movie. It still allows for the throat to constrict and for shivers to cover the entire body. I cannot pick one over the other since they both masterfully voice and embody the testament this great man left behind.
April 15, 2020
He who saves the life of one man saves the entire world.”
― Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List.
Oscar Schindler was a German industrialist and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories in occupied Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
I had to wonder on completing this book just how many lives Oscar Schindler has really saved when you multiply to the present day. What a wonderful legacy and how relevant this book was with what is happening in the world today even small actions in being accountable and doing the right thing may save so many lives.
I watched the movie many years ago and remember being so affected by it. And when this book came up as a book club online I really wanted to Join in as as I felt it was important to read this and discuss it.
The more orthodox of the ghetto had a slogan - 'An hour of life is still life'.”
― Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List
Thomas Keneally really brings history to life and you finish this book with restored faith in humanity.
A terrific read and a book that if on your TBR list then now is the time to bump it up as this one deserves to be read.
― Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List.
Oscar Schindler was a German industrialist and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories in occupied Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
I had to wonder on completing this book just how many lives Oscar Schindler has really saved when you multiply to the present day. What a wonderful legacy and how relevant this book was with what is happening in the world today even small actions in being accountable and doing the right thing may save so many lives.
I watched the movie many years ago and remember being so affected by it. And when this book came up as a book club online I really wanted to Join in as as I felt it was important to read this and discuss it.
The more orthodox of the ghetto had a slogan - 'An hour of life is still life'.”
― Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List
Thomas Keneally really brings history to life and you finish this book with restored faith in humanity.
A terrific read and a book that if on your TBR list then now is the time to bump it up as this one deserves to be read.
March 27, 2010
Certain people (you know who you are) were suggesting the other day that no one actually reads Thomas Keneally. Well, I notice surprisingly few reviews here, so maybe the accusation has some substance. At any rate, I did read the book, and really liked it.
Quite apart from anything else, it's an inspiring true story, which the author tells well. But the thing I've thought about most is what it says about the nature of good and evil. At the beginning of the story, Schindler is by no stretch of the imagination a good guy. He's an up-and-coming entrepreneur in the Third Reich, with a clutch of complicated business interests and an appetising collection of mistresses. He sees an opportunity. Jews in Poland have been expropriated and deprived of most of their rights. They will work for next to nothing to get enough food to keep from starving. Many of these people are highly skilled. The potential is obvious. He'd better get hold of this one before his rivals do! So he sets up a factory, and starts operating at a staggering profit margin. The fact that he's away from his wife is only good news for his romantic life - icing on the cake.
Everything is going wonderfully, when the Nazis start deporting his workforce to the concentration camps. Nazi ideology holds that they're vermin, who are worth no more than the gold fillings, soap and hair that can be extracted from their dead bodies. But Schindler knows this isn't true. Alive, they can carry on making money for him. Dead, they're worthless. Like a good businessman, he starts bending rules to keep them in his factory, and out of the gas chambers.
Somehow, by imperceptible degrees, this Nazi shark becomes a saint who ends up saving the lives of over a thousand people, at great risk to his own. Keneally traces what happens in an unsentimental, matter-of-fact way. Each individual step is completely logical: there is no blinding relevation on the road to Damascus. But how can you explain the overall transformation? Was Schindler pushed by Adam Smith's invisible hand? Is it an example of the principle George Orwell enunciates, that freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two is four, and that everything else just follows from that? Or was God, as He so often does, moving in mysterious ways?
Perhaps all three explanations are just different ways of saying the same thing. I'm sure I don't know. But if you haven't read the book, and you're interested in these questions, you might want to check it out some time.
Quite apart from anything else, it's an inspiring true story, which the author tells well. But the thing I've thought about most is what it says about the nature of good and evil. At the beginning of the story, Schindler is by no stretch of the imagination a good guy. He's an up-and-coming entrepreneur in the Third Reich, with a clutch of complicated business interests and an appetising collection of mistresses. He sees an opportunity. Jews in Poland have been expropriated and deprived of most of their rights. They will work for next to nothing to get enough food to keep from starving. Many of these people are highly skilled. The potential is obvious. He'd better get hold of this one before his rivals do! So he sets up a factory, and starts operating at a staggering profit margin. The fact that he's away from his wife is only good news for his romantic life - icing on the cake.
Everything is going wonderfully, when the Nazis start deporting his workforce to the concentration camps. Nazi ideology holds that they're vermin, who are worth no more than the gold fillings, soap and hair that can be extracted from their dead bodies. But Schindler knows this isn't true. Alive, they can carry on making money for him. Dead, they're worthless. Like a good businessman, he starts bending rules to keep them in his factory, and out of the gas chambers.
Somehow, by imperceptible degrees, this Nazi shark becomes a saint who ends up saving the lives of over a thousand people, at great risk to his own. Keneally traces what happens in an unsentimental, matter-of-fact way. Each individual step is completely logical: there is no blinding relevation on the road to Damascus. But how can you explain the overall transformation? Was Schindler pushed by Adam Smith's invisible hand? Is it an example of the principle George Orwell enunciates, that freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two is four, and that everything else just follows from that? Or was God, as He so often does, moving in mysterious ways?
Perhaps all three explanations are just different ways of saying the same thing. I'm sure I don't know. But if you haven't read the book, and you're interested in these questions, you might want to check it out some time.
August 12, 2018
I read this book some time ago and I also watched the movie. I am not ashamed to say that this book and the film made me cry. Such a terrible time in our history when so much suffering was caused to so many. Thank God for people such as this who risked there own lives to save others.
March 25, 2018
I read this after the wonderful movie came out in 1993.
December 11, 2023
The stories of World War II are always poignant. Especially those who tackle the theme of concentration camps. This true story is no exception, and we come to hate Amon Goeth, the executioner of the Płaszów camp near Krakow. However, Oskar Schindler will be inventive in getting the Jewish internees out of their clutches. Those named on Schindler's list will escape death. It might have been a drop in the ocean, but every bit of life that could be saved with those lists was a victory over the enemy.
August 19, 2016
"The list is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its cramped margins lies the gulf."
The story behind the book which brought the story of Oskar Schindler to the world is almost as interesting as the story of Schindler himself. In October 1980, Thomas Keneally - already an established and successful Australian author - found himself looking for a new briefcase at the end of his book tour in southern California, the last stop before returning home to Sydney. Fate led him to a luggage store owned by Leopold Pfefferberg, who recognized Keneally; because Keneally's credit card took 20 minutes to process the payment, he began telling him the story of Oskar Schindler - a German industrialist who has saved him and hundreds of others Polish Jews from certain destruction during World War 2, at an enormous personal cost and with incredible ingenuity.
Pfefferberg led Keneally to the back of his store, where he kept many documents he managed to save regarding Schindler and his life during the war - photographs, letters and office documents, including the famed list of workers at a Schindler factory in Brinnlitz, on which he pointed his own name. He would show these documents to anyone who would be interested, hoping to immortalize Schindler and his great deed for future generations; a movie was supposed to be made while he was still alive, but ultimately nothing came of it. Now, six years after Schindler's death, Pfefferberg convinced Keneally to write a book about him. Pfefferberg became Keneally's advisor, constantly offering him his help and traveling with him to Kraków and other places where Schindler lived and worked, and helped him find and interview over 50 people whom Schindler kept sheltered in his factory.
Keneally dedicated the finished book, originally titled as "Schindler's Ark" to the memory of Oskar Schindler, and to Pfefferberg - "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written." If Keneally's briefcase had not broken, or if he would pick another store to search for a new one, this book would not exist - Oskar Schindler's story would very probably be written down or preserved in some other way, but not with so much success and interest that it has since generated, and would most likely not be adapted into a celebrated and beautiful movie by Steven Spielberg.
Keneally took the Capote approach to writing, presenting the story as "faction", or a non-fiction novel; he presented the information he gathered from his copious research in a literary way, and offered a reasonable artistic impression to fill in the blanks that were not preserved, or could not be recalled or witnessed by survivors. The book deliberately takes a literary approach to character development, though at the same time it is very conscious that its subjects are real people, and does its best to stay true to what can be known about them. The "plot" of the novel is often interrupted by insights and facts found by Keneally, to give the situation presented a deeper and fuller meaning and paint a larger picture. Keneallly took pride in his vast research, and was dismayed when the book was awarded the Booker Prize for fiction in 1982: he stressed that the story was not fictional, and that he felt a responsibility to those who cherish the memory of Oskar Schindler to present is as accurately as possible, and that many of those whom he saved have read and corrected his manuscript.
Although the book features a diverse cast of supporting characters, it ultimately focuses on two people - Oskar Schindler, the industrialist who would save over a thousand Jews, and Amon Goeth, the camp commandant who delighted in killing them. Goeth is a complex character: he lusts after his Jewish maid but is unable to see her as an actual person, and these conflicted feelings cause him to beat and abuse her without mercy. Although he is conflicted in regards to his feeling for the maid and even deludes himself that they will grow old together, Goeth does not intend her to die naturally - in his selfishness, he wants to be the one to kill her instead of letting her be murdered in an anonymous gas chamber.
Oskar Schindler, on the other hand, is a man of much deeper and more interesting psyche. He is not the stereotypical "good German" - He is not only not opposed to the war, but works as an intelligence agent for the German secret service in his home country of Czechoslovakia, submitting the German government with information on railways and troop movements. Schindler hopes to profit on it; he joins the Nazi party because it is good for business, and he expected to conduct a business which would provide for his lavish lifestyle of a playboy and a womanizer. Although married, Oskar notoriously cheated on his wife and kept several mistresses; he schmoozes with the SS officials and has a seemingly endless amounts of expensive gifts to give always available at his disposal, which grant him a privileged position and a reputation of a man to whom it is worth providing a favor and whom it's not worth crossing. Enjoying wealth and privilege since his youth, Oskar expected to only multiply both during the war, always in the company of many beautiful women - by all accounts he should be a good hedonist, and not a good Samaritan.
So, how could such a man turn into the savior of over a thousand condemned souls? His complex character does not leave us with an easy answer. Schindler spent many a evening dining and partying with Amon Goth at his villa, and with time it became apparent that he was willing and capable to make a deal with the devil himself in order to save his Jewish workers. However, I think that he could only do that because there was a little of the devil in him - as a serial adulterer, a black marketeer he understood well the situation that he found himself in, and learned how to best get by and make a profit, and it is precisely this what allowed him to move comfortably and freely about the circles of high ranking SS officials, allowing him to bribe them to his own gain. A more pious man would not be able to stand Goeth and his clique, and his entire enterprise of saving Jews would have collapsed before it was even able to begin; only because he was a crook himself was Oskar able to outwit and fool other crooks, and only because he himself was corrupted could he understand how to corrupt and seduce others for his own gain.
According to his wife, Emilie, Schindler did not do anything remarkable before or after the war; his post-war life is a sad one, full of failed ideas and desolation. He tried starting again in Argentina, but failed and returned to live in Germany, leaving his wife behind to fend for herself. Although the many grateful Jews whom he saves regularly sent him donations and invited him to Israel to celebrate his birthday there every year, Schindler never established himself as a businessman ever again and usually squandered all of the money they gave him very quickly. He spent the remaining years of his life in a small one room apartment in Frankfurt, where he died alone in 1974. A friend who knew him then described him as a burned-out soul, who exhausted all of his energy on the rescue of Jews, and who did not have the strength to find his feet again.
At the same time, at the crucial moment in his life Oskar Schindler rose to the occasion and became a true rescuer of more than a thousand Jews, showing them incredible kindness which was virtually unheard of at the time; he treated and cared for his workers better than he did for his own wife. And their gratitude and appreciation for him was unending: as Itzak Stern, the man who ran Schindler's factory and who typed up the list of his workers, later remarked: "In the Hebrew language there are three terms, three grades: person, man, human being. I believe that there is a fourth one - Schindler."
The apocalypse of war was the ultimate test and a moment of truth for many people, and it brought out the truth of Schindler's and Goeth's respective characters: in Amon Goeth it brought out his fundamental monstrosity and innate evilness, in Oskar Schindler it brought out his innate goodness, decency and righteousness. There is no better way of describing the difference between the two men than the Tamudic verse from the Sanhedrin: Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.
The story behind the book which brought the story of Oskar Schindler to the world is almost as interesting as the story of Schindler himself. In October 1980, Thomas Keneally - already an established and successful Australian author - found himself looking for a new briefcase at the end of his book tour in southern California, the last stop before returning home to Sydney. Fate led him to a luggage store owned by Leopold Pfefferberg, who recognized Keneally; because Keneally's credit card took 20 minutes to process the payment, he began telling him the story of Oskar Schindler - a German industrialist who has saved him and hundreds of others Polish Jews from certain destruction during World War 2, at an enormous personal cost and with incredible ingenuity.
Pfefferberg led Keneally to the back of his store, where he kept many documents he managed to save regarding Schindler and his life during the war - photographs, letters and office documents, including the famed list of workers at a Schindler factory in Brinnlitz, on which he pointed his own name. He would show these documents to anyone who would be interested, hoping to immortalize Schindler and his great deed for future generations; a movie was supposed to be made while he was still alive, but ultimately nothing came of it. Now, six years after Schindler's death, Pfefferberg convinced Keneally to write a book about him. Pfefferberg became Keneally's advisor, constantly offering him his help and traveling with him to Kraków and other places where Schindler lived and worked, and helped him find and interview over 50 people whom Schindler kept sheltered in his factory.
Keneally dedicated the finished book, originally titled as "Schindler's Ark" to the memory of Oskar Schindler, and to Pfefferberg - "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written." If Keneally's briefcase had not broken, or if he would pick another store to search for a new one, this book would not exist - Oskar Schindler's story would very probably be written down or preserved in some other way, but not with so much success and interest that it has since generated, and would most likely not be adapted into a celebrated and beautiful movie by Steven Spielberg.
Keneally took the Capote approach to writing, presenting the story as "faction", or a non-fiction novel; he presented the information he gathered from his copious research in a literary way, and offered a reasonable artistic impression to fill in the blanks that were not preserved, or could not be recalled or witnessed by survivors. The book deliberately takes a literary approach to character development, though at the same time it is very conscious that its subjects are real people, and does its best to stay true to what can be known about them. The "plot" of the novel is often interrupted by insights and facts found by Keneally, to give the situation presented a deeper and fuller meaning and paint a larger picture. Keneallly took pride in his vast research, and was dismayed when the book was awarded the Booker Prize for fiction in 1982: he stressed that the story was not fictional, and that he felt a responsibility to those who cherish the memory of Oskar Schindler to present is as accurately as possible, and that many of those whom he saved have read and corrected his manuscript.
Although the book features a diverse cast of supporting characters, it ultimately focuses on two people - Oskar Schindler, the industrialist who would save over a thousand Jews, and Amon Goeth, the camp commandant who delighted in killing them. Goeth is a complex character: he lusts after his Jewish maid but is unable to see her as an actual person, and these conflicted feelings cause him to beat and abuse her without mercy. Although he is conflicted in regards to his feeling for the maid and even deludes himself that they will grow old together, Goeth does not intend her to die naturally - in his selfishness, he wants to be the one to kill her instead of letting her be murdered in an anonymous gas chamber.
Oskar Schindler, on the other hand, is a man of much deeper and more interesting psyche. He is not the stereotypical "good German" - He is not only not opposed to the war, but works as an intelligence agent for the German secret service in his home country of Czechoslovakia, submitting the German government with information on railways and troop movements. Schindler hopes to profit on it; he joins the Nazi party because it is good for business, and he expected to conduct a business which would provide for his lavish lifestyle of a playboy and a womanizer. Although married, Oskar notoriously cheated on his wife and kept several mistresses; he schmoozes with the SS officials and has a seemingly endless amounts of expensive gifts to give always available at his disposal, which grant him a privileged position and a reputation of a man to whom it is worth providing a favor and whom it's not worth crossing. Enjoying wealth and privilege since his youth, Oskar expected to only multiply both during the war, always in the company of many beautiful women - by all accounts he should be a good hedonist, and not a good Samaritan.
So, how could such a man turn into the savior of over a thousand condemned souls? His complex character does not leave us with an easy answer. Schindler spent many a evening dining and partying with Amon Goth at his villa, and with time it became apparent that he was willing and capable to make a deal with the devil himself in order to save his Jewish workers. However, I think that he could only do that because there was a little of the devil in him - as a serial adulterer, a black marketeer he understood well the situation that he found himself in, and learned how to best get by and make a profit, and it is precisely this what allowed him to move comfortably and freely about the circles of high ranking SS officials, allowing him to bribe them to his own gain. A more pious man would not be able to stand Goeth and his clique, and his entire enterprise of saving Jews would have collapsed before it was even able to begin; only because he was a crook himself was Oskar able to outwit and fool other crooks, and only because he himself was corrupted could he understand how to corrupt and seduce others for his own gain.
According to his wife, Emilie, Schindler did not do anything remarkable before or after the war; his post-war life is a sad one, full of failed ideas and desolation. He tried starting again in Argentina, but failed and returned to live in Germany, leaving his wife behind to fend for herself. Although the many grateful Jews whom he saves regularly sent him donations and invited him to Israel to celebrate his birthday there every year, Schindler never established himself as a businessman ever again and usually squandered all of the money they gave him very quickly. He spent the remaining years of his life in a small one room apartment in Frankfurt, where he died alone in 1974. A friend who knew him then described him as a burned-out soul, who exhausted all of his energy on the rescue of Jews, and who did not have the strength to find his feet again.
At the same time, at the crucial moment in his life Oskar Schindler rose to the occasion and became a true rescuer of more than a thousand Jews, showing them incredible kindness which was virtually unheard of at the time; he treated and cared for his workers better than he did for his own wife. And their gratitude and appreciation for him was unending: as Itzak Stern, the man who ran Schindler's factory and who typed up the list of his workers, later remarked: "In the Hebrew language there are three terms, three grades: person, man, human being. I believe that there is a fourth one - Schindler."
The apocalypse of war was the ultimate test and a moment of truth for many people, and it brought out the truth of Schindler's and Goeth's respective characters: in Amon Goeth it brought out his fundamental monstrosity and innate evilness, in Oskar Schindler it brought out his innate goodness, decency and righteousness. There is no better way of describing the difference between the two men than the Tamudic verse from the Sanhedrin: Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.
August 3, 2019
ترجمه فارسی فهرست شیندلر از نشر جمهوری ، با ترجمه محبوبه مهر آفرید ، چیزی در مایه های جمع کردن بدون نظم تعدادی جمله ، با زمان های مختلف ، بدون فعل و فاعل هستش ، جملاتی که مفهوم ندارند ، گوینده آن مشخص نیست و اصلا معلوم نیست مخاطب آن چه کسی می باشد ! علاوه بر این ، ترجمه فارسی کتاب ، استالینگراد را در لهستان ! ذکر می کند و ضمنا منظور از کیو همان کیف پایتخت اوکراین می باشد ! به نظرم به جای اتلاف وقت در مورد انبوه اشکالات ترجمه فارسی که به مانند توهینی به نویسنده آقای توماس کنینلی هست نگاه کوتاهی به فیلم شاهکار فهرست شیندلر اقتباس از همین کتاب بیاندازیم :
آقای اسکار شیندلر یک جوان جذاب آلمانی با روابط عمومی بسیار قوی و همین طور بینهایت علاقه مند به خانم های زیبا هست که در دل آشوب جنگ دوم جهانی می خواهد از این آب گل آلود استفاده کند و پولدار شود . در اولین معرفی ، اسکار شیندلر را می بینیم که لباس گرانی پوشیده و به یک مهمانی اس اس می رود ، با روابط قوی خود و البته با هدایای گران با چند نفر اس اس با نفوذ آشنا می شود ، در همین حال کارگردان نابغه فیلم ، ما را به لهستان اشغالی آلمان می برد ، جایی که میلیونها یهودی به فرمان حاکم نظامی لهستان باید خانه و کاشانه خود را ترک کرده و در محلات خاصی به نام گتو در شهرهای بزرگی مانند ورشو وکراکو اقامت کنند . در گام بعدی شیندلر با ایزاک اشترن یهودی آشنا می شود ، حسابدار موفقی که علاوه بر حساب و کتاب ، سرمایه داران یهود را هم می شناسد و می تواند از آن ها برای جمع آوری سرمایه کارخانه قابلمه و ماهیتابه سازی شیندلر کمک بگیرد ،اسکار شیندلر هم با کمک دوستان با نفوذ خود قرارداد تامین ظروف ارتش آلمان را در اختیار می گیرد ودر همین حال ایزاک اشترن نیروی مورد نیاز کارخانه را با سخاوت از بین یهودیان گتو فراهم می کند . در همین حال نوبت گام بعدی در بوروکراسی عظیم آلمان نازی ایست ، گتوها باید با خشونت تمام تخلیه شوند و یهودیان باید به اردوگاههای کار اجباری فرستاده شوند ( البته بعد از تفکیک نیروی کاری که به کمپ ها و نیروی غیرمولد که به اردوگاه مرگ فرستاده می شوند ) و این جاست که شیطان وارد می شود ، آمون گوت فرمانده وافن اس اس و اردوگاه اجباری پلاشف با بازی حیرت انگیز رالف فاینس یک روانی زنجیره ای ، یک قاتل بالفطره ، همین طور یک شیاد پول پرست هست که ماموریت تخلیه گتو را به سان یک ماموریت پرافتخار تاریخی برعهده دارد و در یکی از تاثیرگذارترین پلن های تاریخ سینما ، گتو را با آمیزه ای از دیوانگی ، خشونت محض ، اندکی شوخی و یک موسیقی تاثیرگذار تخلیه می کند . ساکنان قبلی گتو به اردوگاه اجباری پلاشف تحت فرمان همین آمون گوت می روند ، کسی که از بالکن خانه به کسانی که فکر میکند که در کار کردن کوتاهی می کنند شلیک می کند ، یک هیولای خالص ، یک دیوانه زنجیره ای و یک شیطان مسلم
اسکار شیندلر در پلاشف با آمون گوت آشنا می شود ، در حالی که به تدریج اسکار دارد عوض می شود ، او که از دیدن فجایع جنگ و هولوکاستی که در جلوی چشمان او در حاله اجراست شوکه شده است ، دیگر به فکر سود و کسب در آمد از نیروی کار مجانی نیست ، بلکه به فکر حفظ جان آنهاست . اسکار با آمون گوت روانی دوقطبی طرح دوستی می ریزد و موفق می شود که کارگران خود را به کارخانه خود در پلاشف ببرد ، آن جا تا اندازه ای از شر آمون گوت آزاد هستند و غذا ی بهتری به آن ها میرسد .دیری نمیگذرد که کارخانه اسکار به بهشتی در دل سیاه جهنم پلاشف تبدیل می شود و ا��بوه کارگران یهودی می خواهند آن جا کار کنند و البته که اسکار بهای آن بهشت را با انبوهی پول و رشوه و هدایای گران بهای دیگر می پردازد ، از طرفی اسکار از هرموقعیتی استفاده کرده و با آمون گوت صحبت می کند که شاید آن هیولا را متوجه رفتاری بهتر با یهودی ها کند ، البته که فایده ای ندارد .
اما دستگاه عظیم اداری آلمان نازی حالا باید نیروهای به درد نخور را از اردوگاه های کار اجباری شناسایی و اخراج کرده و آن ها را مستقیما به آشویتس برای رفتار مخصوص بفرستد ، به این ترتیب جا برای نیروی کار تازه نفس هم باز می شود . آقای شیندلر متوجه می شود که یهودیان او تحت هیچ شرایطی امنیت ندارند پس به کمک ایزاک اشترن لیست کارگران مورد نیاز خود را یعنی همان لیست شیندلر را تهیه و سپس هر چه پول بدست آورده را هزینه می کند و با رشوه دادن به ماموران ارشد اس اس از جمله همین آقای گوت موفق میشود کارگران خود را (1100 نفر) در دو قطار از پلاشف - لهستان خارج و آنها را به سرزمین مادری خود چک اسلاواکی ببرد ، اما از شانس بد قطار حاوی زن ها و بچه ها بر اثر یک اشتباه اداری سر از آشویتس در میاورد . و این جا با دلهره آورترین لحظات فیلم روبرو هستیم ، افرادی که به زیر زمین های عمیق رفته و به بهانه حمام وشپش زدایی به جایی شبیه به حمام میروند وبر اثر تنفس گاز سیکلون ب ، مسموم و خفه شده و نهایتا بعد از یک ساعت خاکستر آنها بعد از سوختن در کوره از دودکش بیرون میرود . ولی معجزه ای رخ میدهد و به جای گاز ، از دوش حمام واقعا آب می آید ، گویی قسمت بوده که چون بر اثر یک اشتباه کوچک سر از آشویتس در آورده اند ، به خاطر یک اشتب��ه دیگر این بار جان سالم از آشویتس به در برند . در همین لحظات اسکار شیندلر هم می رسد و با پرداخت الماس به رودلف هوس ، فرمانده آشویتس و هیولایی دیگر ، زن ها وبچه ها را هم از آشویتس خارج کرده و به چک اسلاواکی امن می فرستد . اسکار تا چند ماه دیگر هم به رشوه دادن به مقامات اس اس ادامه داده و هزینه های بسیار زیادی صرف غذا و دارو و سوخت اردوگاه کوچک خود می کند . در همین احوال جنگ هم تمام می شود اسکار برای آنکه به دست روسها نیفتد به سمت غرب حرکت کرده و اردوگاه توسط یک سرباز ارتش سرخ کشف شده و یهودیان آزاد می شوند . اما آقای شیندلر که کاملا ورشکسنه شده و آه در بساط ندارد هم در ازدواج و هم در چند کسب و کار دیگر شکست خورده و در 1974 در آرژانتین در فقر سکته کرده و جان میدهد ، که این دنیا دار مکافات نیست .
اما یادگار آقای شیندلر باقی می ماند که در آئینی که هر کس یک نفر را نجات دهد ، گویی تمام بشریت را نجات داده او نزدیک به 1100 نفر را زندگی و حیات دوباره بخشیده ،
در پایان فیلم یهودیان نجات یافته به همراه بازیگران نقش خود و خانم شیندلر بر سر مزار اسکار شیندلر رفته و هر کدام سنگی بر سنگ قبر او می گذارند و آخرین دست که گلی بر قبر شیندلر قرار می دهد ، دست اسپیلبرگ کارگردان این اثر برجسته است .
آقای اسکار شیندلر یک جوان جذاب آلمانی با روابط عمومی بسیار قوی و همین طور بینهایت علاقه مند به خانم های زیبا هست که در دل آشوب جنگ دوم جهانی می خواهد از این آب گل آلود استفاده کند و پولدار شود . در اولین معرفی ، اسکار شیندلر را می بینیم که لباس گرانی پوشیده و به یک مهمانی اس اس می رود ، با روابط قوی خود و البته با هدایای گران با چند نفر اس اس با نفوذ آشنا می شود ، در همین حال کارگردان نابغه فیلم ، ما را به لهستان اشغالی آلمان می برد ، جایی که میلیونها یهودی به فرمان حاکم نظامی لهستان باید خانه و کاشانه خود را ترک کرده و در محلات خاصی به نام گتو در شهرهای بزرگی مانند ورشو وکراکو اقامت کنند . در گام بعدی شیندلر با ایزاک اشترن یهودی آشنا می شود ، حسابدار موفقی که علاوه بر حساب و کتاب ، سرمایه داران یهود را هم می شناسد و می تواند از آن ها برای جمع آوری سرمایه کارخانه قابلمه و ماهیتابه سازی شیندلر کمک بگیرد ،اسکار شیندلر هم با کمک دوستان با نفوذ خود قرارداد تامین ظروف ارتش آلمان را در اختیار می گیرد ودر همین حال ایزاک اشترن نیروی مورد نیاز کارخانه را با سخاوت از بین یهودیان گتو فراهم می کند . در همین حال نوبت گام بعدی در بوروکراسی عظیم آلمان نازی ایست ، گتوها باید با خشونت تمام تخلیه شوند و یهودیان باید به اردوگاههای کار اجباری فرستاده شوند ( البته بعد از تفکیک نیروی کاری که به کمپ ها و نیروی غیرمولد که به اردوگاه مرگ فرستاده می شوند ) و این جاست که شیطان وارد می شود ، آمون گوت فرمانده وافن اس اس و اردوگاه اجباری پلاشف با بازی حیرت انگیز رالف فاینس یک روانی زنجیره ای ، یک قاتل بالفطره ، همین طور یک شیاد پول پرست هست که ماموریت تخلیه گتو را به سان یک ماموریت پرافتخار تاریخی برعهده دارد و در یکی از تاثیرگذارترین پلن های تاریخ سینما ، گتو را با آمیزه ای از دیوانگی ، خشونت محض ، اندکی شوخی و یک موسیقی تاثیرگذار تخلیه می کند . ساکنان قبلی گتو به اردوگاه اجباری پلاشف تحت فرمان همین آمون گوت می روند ، کسی که از بالکن خانه به کسانی که فکر میکند که در کار کردن کوتاهی می کنند شلیک می کند ، یک هیولای خالص ، یک دیوانه زنجیره ای و یک شیطان مسلم
اسکار شیندلر در پلاشف با آمون گوت آشنا می شود ، در حالی که به تدریج اسکار دارد عوض می شود ، او که از دیدن فجایع جنگ و هولوکاستی که در جلوی چشمان او در حاله اجراست شوکه شده است ، دیگر به فکر سود و کسب در آمد از نیروی کار مجانی نیست ، بلکه به فکر حفظ جان آنهاست . اسکار با آمون گوت روانی دوقطبی طرح دوستی می ریزد و موفق می شود که کارگران خود را به کارخانه خود در پلاشف ببرد ، آن جا تا اندازه ای از شر آمون گوت آزاد هستند و غذا ی بهتری به آن ها میرسد .دیری نمیگذرد که کارخانه اسکار به بهشتی در دل سیاه جهنم پلاشف تبدیل می شود و ا��بوه کارگران یهودی می خواهند آن جا کار کنند و البته که اسکار بهای آن بهشت را با انبوهی پول و رشوه و هدایای گران بهای دیگر می پردازد ، از طرفی اسکار از هرموقعیتی استفاده کرده و با آمون گوت صحبت می کند که شاید آن هیولا را متوجه رفتاری بهتر با یهودی ها کند ، البته که فایده ای ندارد .
اما دستگاه عظیم اداری آلمان نازی حالا باید نیروهای به درد نخور را از اردوگاه های کار اجباری شناسایی و اخراج کرده و آن ها را مستقیما به آشویتس برای رفتار مخصوص بفرستد ، به این ترتیب جا برای نیروی کار تازه نفس هم باز می شود . آقای شیندلر متوجه می شود که یهودیان او تحت هیچ شرایطی امنیت ندارند پس به کمک ایزاک اشترن لیست کارگران مورد نیاز خود را یعنی همان لیست شیندلر را تهیه و سپس هر چه پول بدست آورده را هزینه می کند و با رشوه دادن به ماموران ارشد اس اس از جمله همین آقای گوت موفق میشود کارگران خود را (1100 نفر) در دو قطار از پلاشف - لهستان خارج و آنها را به سرزمین مادری خود چک اسلاواکی ببرد ، اما از شانس بد قطار حاوی زن ها و بچه ها بر اثر یک اشتباه اداری سر از آشویتس در میاورد . و این جا با دلهره آورترین لحظات فیلم روبرو هستیم ، افرادی که به زیر زمین های عمیق رفته و به بهانه حمام وشپش زدایی به جایی شبیه به حمام میروند وبر اثر تنفس گاز سیکلون ب ، مسموم و خفه شده و نهایتا بعد از یک ساعت خاکستر آنها بعد از سوختن در کوره از دودکش بیرون میرود . ولی معجزه ای رخ میدهد و به جای گاز ، از دوش حمام واقعا آب می آید ، گویی قسمت بوده که چون بر اثر یک اشتباه کوچک سر از آشویتس در آورده اند ، به خاطر یک اشتب��ه دیگر این بار جان سالم از آشویتس به در برند . در همین لحظات اسکار شیندلر هم می رسد و با پرداخت الماس به رودلف هوس ، فرمانده آشویتس و هیولایی دیگر ، زن ها وبچه ها را هم از آشویتس خارج کرده و به چک اسلاواکی امن می فرستد . اسکار تا چند ماه دیگر هم به رشوه دادن به مقامات اس اس ادامه داده و هزینه های بسیار زیادی صرف غذا و دارو و سوخت اردوگاه کوچک خود می کند . در همین احوال جنگ هم تمام می شود اسکار برای آنکه به دست روسها نیفتد به سمت غرب حرکت کرده و اردوگاه توسط یک سرباز ارتش سرخ کشف شده و یهودیان آزاد می شوند . اما آقای شیندلر که کاملا ورشکسنه شده و آه در بساط ندارد هم در ازدواج و هم در چند کسب و کار دیگر شکست خورده و در 1974 در آرژانتین در فقر سکته کرده و جان میدهد ، که این دنیا دار مکافات نیست .
اما یادگار آقای شیندلر باقی می ماند که در آئینی که هر کس یک نفر را نجات دهد ، گویی تمام بشریت را نجات داده او نزدیک به 1100 نفر را زندگی و حیات دوباره بخشیده ،
در پایان فیلم یهودیان نجات یافته به همراه بازیگران نقش خود و خانم شیندلر بر سر مزار اسکار شیندلر رفته و هر کدام سنگی بر سنگ قبر او می گذارند و آخرین دست که گلی بر قبر شیندلر قرار می دهد ، دست اسپیلبرگ کارگردان این اثر برجسته است .
November 26, 2020
Update: Tranh thủ cuối tuần dư dả thời gian, tôi đã kiếm bộ phim cùng tên của đạo diễn Steven Spielberg được dựng từ cuốn tiểu thuyết này để xem luôn. Và quả là bộ phim không những không làm tôi thất vọng, nó còn khiến tôi như sống lại những cảm xúc đớn đau, kinh hoàng trước những gì người dân Do Thái đã phải trải qua trong suốt Holocaust để rồi sau đó là sự ngưỡng mộ một nhân cách, một vị anh hùng lặng thầm là Oskar Schindler, người đã không chấp nhận khoanh tay đứng nhìn đồng loại khác chủng tộc của mình chịu chết dưới sự tàn ác của Đức Quốc xã.
Ngay từ ban đầu, tông màu trắng đen của bộ phim đã phủ bóng lên toàn bộ câu chuyện một sắc màu thê lương, u ám và buồn bã. Tông màu ấy tiệp với sự khủng khiếp của những ghetto, những Aktion, những trại lao động cưỡng bức, những trại tập trung, và cả những cái chết dưới nòng súng Phát xít Đức hay trong các lò thiêu khét tiếng. Và tông màu ấy, như đã được ấn định từ trước, đã làm nổi bật lên sự khiếp đảm của những Aktion, thông qua sắc đỏ của chiếc áo khoác được cô bé Genia mặc trên người - màu sắc duy nhất giữa hai sắc đen-trắng của bộ phim. Đó là sắc màu của một sự sống bé nhỏ, phải tự tìm cách cứu lấy mạng sống của mình, giữa lúc mà những người lớn hơn em còn không thể giữ được mạng sống của họ. Đó là sắc đỏ của máu, của những cái chết bất ngờ và thương tâm, và của một Genia cuối cùng vẫn phải kết thúc cuộc đời ngắn ngủi của em trên những chuyến xe đẩy chở xác người Do Thái đến bãi thiêu xác… Ám ảnh vô cùng...
Bộ phim đã khắc họa không chừa một chi tiết kinh hoàng nào mà cuốn sách đã đề cập đến. Và còn hơn thế nữa, nó bày ra trước mắt khán giả thực sự những gì đã xảy ra, những gì chắc hẳn đã xảy ra cho những người Do Thái vô tội. Không còn chỉ là những từ ngữ trên trang sách, nỗi kinh hoàng đã bước ra từ tiểu thuyết của Thomas Keneally để được soi chiếu trên từng khung hình, từng cảnh quay: sự tàn ác đến mức vô nghĩa của SS Commandant Amon Goeth, những tên lính SS đứng cười nói với nhau như thể chỉ là một ngày làm việc bình thường như bao ngày khác, trong khi những người đàn ông và phụ nữ Do Thái, không mảnh vải che thân, phải chạy vòng vòng quanh sân trại lao động để chuẩn bị đón chờ kết cục, hoặc là tiếp tục cuộc sống mòn mỏi còn thua súc vật trong trại, đón nhận một cái chết từ từ, hoặc là cầm chắc cái chết ngay lập tức bằng một chuyến tàu đến Auschwitz.
Và còn cảnh tượng người Do Thái phải đào từng manh đất để lôi lên từng cái xác đã teo tóp của đồng bào mình, sau đó những cái xác ấy được đưa lên dây chuyền để đẩy xuống hố đốt xác tập thể, như thể đó chỉ là những khối hàng chứ không phải là máu thịt của những con người đã từng sống, từng hít thở, từng hoạt động, từng yêu thương và từng có một gia đình… Thật khủng khiếp quá sức tưởng tượng. Và phần nhạc phim chính là chất xúc tác để đẩy sự khủng khiếp đầy ám ảnh đó đến mức tận cùng. Những bài nhạc (có lẽ là tiếng Ba Lan) với giọng hát à ê như tiếng kinh cầu không dứt, hay tiếng kéo violon réo rắt, da diết đến đứt ruột gan. Tiếng đàn piano của một tên lính SS hòa trong tiếng súng liên hồi không dứt của đồng đội hắn, bắn xuyên qua từng bức tường, từng căn phòng để kết liễu số người Do Thái còn lại, trước đó đã trốn thoát được khỏi các Aktion.
Và nhạc phim, một lần nữa, lại giúp tôn lên mạch cảm xúc của câu chuyện ở đoạn cuối, không phải là cảm xúc kinh hoàng và uất nghẹn vì cái ác lan tràn như đoạn đầu phim, mà đó là cảm xúc ngưỡng mộ chân thành và nghẹn ngào vì vẻ đẹp của nhân tính, của tình người đã tỏa sáng cùng nhân vật Oskar Schindler. Đoạn ngài Schindler phát biểu trước toàn thể nhân công Do Thái trong trại của ông và lính SS sau khi hay tin Đức đã đầu hàng quân Đồng minh vô điều kiện đã khiến tôi nổi da gà. Và đến đoạn khi Schindler cùng vợ tạm biệt những người Do Thái ông đã cưu mang, giúp đỡ thì tôi đã phải bật khóc. Tôi khóc vì tấm chân tình và lòng biết ơn của những người Do Thái dành cho Schindler, tôi khóc cho nỗi niềm hối tiếc của Schindler khi không thể cứu được nhiều người Do Thái hơn, và tôi khóc vì cuối cùng, sau tất cả những kinh hoàng khiếp đảm, sự tàn khốc và mất hết tính người, thì ở một góc nhỏ này của thế giới, vẫn có một Oskar Schindler đã biết rằng “cứu một người cũng giống như cứu cả nhân lo��i”.
Thiệt sự không liên quan lắm, nhưng mà sao chú Ralph Fiennes mặc dù đẹp trai thế kia nhưng cứ hay bị lôi đầu ra đóng mấy vai phản diện không ai ưa nổi thế này nhỉ? ^^ Trong “The Schindler’s List” chú đóng vai tên SS Commandant Amon Goeth nhá, phải nói là ác không chừa người khác ác luôn. Rồi sau này chú lại được giao cho vai Voldemort trong Harry Potter :D Đến là khổ ^^ À mà giờ mới biết, phim “The Schindler’s List” được trình chiếu vào năm 1993, đúng năm tôi ra đời luôn he he he :))) Phim được đề cử 12 giải Oscars, và thắng đến 7 giải, bao gồm giải thưởng danh giá nhất là Best Picture ^^ Quá xứng đáng luôn rồi, khỏi phải bàn cãi nữa hi hi hi :D
Old review:
Tôi biết đến câu chuyện “Danh sách của Schindler” đã lâu, chủ yếu là nhờ vào bộ phim giành giải Oscar và đã quá nổi tiếng của Steven Spielberg. Sau này khi sử dụng Goodreads, tôi mới biết hóa ra bộ phim được dựng từ cuốn sách cùng tên của Thomas Keneally. Ngay lập tức tôi đã bỏ tác phẩm vào mục to-read, và đến bây giờ, sau nhiều năm, cuối cùng tôi cũng đọc được bản gốc của câu chuyện kinh điển về nhân tính và hành trình của một người Đức giải cứu hàng ngàn đồng loại người Do Thái của mình khỏi cái kết cục kinh hoàng trong các trại tập trung khét tiếng của Đức Quốc xã.
Chúng ta không cần phải bàn cãi về tính khủng khiếp đến rợn người của Holocaust - một trong những chương đen tối nhất trong lịch sử loài người, cùng cái gọi là “Final Solution” - Giải Pháp Cuối Cùng - chiến dịch của Đức Quốc xã nhằm diệt chủng và quét sạch dân Do Thái trong Chiến tranh Thế giới thứ hai. Thế nhưng những gì tôi đã đọc, đã biết về Holocaust hoàn toàn không chuẩn bị cho tôi đón nhận, nói đúng hơn là trải nghiệm, sự kinh hoàng và vô nhân tính đến mức ớn lạnh và vô nghĩa của Holocaust khi đến với tiểu thuyết “Danh sách của Schindler”.
Câu chuyện bắt đầu ở Cracow, một thành phố ở Ba Lan, nơi nỗi kinh hoàng dần dần xuất hiện khi Đức Quốc xã dồn người Do Thái vào trong các ghetto, cái thành lũy mong manh có thể mua thêm cho những người dân Do Thái có giấy thông hành một ít thời gian trước khi cuộc đại diệt chủng bắt đầu. Và sau đó là những Aktion, những cuộc lôi kéo, bắt bớ và giết hại thẳng tay người Do Thái những tưởng đã an toàn trong các ghetto, và không ai có thể tưởng tượng được sự khủng khiếp của “cuộc tắm máu” với mục đích thanh trừng ngay trên đường phố. Những phát súng bắn ra không thương tiếc; người chết chất chồng lên nhau, làm thành những kim tự tháp xác người tay chân gãy gập; những đứa bé còn ẵm ngửa bị giật khỏi vòng tay mẹ và đập vào tường; những bệnh nhân được bác sĩ cho uống xyanua, vì dường như cái chết vì thuốc độc chính là sự ra đi nhẹ nhàng và sung sướng nhất trước thảm cảnh mà những người dân Do Thái khác đang phải gánh chịu; những người đàn bà, đàn ông bị chó của SS cắn nát; những gia đình bị chia tách, những đứa bé không còn cha mẹ, và cái bóng áo đỏ của cô bé Genia (những ai đã xem phim chắc chắn sẽ không thể quên cảnh tượng này) thông minh tinh quái đã lẩn trốn được lưỡi hái tử thần của bọn SS khốn nạn - cái màu đỏ đã ám ảnh chính Oskar Schindler.
Những Aktion kết thúc chỉ để đưa dân Do Thái đến với một tầng địa ngục tiếp theo, với những Trại Lao Động Cưỡng Bức, những trại tập trung, những phòng hơi ngạt, những lò thiêu kinh hoàng. Và cái chết tiếp tục lơ lửng, những cái chết vô nghĩa và bất ngờ từ họng súng của tên cầm thú Amon Goeth - Commandant của Trại Lao Động Cưỡng Bức Plaszow. Hắn đã biến việc tước đoạt mạng sống một con người trở thành một thứ gì đó đơn giản và tầm thường như bước vào phòng tắm hay viết một lá thư. Mạng người so với những hoạt động hằng ngày ấy. Tôi đã ứa nước mắt vì đau đớn cho những con người vô tội phải bỏ mạng trong những đợt Aktion không còn tính người, và tôi tiếp tục khóc cho những con người vô tội buộc phải từ giã cõi đời, bất ngờ và không kịp trăng trối, chỉ vì một sáng đẹp trời kia, Amon Goeth cảm thấy cần phải bắn một ai đó trong số những người dân Do Thái mà hắn đã gieo rắc kinh hoàng.
Và điều kiện sống của người Do Thái trong trại ngày ấy, không cần phải nói nhiều nữa, đó là thứ điều kiện sống đến cả súc vật còn không đáng phải trải qua. Chấy rận, thiếu ăn, những thân người suy dinh dưỡng, trơ xương, còi cọc (những bức hình chụp tù nhân trại tập trung sẽ cho bạn thấy một cách chân thực nhất sự kinh hoàng mà họ đã phải đối mặt), những hàng rào kẽm gai tích điện, những chuyến tàu vận chuyển tù nhân giữa trời đông, với xác người chết đông cứng không còn nhìn rõ hình hài. Và còn đó tình yêu diễn ra trong vòng bí mật, những cuộc gặp gỡ với cái chết lơ lửng trên đầu, những mối tình gian truân và luôn phải đối mặt với hiểm nguy thường trực. “Danh sách của Schindler”, bên cạnh việc nhìn thẳng vào cái ác và mô tả trực diện cái ác, còn phản ánh sự hồi hộp, bất an và ám ảnh bên trong những khu trại của người Do Thái ấy, cùng cái đời sống còn hơn ở chốn địa ngục mà họ đã phải trải qua.
Giữa tình cảnh khiếp đảm của một chế độ không còn tính người, cùng nỗi khốn cùng không tả xiết của người Do Thái, Oskar Schindler xuất hiện như một vị cứu tinh đúng như miêu tả trong sách thánh của họ - con người ngoại đạo rồi đây sẽ cho họ một mái nhà, một nương thân để thoát khỏi nanh vuốt tử thần. Vị cứu tinh ấy còn lâu mới được xem là một con người mẫu mực: khoái hưởng lạc, quen một lúc nhiều cô tình nhân, lạnh nhạt và xa cách với vợ. Nhưng cũng chính một Oskar Schindler, với cuộc sống phong lưu và thói quen vung tiền hào phóng đó lại chính là con người đã dùng tất cả mọi mưu mẹo, mọi tính toán mưu lược và “biết người biết ta” để thực hiện những “trò ảo thuật” tài tình nhất, đáng xưng tụng nhất để cứu giúp những người dân không chung dòng máu Đức với mình.
Oskar Schindler - nhà tư bản - đã hành động theo cách riêng của mình để trở thành một Oskar Schindler - người anh hùng - theo một định nghĩa mới: người không trực tiếp cầm súng đứng lên chống lại thế lực gieo rắc nỗi kinh hoàng, nhưng rốt cuộc, bằng sự lặng thầm và giúp sức của rất nhiều thuộc cấp cùng chung tư tưởng, đã cứu lấy rất nhiều mạng sống Do Thái thoát khỏi, đầu tiên là họng súng của SS Commandant Amon Goeth, kế đến là những trại tập trung với mồ chôn tập thể người Do Thái phía sau rừng, khét tiếng nhất chính là Auschwitz.
Có những người Đức, sau khi vỡ mộng trước dã tâm khủng khiếp của Đức Quốc xã - thế lực mình đã tận tâm phục vụ bao năm - thì quyết tâm vứt bỏ toàn bộ huy chương, quân phục để trở thành du kích chống Đệ Tam Đế Chế rồi bỏ mạng, trở thành những tấm gương tử vì đạo luôn được nhớ đến. Nhưng cũng có những người như Oskar Schindler, những người luôn treo hình Quốc trưởng Hitler trên tường, nhưng lại có lần muốn lấy ghế đập nát bức tranh, và bí mật đề tên của những người Do Thái - vốn chẳng còn sức lực làm việc nữa - vào danh sách những nhân công được chuyển đến nhà máy của ông - một mái nhà trá hình để che giấu và cứu thoát những con người vô tội. Vâng, sự sống và cái chết cách nhau chỉ một tờ giấy, một bản danh sách của Schindler mà thôi, nhưng ở thời điểm ngặt nghèo khốn cùng ấy, đó chính là tất cả những gì có ý nghĩa, tất cả những gì Oskar Schindler đã cố gắng làm để cứu lấy mạng sống của hàng ngàn người.
“Cứu một mạng người cũng như cứu cả nhân loại” - “Whoever saves a life saves the world entire”, đó có lẽ là bài học đắt giá nhất mà Oskar Schindler đã học được từ thánh kinh của người Do Thái, của dân tộc mà ông đã lựa chọn dành toàn bộ thời gian, tiền bạc và công sức của mình để cứu độ. Đoạn phát biểu cuối cùng của Oskar trước khi trốn đi cùng người vợ Emilie của ông trước khi Hồng quân Liên Xô đến đã làm tôi thấm thía cái tầm vóc lớn lao của những việc mà Oskar cùng những thuộc cấp đã làm để giữ lại mạng sống của rất nhiều, rất nhiều người Do Thái, cùng nhân cách của một Oskar Schindler luôn biết phân biệt đúng-sai, tốt-xấu. Buồn một nỗi, cuộc đời thật bạc đãi người anh hùng thầm lặng, khi Oskar thời hậu chiến không thể trải nghiệm lại thời vàng son kinh doanh phát đạt của mình như thời chiến tranh. Ông sống phần đời còn lại của mình bằng những khoản tiền quyên góp của chính những người Do Thái đã được ông cứu thoát và gia đình của họ.
Thật buồn cho Oskar Schindler, nhưng kể ra cũng thật ấm lòng, vì sau rốt, ông đã có 3 năm cuộc đời làm được những điều phi thường, những điều hiếm có người Đức nào dưới chế độ Đức Quốc xã dám và có điều kiện để thực hiện. Và ông đã được nhớ đến, như những người tử vì đạo đã được nhớ đến, và ông đã được vinh danh bằng cái cây trồng ở Israel - cái cây sẽ luôn gợi nhắc cho các thế hệ sau nhớ đến một con người đã giữ lại được chút hy vọng về nhân tính, về vẻ đẹp của tình người, tình đồng loại và lòng trắc ẩn giữa một thời đại mà tất cả những điều đó đã bị vùi lấp trong nỗi kinh hoàng mang tên Holocaust.
Truyện có rất nhiều nhân vật phụ, mỗi chương lại đề cập đến một hoặc nhiều nhân vật khác nhau, thêm giọng văn hơi khô, có cảm giác giống như viết báo cáo hơn là viết sách, vì thế rất khó để khơi gợi được cảm xúc ở người đọc ngay từ đầu. Thế nhưng, nếu thực sự dành thời gian cho “Danh sách của Schindler”, độc giả chắc chắn sẽ không thể nào rời mắt khỏi từng trang sách như thể đang vẽ nên một bức tranh vừa ám ảnh vừa đầy xúc động về một giai đoạn khủng khiếp trong lịch sử loài người, và những “vị thánh sống” đã không chấp nhận khoanh tay đứng nhìn mạng sống bị tước đoạt.
Tôi đã đọc ngấu nghiến từng chương từng chương của cuốn sách này, đã đi từ nỗi kinh hoàng này đến nỗi kinh hoàng khác mà những người Do Thái đã phải trải qua, và cảm giác như thể bản thân đã hoàn tất trọn vẹn một hành trình khó quên với Oskar Schindler cùng các nhân vật vậy. Đây là một cuốn sách không chỉ để đọc và ám ảnh ngay lúc đó, mà còn để chúng ta nghĩ suy rất nhiều về sau này, một cuốn sách giúp khơi gợi trong chúng ta mong muốn tìm hiểu nhiều hơn về lịch sử thế giới thời kỳ Thế chiến thứ 2, để thấu hiểu sâu sắc hơn sự kinh khiếp mà quân Phát xít đã gieo rắc, và rằng nhân tính, cho dù có bị vùi lấp, bị tước đoạt khỏi một đất nước bởi sự ngu muội của đại đa số người dân trước một hệ tư tưởng cực đoan đẫm máu, thì cuối cùng, nhân tính và vẻ đẹp tình người vẫn sẽ luôn chiến thắng, dù thực tại có tàn khốc đến mức nào.
Ngay từ ban đầu, tông màu trắng đen của bộ phim đã phủ bóng lên toàn bộ câu chuyện một sắc màu thê lương, u ám và buồn bã. Tông màu ấy tiệp với sự khủng khiếp của những ghetto, những Aktion, những trại lao động cưỡng bức, những trại tập trung, và cả những cái chết dưới nòng súng Phát xít Đức hay trong các lò thiêu khét tiếng. Và tông màu ấy, như đã được ấn định từ trước, đã làm nổi bật lên sự khiếp đảm của những Aktion, thông qua sắc đỏ của chiếc áo khoác được cô bé Genia mặc trên người - màu sắc duy nhất giữa hai sắc đen-trắng của bộ phim. Đó là sắc màu của một sự sống bé nhỏ, phải tự tìm cách cứu lấy mạng sống của mình, giữa lúc mà những người lớn hơn em còn không thể giữ được mạng sống của họ. Đó là sắc đỏ của máu, của những cái chết bất ngờ và thương tâm, và của một Genia cuối cùng vẫn phải kết thúc cuộc đời ngắn ngủi của em trên những chuyến xe đẩy chở xác người Do Thái đến bãi thiêu xác… Ám ảnh vô cùng...
Bộ phim đã khắc họa không chừa một chi tiết kinh hoàng nào mà cuốn sách đã đề cập đến. Và còn hơn thế nữa, nó bày ra trước mắt khán giả thực sự những gì đã xảy ra, những gì chắc hẳn đã xảy ra cho những người Do Thái vô tội. Không còn chỉ là những từ ngữ trên trang sách, nỗi kinh hoàng đã bước ra từ tiểu thuyết của Thomas Keneally để được soi chiếu trên từng khung hình, từng cảnh quay: sự tàn ác đến mức vô nghĩa của SS Commandant Amon Goeth, những tên lính SS đứng cười nói với nhau như thể chỉ là một ngày làm việc bình thường như bao ngày khác, trong khi những người đàn ông và phụ nữ Do Thái, không mảnh vải che thân, phải chạy vòng vòng quanh sân trại lao động để chuẩn bị đón chờ kết cục, hoặc là tiếp tục cuộc sống mòn mỏi còn thua súc vật trong trại, đón nhận một cái chết từ từ, hoặc là cầm chắc cái chết ngay lập tức bằng một chuyến tàu đến Auschwitz.
Và còn cảnh tượng người Do Thái phải đào từng manh đất để lôi lên từng cái xác đã teo tóp của đồng bào mình, sau đó những cái xác ấy được đưa lên dây chuyền để đẩy xuống hố đốt xác tập thể, như thể đó chỉ là những khối hàng chứ không phải là máu thịt của những con người đã từng sống, từng hít thở, từng hoạt động, từng yêu thương và từng có một gia đình… Thật khủng khiếp quá sức tưởng tượng. Và phần nhạc phim chính là chất xúc tác để đẩy sự khủng khiếp đầy ám ảnh đó đến mức tận cùng. Những bài nhạc (có lẽ là tiếng Ba Lan) với giọng hát à ê như tiếng kinh cầu không dứt, hay tiếng kéo violon réo rắt, da diết đến đứt ruột gan. Tiếng đàn piano của một tên lính SS hòa trong tiếng súng liên hồi không dứt của đồng đội hắn, bắn xuyên qua từng bức tường, từng căn phòng để kết liễu số người Do Thái còn lại, trước đó đã trốn thoát được khỏi các Aktion.
Và nhạc phim, một lần nữa, lại giúp tôn lên mạch cảm xúc của câu chuyện ở đoạn cuối, không phải là cảm xúc kinh hoàng và uất nghẹn vì cái ác lan tràn như đoạn đầu phim, mà đó là cảm xúc ngưỡng mộ chân thành và nghẹn ngào vì vẻ đẹp của nhân tính, của tình người đã tỏa sáng cùng nhân vật Oskar Schindler. Đoạn ngài Schindler phát biểu trước toàn thể nhân công Do Thái trong trại của ông và lính SS sau khi hay tin Đức đã đầu hàng quân Đồng minh vô điều kiện đã khiến tôi nổi da gà. Và đến đoạn khi Schindler cùng vợ tạm biệt những người Do Thái ông đã cưu mang, giúp đỡ thì tôi đã phải bật khóc. Tôi khóc vì tấm chân tình và lòng biết ơn của những người Do Thái dành cho Schindler, tôi khóc cho nỗi niềm hối tiếc của Schindler khi không thể cứu được nhiều người Do Thái hơn, và tôi khóc vì cuối cùng, sau tất cả những kinh hoàng khiếp đảm, sự tàn khốc và mất hết tính người, thì ở một góc nhỏ này của thế giới, vẫn có một Oskar Schindler đã biết rằng “cứu một người cũng giống như cứu cả nhân lo��i”.
Thiệt sự không liên quan lắm, nhưng mà sao chú Ralph Fiennes mặc dù đẹp trai thế kia nhưng cứ hay bị lôi đầu ra đóng mấy vai phản diện không ai ưa nổi thế này nhỉ? ^^ Trong “The Schindler’s List” chú đóng vai tên SS Commandant Amon Goeth nhá, phải nói là ác không chừa người khác ác luôn. Rồi sau này chú lại được giao cho vai Voldemort trong Harry Potter :D Đến là khổ ^^ À mà giờ mới biết, phim “The Schindler’s List” được trình chiếu vào năm 1993, đúng năm tôi ra đời luôn he he he :))) Phim được đề cử 12 giải Oscars, và thắng đến 7 giải, bao gồm giải thưởng danh giá nhất là Best Picture ^^ Quá xứng đáng luôn rồi, khỏi phải bàn cãi nữa hi hi hi :D
Old review:
Tôi biết đến câu chuyện “Danh sách của Schindler” đã lâu, chủ yếu là nhờ vào bộ phim giành giải Oscar và đã quá nổi tiếng của Steven Spielberg. Sau này khi sử dụng Goodreads, tôi mới biết hóa ra bộ phim được dựng từ cuốn sách cùng tên của Thomas Keneally. Ngay lập tức tôi đã bỏ tác phẩm vào mục to-read, và đến bây giờ, sau nhiều năm, cuối cùng tôi cũng đọc được bản gốc của câu chuyện kinh điển về nhân tính và hành trình của một người Đức giải cứu hàng ngàn đồng loại người Do Thái của mình khỏi cái kết cục kinh hoàng trong các trại tập trung khét tiếng của Đức Quốc xã.
Chúng ta không cần phải bàn cãi về tính khủng khiếp đến rợn người của Holocaust - một trong những chương đen tối nhất trong lịch sử loài người, cùng cái gọi là “Final Solution” - Giải Pháp Cuối Cùng - chiến dịch của Đức Quốc xã nhằm diệt chủng và quét sạch dân Do Thái trong Chiến tranh Thế giới thứ hai. Thế nhưng những gì tôi đã đọc, đã biết về Holocaust hoàn toàn không chuẩn bị cho tôi đón nhận, nói đúng hơn là trải nghiệm, sự kinh hoàng và vô nhân tính đến mức ớn lạnh và vô nghĩa của Holocaust khi đến với tiểu thuyết “Danh sách của Schindler”.
Câu chuyện bắt đầu ở Cracow, một thành phố ở Ba Lan, nơi nỗi kinh hoàng dần dần xuất hiện khi Đức Quốc xã dồn người Do Thái vào trong các ghetto, cái thành lũy mong manh có thể mua thêm cho những người dân Do Thái có giấy thông hành một ít thời gian trước khi cuộc đại diệt chủng bắt đầu. Và sau đó là những Aktion, những cuộc lôi kéo, bắt bớ và giết hại thẳng tay người Do Thái những tưởng đã an toàn trong các ghetto, và không ai có thể tưởng tượng được sự khủng khiếp của “cuộc tắm máu” với mục đích thanh trừng ngay trên đường phố. Những phát súng bắn ra không thương tiếc; người chết chất chồng lên nhau, làm thành những kim tự tháp xác người tay chân gãy gập; những đứa bé còn ẵm ngửa bị giật khỏi vòng tay mẹ và đập vào tường; những bệnh nhân được bác sĩ cho uống xyanua, vì dường như cái chết vì thuốc độc chính là sự ra đi nhẹ nhàng và sung sướng nhất trước thảm cảnh mà những người dân Do Thái khác đang phải gánh chịu; những người đàn bà, đàn ông bị chó của SS cắn nát; những gia đình bị chia tách, những đứa bé không còn cha mẹ, và cái bóng áo đỏ của cô bé Genia (những ai đã xem phim chắc chắn sẽ không thể quên cảnh tượng này) thông minh tinh quái đã lẩn trốn được lưỡi hái tử thần của bọn SS khốn nạn - cái màu đỏ đã ám ảnh chính Oskar Schindler.
Những Aktion kết thúc chỉ để đưa dân Do Thái đến với một tầng địa ngục tiếp theo, với những Trại Lao Động Cưỡng Bức, những trại tập trung, những phòng hơi ngạt, những lò thiêu kinh hoàng. Và cái chết tiếp tục lơ lửng, những cái chết vô nghĩa và bất ngờ từ họng súng của tên cầm thú Amon Goeth - Commandant của Trại Lao Động Cưỡng Bức Plaszow. Hắn đã biến việc tước đoạt mạng sống một con người trở thành một thứ gì đó đơn giản và tầm thường như bước vào phòng tắm hay viết một lá thư. Mạng người so với những hoạt động hằng ngày ấy. Tôi đã ứa nước mắt vì đau đớn cho những con người vô tội phải bỏ mạng trong những đợt Aktion không còn tính người, và tôi tiếp tục khóc cho những con người vô tội buộc phải từ giã cõi đời, bất ngờ và không kịp trăng trối, chỉ vì một sáng đẹp trời kia, Amon Goeth cảm thấy cần phải bắn một ai đó trong số những người dân Do Thái mà hắn đã gieo rắc kinh hoàng.
Và điều kiện sống của người Do Thái trong trại ngày ấy, không cần phải nói nhiều nữa, đó là thứ điều kiện sống đến cả súc vật còn không đáng phải trải qua. Chấy rận, thiếu ăn, những thân người suy dinh dưỡng, trơ xương, còi cọc (những bức hình chụp tù nhân trại tập trung sẽ cho bạn thấy một cách chân thực nhất sự kinh hoàng mà họ đã phải đối mặt), những hàng rào kẽm gai tích điện, những chuyến tàu vận chuyển tù nhân giữa trời đông, với xác người chết đông cứng không còn nhìn rõ hình hài. Và còn đó tình yêu diễn ra trong vòng bí mật, những cuộc gặp gỡ với cái chết lơ lửng trên đầu, những mối tình gian truân và luôn phải đối mặt với hiểm nguy thường trực. “Danh sách của Schindler”, bên cạnh việc nhìn thẳng vào cái ác và mô tả trực diện cái ác, còn phản ánh sự hồi hộp, bất an và ám ảnh bên trong những khu trại của người Do Thái ấy, cùng cái đời sống còn hơn ở chốn địa ngục mà họ đã phải trải qua.
Giữa tình cảnh khiếp đảm của một chế độ không còn tính người, cùng nỗi khốn cùng không tả xiết của người Do Thái, Oskar Schindler xuất hiện như một vị cứu tinh đúng như miêu tả trong sách thánh của họ - con người ngoại đạo rồi đây sẽ cho họ một mái nhà, một nương thân để thoát khỏi nanh vuốt tử thần. Vị cứu tinh ấy còn lâu mới được xem là một con người mẫu mực: khoái hưởng lạc, quen một lúc nhiều cô tình nhân, lạnh nhạt và xa cách với vợ. Nhưng cũng chính một Oskar Schindler, với cuộc sống phong lưu và thói quen vung tiền hào phóng đó lại chính là con người đã dùng tất cả mọi mưu mẹo, mọi tính toán mưu lược và “biết người biết ta” để thực hiện những “trò ảo thuật” tài tình nhất, đáng xưng tụng nhất để cứu giúp những người dân không chung dòng máu Đức với mình.
Oskar Schindler - nhà tư bản - đã hành động theo cách riêng của mình để trở thành một Oskar Schindler - người anh hùng - theo một định nghĩa mới: người không trực tiếp cầm súng đứng lên chống lại thế lực gieo rắc nỗi kinh hoàng, nhưng rốt cuộc, bằng sự lặng thầm và giúp sức của rất nhiều thuộc cấp cùng chung tư tưởng, đã cứu lấy rất nhiều mạng sống Do Thái thoát khỏi, đầu tiên là họng súng của SS Commandant Amon Goeth, kế đến là những trại tập trung với mồ chôn tập thể người Do Thái phía sau rừng, khét tiếng nhất chính là Auschwitz.
Có những người Đức, sau khi vỡ mộng trước dã tâm khủng khiếp của Đức Quốc xã - thế lực mình đã tận tâm phục vụ bao năm - thì quyết tâm vứt bỏ toàn bộ huy chương, quân phục để trở thành du kích chống Đệ Tam Đế Chế rồi bỏ mạng, trở thành những tấm gương tử vì đạo luôn được nhớ đến. Nhưng cũng có những người như Oskar Schindler, những người luôn treo hình Quốc trưởng Hitler trên tường, nhưng lại có lần muốn lấy ghế đập nát bức tranh, và bí mật đề tên của những người Do Thái - vốn chẳng còn sức lực làm việc nữa - vào danh sách những nhân công được chuyển đến nhà máy của ông - một mái nhà trá hình để che giấu và cứu thoát những con người vô tội. Vâng, sự sống và cái chết cách nhau chỉ một tờ giấy, một bản danh sách của Schindler mà thôi, nhưng ở thời điểm ngặt nghèo khốn cùng ấy, đó chính là tất cả những gì có ý nghĩa, tất cả những gì Oskar Schindler đã cố gắng làm để cứu lấy mạng sống của hàng ngàn người.
“Cứu một mạng người cũng như cứu cả nhân loại” - “Whoever saves a life saves the world entire”, đó có lẽ là bài học đắt giá nhất mà Oskar Schindler đã học được từ thánh kinh của người Do Thái, của dân tộc mà ông đã lựa chọn dành toàn bộ thời gian, tiền bạc và công sức của mình để cứu độ. Đoạn phát biểu cuối cùng của Oskar trước khi trốn đi cùng người vợ Emilie của ông trước khi Hồng quân Liên Xô đến đã làm tôi thấm thía cái tầm vóc lớn lao của những việc mà Oskar cùng những thuộc cấp đã làm để giữ lại mạng sống của rất nhiều, rất nhiều người Do Thái, cùng nhân cách của một Oskar Schindler luôn biết phân biệt đúng-sai, tốt-xấu. Buồn một nỗi, cuộc đời thật bạc đãi người anh hùng thầm lặng, khi Oskar thời hậu chiến không thể trải nghiệm lại thời vàng son kinh doanh phát đạt của mình như thời chiến tranh. Ông sống phần đời còn lại của mình bằng những khoản tiền quyên góp của chính những người Do Thái đã được ông cứu thoát và gia đình của họ.
Thật buồn cho Oskar Schindler, nhưng kể ra cũng thật ấm lòng, vì sau rốt, ông đã có 3 năm cuộc đời làm được những điều phi thường, những điều hiếm có người Đức nào dưới chế độ Đức Quốc xã dám và có điều kiện để thực hiện. Và ông đã được nhớ đến, như những người tử vì đạo đã được nhớ đến, và ông đã được vinh danh bằng cái cây trồng ở Israel - cái cây sẽ luôn gợi nhắc cho các thế hệ sau nhớ đến một con người đã giữ lại được chút hy vọng về nhân tính, về vẻ đẹp của tình người, tình đồng loại và lòng trắc ẩn giữa một thời đại mà tất cả những điều đó đã bị vùi lấp trong nỗi kinh hoàng mang tên Holocaust.
Truyện có rất nhiều nhân vật phụ, mỗi chương lại đề cập đến một hoặc nhiều nhân vật khác nhau, thêm giọng văn hơi khô, có cảm giác giống như viết báo cáo hơn là viết sách, vì thế rất khó để khơi gợi được cảm xúc ở người đọc ngay từ đầu. Thế nhưng, nếu thực sự dành thời gian cho “Danh sách của Schindler”, độc giả chắc chắn sẽ không thể nào rời mắt khỏi từng trang sách như thể đang vẽ nên một bức tranh vừa ám ảnh vừa đầy xúc động về một giai đoạn khủng khiếp trong lịch sử loài người, và những “vị thánh sống” đã không chấp nhận khoanh tay đứng nhìn mạng sống bị tước đoạt.
Tôi đã đọc ngấu nghiến từng chương từng chương của cuốn sách này, đã đi từ nỗi kinh hoàng này đến nỗi kinh hoàng khác mà những người Do Thái đã phải trải qua, và cảm giác như thể bản thân đã hoàn tất trọn vẹn một hành trình khó quên với Oskar Schindler cùng các nhân vật vậy. Đây là một cuốn sách không chỉ để đọc và ám ảnh ngay lúc đó, mà còn để chúng ta nghĩ suy rất nhiều về sau này, một cuốn sách giúp khơi gợi trong chúng ta mong muốn tìm hiểu nhiều hơn về lịch sử thế giới thời kỳ Thế chiến thứ 2, để thấu hiểu sâu sắc hơn sự kinh khiếp mà quân Phát xít đã gieo rắc, và rằng nhân tính, cho dù có bị vùi lấp, bị tước đoạt khỏi một đất nước bởi sự ngu muội của đại đa số người dân trước một hệ tư tưởng cực đoan đẫm máu, thì cuối cùng, nhân tính và vẻ đẹp tình người vẫn sẽ luôn chiến thắng, dù thực tại có tàn khốc đến mức nào.
July 16, 2019
What a monumental piece of writing this turned out to be the research alone would have been prodigious. It does my head in just thinking of the time and money Thomas Keneally must have spent in gathering all the information needed to put this worthy story on paper.
What a horrendous experience the Holocaust must have been, not only for the Jews who’s tenuous hold on life hung by a thread most days of the week and they had to injure this situation for years, but for people Like Oscar Schindler that had to witness the horrors on a daily bases. Most right thinking Germans were powerless to help the plight of the Jews but Oscar Schindler was not one of them. Schindler built a factory to make enamel ware, A. to make money for himself and B. to supply the German army with some of the essentials of war. Schindler did in fact make a fortune from the factory but in reality the factory was just a front for, in reality, a safe haven for as many Jews as Schindler could take from under the noses of the SS guards.
Whilst Schindler did make a fortune most of that fortune was spent either bribing SS officers or, and providing his workers with the essentials of life.
What stands out for me in this telling of the life and times of Oscar Schindler was the symbiotic relationship that existed between Schindler and his Jews, as they were called, Schindler’s Jews. It’s a given that many of Schindler’s Jews owe their survival to the efforts that Schindler made for them but it is also a given that Oscar Schindler could never have achieved what he did without the help and assistance of many of his workers. For all his success as a businessman and entrepreneur during the war he was never successful in any of his endeavours after the war. So it’s safe to say that a lot of his success came from the business acumen of his Jewish workers.
This is a truly uplifting story but not an easy one to read. Not easy to be confronted with how quickly a society can be corrupted and go on to commit acts that defy understanding.
For all of the horror that was the holocaust we, as a species, have learned very little for here we are 75 years later on and these same like horrors are happening still, even as I write this review on the 16/07/2019. If for no other reason this telling and others like it need to be front and centre to remind us just what we are capable of.
Lest we forget.
Essential reading 5 stars.
What a horrendous experience the Holocaust must have been, not only for the Jews who’s tenuous hold on life hung by a thread most days of the week and they had to injure this situation for years, but for people Like Oscar Schindler that had to witness the horrors on a daily bases. Most right thinking Germans were powerless to help the plight of the Jews but Oscar Schindler was not one of them. Schindler built a factory to make enamel ware, A. to make money for himself and B. to supply the German army with some of the essentials of war. Schindler did in fact make a fortune from the factory but in reality the factory was just a front for, in reality, a safe haven for as many Jews as Schindler could take from under the noses of the SS guards.
Whilst Schindler did make a fortune most of that fortune was spent either bribing SS officers or, and providing his workers with the essentials of life.
What stands out for me in this telling of the life and times of Oscar Schindler was the symbiotic relationship that existed between Schindler and his Jews, as they were called, Schindler’s Jews. It’s a given that many of Schindler’s Jews owe their survival to the efforts that Schindler made for them but it is also a given that Oscar Schindler could never have achieved what he did without the help and assistance of many of his workers. For all his success as a businessman and entrepreneur during the war he was never successful in any of his endeavours after the war. So it’s safe to say that a lot of his success came from the business acumen of his Jewish workers.
This is a truly uplifting story but not an easy one to read. Not easy to be confronted with how quickly a society can be corrupted and go on to commit acts that defy understanding.
For all of the horror that was the holocaust we, as a species, have learned very little for here we are 75 years later on and these same like horrors are happening still, even as I write this review on the 16/07/2019. If for no other reason this telling and others like it need to be front and centre to remind us just what we are capable of.
Lest we forget.
Essential reading 5 stars.
March 11, 2022
What can you say about this novel that's not been said?
For the people who have been living under a rock somewhere this novel details a remarkable story.
Oskar Schindler's rescue of thousands of men, women, and children from Auschwitz, it's one of the most familiar narratives to arise out of the terrible events of the Holocaust.
I read this book around 2001-2002 and I remember I just couldn't put it down.
In a hundred years time, I am sure this book will still be amongst the greatest reads of all time for painting such a vivid picture of what that time in history was like for those that lived it.
For the people who have been living under a rock somewhere this novel details a remarkable story.
Oskar Schindler's rescue of thousands of men, women, and children from Auschwitz, it's one of the most familiar narratives to arise out of the terrible events of the Holocaust.
I read this book around 2001-2002 and I remember I just couldn't put it down.
In a hundred years time, I am sure this book will still be amongst the greatest reads of all time for painting such a vivid picture of what that time in history was like for those that lived it.
December 4, 2013
This is a wonderful book and a wonderful story, everyone should know what oskar schindler did for Jews in WW2. However, this book was very hard to read, like reading a research paper. Pfefferberg basically begged Keneally for an hour to write a book. because of that the first half of this book was very forced. i felt like he didnt want to write this, that his heart wasnt in this, Toward the middle of the book i flowed a little more but not until the last 8-10 chapters did it start to be easier to read. That is when i really got into this book. I felt too much like a teacher reading a very bland paper with no vivids and a lot of plain facts.
All of that aside, this book should be something everyone knows about, there are things i didnt know happened in WW2 in this book and anyone who cares about knowing anything about ww2 should read it. Oskar Schindler is/was a hero.
This book is so real and should not be taken as lightly as i took in in the first chapters, because once i finished i realized how much everyone should know about what schindler did.
( i gave it 3 stars for the difficulty in reading it and the research paper like quality of the literature)
All of that aside, this book should be something everyone knows about, there are things i didnt know happened in WW2 in this book and anyone who cares about knowing anything about ww2 should read it. Oskar Schindler is/was a hero.
This book is so real and should not be taken as lightly as i took in in the first chapters, because once i finished i realized how much everyone should know about what schindler did.
( i gave it 3 stars for the difficulty in reading it and the research paper like quality of the literature)
April 16, 2011
Michelle and I gave up on Schindler’s List half-way through. Yes, I know, we’re philistines. While its historical and ethical value cannot be denied, I would rather read a history book. It’s just not much in the way of an actual narrative. There is very little personality in the characters and way too many disconnected characters and events. It reads more like a series of anecdotes about different people in the same location, and, worst of all, every page is a bewildering avalanche of names which is so perplexing that it is nearly impossible to tell the characters apart, and to tell the important characters apart from the unimportant. In fact, if it weren’t for the disconnected narrative episodes which provide the matter for these avalanches, I would say that the book reads like a veritable List of names. I think the problem is that Thomas Keneally couldn’t decide if he wanted to write a novel or a history book, and so what we have is the worst kind of historical fiction. I fully sympathize with the fact that Keneally wanted to be true to the real history and people on which his book is based, but if that conviction was so constricting that it was impossible to make a coherent and viable narrative, he shouldn’t have attempted the form of a novel. I realize that others may have more patience for this, but Michelle and I want to read a story when we read a story. We’re going to put the Steven Spielberg film at the top of our queue as penitence.
January 1, 2018
Schindler's Ark (1982) winner of the Booker Prize / Biographical novel : Thomas Keneally - من روايات البوكر النسخة العالمية - الإسترالي توماس كينلي
من أنقذ روحًا أنقذ العالم بأسره : التلمود
رغم إيماني بأن ثمة جانب إنساني في قلوب الكثير من البشر القساة العتاة الذين تحجّرت قلوبهم كذلك لدي إيمان مطلق بإنسانية كان من كان، وهنا حيث هذه الرواية التي تدور حول اليهود لابد من الإشارة إلى كثير من الناس الذين يحاول تجريد كل من يدين باليهودية من الإنسانية، وربما مرد ذلك : أن ثمة يهود وهم الإسرائليون يحتلون دولة مسلمة عربية – وهذا دون شك جرج يدمي قلوبنا، والثاني ذكر أكثرهم في القرآن الكريم وصفاتهم السلبية من غدر وخيانة وقتل... الخ.
قائمة شندار يتناول اليهود زمن الحرب العالمية الثانية عندما سيطرت النازية على أوروبا وأسقطت عدة دول وليس مدن فقط!.
الرواية تدور حول قصة ألماني عضوًا في النازية وهو زير نساء وتاجر، وهو لوحده ساهم في مساعدة أكثر من (1000) يهودي بولندي وقيل (1100)أثناء معسكرات الإعتقال نهاية بمعتقل "بلاسوف" بأن عقد تحالف مع القيادات اليهودية لتوظيفهم في إدارة مصنعه والذي بدوره يخدم تجارته ويخدم معه ألمانيا.يصوّر الكتاب مدى تطور الحس الإنساني وبلوغ سُلم درجاته عند أوسكار من مادي إنتهازي يسعى ليواصل تجارته ويصبخ فوق غناه من أثرياء الحرب شأن الكثير من الرجال الذي يستغلون مثل هذه الظروف على حساب الجانب الإنساني، وكيف بدأ يلاحظ مدى توحش النازيين في تصرفاتهم ضد اليهود ويحاول مساعدتهم ويفعل المستحيل في ذلك والتخفيف عليهم ومدي عنايته بهم وحتي عندما يتعرض للتحقيق غير مرة بسبب هذا السلوك الذي يجده قادة المعتقلات نازية من غرابة ويشتمّون فيه رائحة تعاطف يخبرهم إن رجل أعمال وأنه يحميه تجارته بالحافظ على أرواح ��ليهود العاملين في مصنعه حفاظًا منه على ماله!، وكان يسعي جاهدًا لضم أي يهودي لمصنعه لمعرفته - وفق الكتاب - أن أي يهودي سيتم ترحيله إلى " آوشفيتس بيركينو" وهنا في هذا المعتقل لن يكون لهم عودة حيث الإعدام. فكان يزّور لأي يهودي بطاقة عمله قد تجهل مهندسًا أو ميكانيكي أو صاحب صنعة مهمة للعمل في مصنعه الذي بدور يصنع معدات للمجهود الحربي الأماني
بينما يثبت الكتاب في نهايته أن غايته كانت مساعدة اليهود حقيقة من الموت والأفران من قبل النازية،وعندما سقطت ألمانيا وأنتهت الحرب لم يعتبر مجرم حرب لعضويته النازية بل أص��ح – فيما بعد – رجل سلام لدوره الإنساني.
كنت قد شاهدت الفيلم Schindler's List
ثم قرأت الكتاب، وثمة إختلاف في السرد والكثير من التفاصيل وإن كان مجمل العملين هما نفسهما من ناحية الفكرة. لكن الصورة هنا تفوقت على الكتابة. دور (رالف فاينس) أعجبني لتقمصه الشخصية بعمق وكان يؤدي شخصية "آموت قوت"، هو واليهودي الوسيط والمحاسب في الفيلم الممبدع (بن كينغسلي) الذي كان يؤدي شخصية "إسحاق ستيرن" أكثر من صاحب البطولة (ليام نيسون) الذي كان يؤدي شخصية “أوسكار شندلر”. وبصفة عامة الفيلم كصناعة فنية هو عظيم.
من أنقذ روحًا أنقذ العالم بأسره : التلمود
رغم إيماني بأن ثمة جانب إنساني في قلوب الكثير من البشر القساة العتاة الذين تحجّرت قلوبهم كذلك لدي إيمان مطلق بإنسانية كان من كان، وهنا حيث هذه الرواية التي تدور حول اليهود لابد من الإشارة إلى كثير من الناس الذين يحاول تجريد كل من يدين باليهودية من الإنسانية، وربما مرد ذلك : أن ثمة يهود وهم الإسرائليون يحتلون دولة مسلمة عربية – وهذا دون شك جرج يدمي قلوبنا، والثاني ذكر أكثرهم في القرآن الكريم وصفاتهم السلبية من غدر وخيانة وقتل... الخ.
قائمة شندار يتناول اليهود زمن الحرب العالمية الثانية عندما سيطرت النازية على أوروبا وأسقطت عدة دول وليس مدن فقط!.
الرواية تدور حول قصة ألماني عضوًا في النازية وهو زير نساء وتاجر، وهو لوحده ساهم في مساعدة أكثر من (1000) يهودي بولندي وقيل (1100)أثناء معسكرات الإعتقال نهاية بمعتقل "بلاسوف" بأن عقد تحالف مع القيادات اليهودية لتوظيفهم في إدارة مصنعه والذي بدوره يخدم تجارته ويخدم معه ألمانيا.يصوّر الكتاب مدى تطور الحس الإنساني وبلوغ سُلم درجاته عند أوسكار من مادي إنتهازي يسعى ليواصل تجارته ويصبخ فوق غناه من أثرياء الحرب شأن الكثير من الرجال الذي يستغلون مثل هذه الظروف على حساب الجانب الإنساني، وكيف بدأ يلاحظ مدى توحش النازيين في تصرفاتهم ضد اليهود ويحاول مساعدتهم ويفعل المستحيل في ذلك والتخفيف عليهم ومدي عنايته بهم وحتي عندما يتعرض للتحقيق غير مرة بسبب هذا السلوك الذي يجده قادة المعتقلات نازية من غرابة ويشتمّون فيه رائحة تعاطف يخبرهم إن رجل أعمال وأنه يحميه تجارته بالحافظ على أرواح ��ليهود العاملين في مصنعه حفاظًا منه على ماله!، وكان يسعي جاهدًا لضم أي يهودي لمصنعه لمعرفته - وفق الكتاب - أن أي يهودي سيتم ترحيله إلى " آوشفيتس بيركينو" وهنا في هذا المعتقل لن يكون لهم عودة حيث الإعدام. فكان يزّور لأي يهودي بطاقة عمله قد تجهل مهندسًا أو ميكانيكي أو صاحب صنعة مهمة للعمل في مصنعه الذي بدور يصنع معدات للمجهود الحربي الأماني
بينما يثبت الكتاب في نهايته أن غايته كانت مساعدة اليهود حقيقة من الموت والأفران من قبل النازية،وعندما سقطت ألمانيا وأنتهت الحرب لم يعتبر مجرم حرب لعضويته النازية بل أص��ح – فيما بعد – رجل سلام لدوره الإنساني.
كنت قد شاهدت الفيلم Schindler's List
ثم قرأت الكتاب، وثمة إختلاف في السرد والكثير من التفاصيل وإن كان مجمل العملين هما نفسهما من ناحية الفكرة. لكن الصورة هنا تفوقت على الكتابة. دور (رالف فاينس) أعجبني لتقمصه الشخصية بعمق وكان يؤدي شخصية "آموت قوت"، هو واليهودي الوسيط والمحاسب في الفيلم الممبدع (بن كينغسلي) الذي كان يؤدي شخصية "إسحاق ستيرن" أكثر من صاحب البطولة (ليام نيسون) الذي كان يؤدي شخصية “أوسكار شندلر”. وبصفة عامة الفيلم كصناعة فنية هو عظيم.
March 25, 2019
Only 3-stars for this respected 'novel' which won the Booker? I'm so tempted to mark it up because the story deserves to be read by everyone, and the massive amount of research that clearly went into it is tremendous... but as a book? I have to say that I struggled.
Firstly, this isn't, of course, fiction - the story of how Keneally learned about Schindler through a chance meeting with Poldek Pfefferberg has been told in Searching for Schindler, a memoir which is brilliant on Poldek and the research (while very dull on Keneally's endless domestic life). Keneally, to his credit, spent years travelling around the world to meet with Schindlerjuden, the Jews and their families who survived through Schindler's actions. But perhaps because I read Searching first, Schindler's Ark didn't do quite what I expected.
For one thing, Schindler came across as a far more complex and ambivalent character in Searching: he was a member of the Nazi party from quite early on, he was recruited as a Nazi intelligence agent and one of his many girlfriends described him as 'a good Nazi'. In Ark, however, he's shown as being against the Nazis from pretty much the start of the book, determined to undermine their racial policies and save 'his' Jews as far as he can. It's the paradox in Searching that makes him so fascinating, and that seems to be flattened in Ark. Schindler is a courageous, righteous, inspiring man, no doubt, but at no point in Ark could he be described as 'a good Nazi'.
I was also surprised to see what a small role Poldek had in Ark and how personality-free he is given that he's such a wonderfully larger-than-life character in Searching. Perhaps Keneally didn't want to prioritise a single survivor in relation to all the others?
What does help to organise the 'novel' (or novelised treatment) is the angel/devil symbolism of Schindler versus Amon Goeth, the SS commandant with his unstable, pathological violence. Keneally goes out of his way to tell us more than once that though Schindler might have dinner and drinks with Goeth, he always loathed him. It's a crude stand-off between good and evil. It's not that I'm questioning the testamentary evidence from camp inmates of Goeth's volatile temper and frightening brutality - but how do we know what Schindler (who died before Keneally started researching the story) felt? I don't know - the whole good versus evil personified by these two men just felt very schematic to me.
There is a massive amount of information contained in this book and it's not always marshalled in the most effective way. Many many names are mentioned, a lot just once. It's important, of course, to document those names, individuals who, in many cases, didn't survive and deserve the memorialisation - but it can make for unwieldy reading.
And I think that's ultimately the impression I came away with: unwieldyness. There is a marvellous story here, one which is uplifting and awe-inspiring in its depiction of humanity in the face of systematic genocide. I still think we all need to read this book: I just found it more of a literary struggle than I expected.
Firstly, this isn't, of course, fiction - the story of how Keneally learned about Schindler through a chance meeting with Poldek Pfefferberg has been told in Searching for Schindler, a memoir which is brilliant on Poldek and the research (while very dull on Keneally's endless domestic life). Keneally, to his credit, spent years travelling around the world to meet with Schindlerjuden, the Jews and their families who survived through Schindler's actions. But perhaps because I read Searching first, Schindler's Ark didn't do quite what I expected.
For one thing, Schindler came across as a far more complex and ambivalent character in Searching: he was a member of the Nazi party from quite early on, he was recruited as a Nazi intelligence agent and one of his many girlfriends described him as 'a good Nazi'. In Ark, however, he's shown as being against the Nazis from pretty much the start of the book, determined to undermine their racial policies and save 'his' Jews as far as he can. It's the paradox in Searching that makes him so fascinating, and that seems to be flattened in Ark. Schindler is a courageous, righteous, inspiring man, no doubt, but at no point in Ark could he be described as 'a good Nazi'.
I was also surprised to see what a small role Poldek had in Ark and how personality-free he is given that he's such a wonderfully larger-than-life character in Searching. Perhaps Keneally didn't want to prioritise a single survivor in relation to all the others?
What does help to organise the 'novel' (or novelised treatment) is the angel/devil symbolism of Schindler versus Amon Goeth, the SS commandant with his unstable, pathological violence. Keneally goes out of his way to tell us more than once that though Schindler might have dinner and drinks with Goeth, he always loathed him. It's a crude stand-off between good and evil. It's not that I'm questioning the testamentary evidence from camp inmates of Goeth's volatile temper and frightening brutality - but how do we know what Schindler (who died before Keneally started researching the story) felt? I don't know - the whole good versus evil personified by these two men just felt very schematic to me.
There is a massive amount of information contained in this book and it's not always marshalled in the most effective way. Many many names are mentioned, a lot just once. It's important, of course, to document those names, individuals who, in many cases, didn't survive and deserve the memorialisation - but it can make for unwieldy reading.
And I think that's ultimately the impression I came away with: unwieldyness. There is a marvellous story here, one which is uplifting and awe-inspiring in its depiction of humanity in the face of systematic genocide. I still think we all need to read this book: I just found it more of a literary struggle than I expected.
August 11, 2018
Made into an award winning film, Schindler's List (original title Schindler's Ark) is an intense biographical novel about Oskar Schindler and the Jews that worked for him during WWII.
Schindler was an industrialist who was obviously interested in making as much profit as possible from his contracts with the Nazi government. He had the Jews of the Cracow ghetto at his disposal for his labor force and used them in several of his factories. Most manufacturers worked their people to near death and then had them shipped off to the death camps, But Oskar Schindler was different although the book never really tells us why he took his pro-Jewish attitude. Pro-Jewish may be the wrong term for Schindler's activities on behalf of his workers but he daily faced serious trouble with the authorities for his protection of his employees.
He wined and dined, bribed, charmed, and greased the skids of the higher-ups in order to keep his Schindlerjuden (Schindler's Jews) safe, although many of them had no particular skills.. He covered for them and was twice arrested for a very short period of time when his activities were questioned. He had friends in high places and called on them when the Cracow ghetto was being liquidated as the Russian Army was drawing near. He enticed them into allowing him to open another factory, the reason for its existence rather vague, and moving his work force further west and hopefully out of harm's way. And this is where The List came into being.......a list that meant life or certain death for the remaining residents of the ghetto.......a list of people who would accompany Schindler to his new factory. He and his Jewish accountant connived to add names of people who did not currently work for him to the list which far exceeded the number approved by the authorities. And he succeeded. It is said that he saved more Jews from the gas chambers than any single individual during WWII.
The book is based on testimony from many of the Schindlerjuden and others that worked with Schindler during those last years of the war. He has been enshrined as a Righteous Person in the state of Israel and has a tree planted in his name on the Avenue of the Righteous which leads to the Yad Vashem memorial.
And remember, from the film, the little child in the red coat?.......it actually happened as witnessed by one of the Schindlerjuden and is one of the most poignant moments in the book and the film. A highly recommended book.
Schindler was an industrialist who was obviously interested in making as much profit as possible from his contracts with the Nazi government. He had the Jews of the Cracow ghetto at his disposal for his labor force and used them in several of his factories. Most manufacturers worked their people to near death and then had them shipped off to the death camps, But Oskar Schindler was different although the book never really tells us why he took his pro-Jewish attitude. Pro-Jewish may be the wrong term for Schindler's activities on behalf of his workers but he daily faced serious trouble with the authorities for his protection of his employees.
He wined and dined, bribed, charmed, and greased the skids of the higher-ups in order to keep his Schindlerjuden (Schindler's Jews) safe, although many of them had no particular skills.. He covered for them and was twice arrested for a very short period of time when his activities were questioned. He had friends in high places and called on them when the Cracow ghetto was being liquidated as the Russian Army was drawing near. He enticed them into allowing him to open another factory, the reason for its existence rather vague, and moving his work force further west and hopefully out of harm's way. And this is where The List came into being.......a list that meant life or certain death for the remaining residents of the ghetto.......a list of people who would accompany Schindler to his new factory. He and his Jewish accountant connived to add names of people who did not currently work for him to the list which far exceeded the number approved by the authorities. And he succeeded. It is said that he saved more Jews from the gas chambers than any single individual during WWII.
The book is based on testimony from many of the Schindlerjuden and others that worked with Schindler during those last years of the war. He has been enshrined as a Righteous Person in the state of Israel and has a tree planted in his name on the Avenue of the Righteous which leads to the Yad Vashem memorial.
And remember, from the film, the little child in the red coat?.......it actually happened as witnessed by one of the Schindlerjuden and is one of the most poignant moments in the book and the film. A highly recommended book.
June 24, 2019
Steven Spielberg’s movie of this book is so well known, I scarcely need to introduce the book or its central protagonist, the Sudeten German Oskar Schindler (1908 – 1974). That he saved the lives of 1,200 holocaust victims is today common knowledge. That he was a womanizer, a bon viveur and a wheeler and dealer is well known too. He is “the flawed hero”. He was a Catholic who saved the lives of Jews during the Second World War.
“He who saves a single life, saves the whole world.”
The book draws Oskar as he really was, flaws and all. The author himself classifies this as a book of historical fiction, but never does it deviate from fact. What the author adds is dialogue. The book is based on numerous eyewitness accounts of which Poldek Pfefferberg is one. It was he that urged Keneally to write the book.
In a book of historical fiction, I am looking for two things—absolutely no distortion of known facts and I want to get inside the heads of characters. I want the book to reveal how people / characters feel and think. It is through an attachment to individuals that I come to empathize and care. While the book succeeds extremely well with the former, it only partially succeeds with the latter. Reading about the holocaust is always gripping, but I should have felt more attachment to the separate individuals. I never came to feel emotionally attached to any of them.
Why? What is the cause?
I see two reasons. The author’s prose all too often left me hanging in mid-air. I kept asking myself what was actually meant! Much is implied rather than stated clearly or outright. Innuendos are numerous. Often I was left wondering what was really intended. Statements are made that can be interpreted in different ways. Although Americans, Brits and Australians all speak English we express ourselves differently. We use different idioms.
“The only way (out) is on your shield!”
“You can alienate as much pine board as that?”
“In the butt end of 1941…”
Sometimes, but not always, I could guess at what was meant, but the author’s choice of words felt strange. When listening to an audiobook the more you comprehend quickly, the more time you have to ponder important issues.
The audiobook narration also gave me trouble. Humphrey Bower narrates. He is Australian, just as the author is. I want to hear every word distinctly when I listen to a book. His Australian accent made this difficult. Not just once in a while, but often. He reads names extremely quickly. I could not even guess at how one might spell them. There are many Polish names; they went by in a total blur. With repetition one begins to recognize who is who, but by that time you have already missed a lot! I do not recommend the audiobook. On the other hand, I know that many enjoy Bower’s numerous narrations. I may be an exception. I want to learn all the nitty-gritty facts and this requires hearing every word and name said. I have given the narration performance a rating of two stars. If one disregards the names of places and people, the reading is for the most part intelligible.
I like most the section describing events after Hitler had fallen. Russians were approaching from the east. Now it was Schindler who was in great danger. The table had turned.
The audiobook includes both an epilog and an afterword. The epilog concerns what happens to Schindler, his wife, mistress and long-time secretary after the war, as well as many of those he saved and those he sought to overcome. The afterword focuses upon the significance of Schindler’s actions—the importance and value of his actions, their moral implications and what his behavior can teach people of today. These two sections made me want to give the book five stars. I so totally agree with what is said. They are clearly expressed and moved me deeply. Yet I cannot rate a book by its epilog and afterword!
“He who saves a single life, saves the whole world.”
The book draws Oskar as he really was, flaws and all. The author himself classifies this as a book of historical fiction, but never does it deviate from fact. What the author adds is dialogue. The book is based on numerous eyewitness accounts of which Poldek Pfefferberg is one. It was he that urged Keneally to write the book.
In a book of historical fiction, I am looking for two things—absolutely no distortion of known facts and I want to get inside the heads of characters. I want the book to reveal how people / characters feel and think. It is through an attachment to individuals that I come to empathize and care. While the book succeeds extremely well with the former, it only partially succeeds with the latter. Reading about the holocaust is always gripping, but I should have felt more attachment to the separate individuals. I never came to feel emotionally attached to any of them.
Why? What is the cause?
I see two reasons. The author’s prose all too often left me hanging in mid-air. I kept asking myself what was actually meant! Much is implied rather than stated clearly or outright. Innuendos are numerous. Often I was left wondering what was really intended. Statements are made that can be interpreted in different ways. Although Americans, Brits and Australians all speak English we express ourselves differently. We use different idioms.
“The only way (out) is on your shield!”
“You can alienate as much pine board as that?”
“In the butt end of 1941…”
Sometimes, but not always, I could guess at what was meant, but the author’s choice of words felt strange. When listening to an audiobook the more you comprehend quickly, the more time you have to ponder important issues.
The audiobook narration also gave me trouble. Humphrey Bower narrates. He is Australian, just as the author is. I want to hear every word distinctly when I listen to a book. His Australian accent made this difficult. Not just once in a while, but often. He reads names extremely quickly. I could not even guess at how one might spell them. There are many Polish names; they went by in a total blur. With repetition one begins to recognize who is who, but by that time you have already missed a lot! I do not recommend the audiobook. On the other hand, I know that many enjoy Bower’s numerous narrations. I may be an exception. I want to learn all the nitty-gritty facts and this requires hearing every word and name said. I have given the narration performance a rating of two stars. If one disregards the names of places and people, the reading is for the most part intelligible.
I like most the section describing events after Hitler had fallen. Russians were approaching from the east. Now it was Schindler who was in great danger. The table had turned.
The audiobook includes both an epilog and an afterword. The epilog concerns what happens to Schindler, his wife, mistress and long-time secretary after the war, as well as many of those he saved and those he sought to overcome. The afterword focuses upon the significance of Schindler’s actions—the importance and value of his actions, their moral implications and what his behavior can teach people of today. These two sections made me want to give the book five stars. I so totally agree with what is said. They are clearly expressed and moved me deeply. Yet I cannot rate a book by its epilog and afterword!
December 9, 2019
A great book. Definitely in my top 5 Man Booker winners that I have read so far. Amazingly the book was only written when Keneally went into a store in LA and got talking to Poldek Pfefferberg one of the survivors. He had been trying for years to get a book or movie made. Thanks to his and the authors efforts he succeeded with both.
Schindler was no saint but he had what was lacking in a lot of Germans in WW2, a conscience. He enjoyed mistresses, partying and was a wizard on the black market. He also surrounded himself with intelligent assistants such as Stern.
The story is amazing and incredible. Schindler managed to save around 1200 people due to his amazing negotiating and drinking abilities. Moving his factory from Cracow to Brinnlitz in Moravia with his staff and using his own money to facilitate it was amazing. Keneally has woven fiction and non fiction into a moving and inspiration story. He captures well the horror of the camps with summary executions, the madness of Amon and his cruelty. The liquidations in the Cracow ghetto and how fate could be so arbitrary.
Before Schindler escaped to the American lines he was presented with a gift from the Schindlerjuden in the form of a gold ring with the inscription of ‘He who saves a single life, saves the world entire.’ This was an apt and poignant memorial.
It is a shame the movie did not show his escape from Moravia. However, the movie Schindlers List is a great movie and handles the story well.
Schindler was no saint but he had what was lacking in a lot of Germans in WW2, a conscience. He enjoyed mistresses, partying and was a wizard on the black market. He also surrounded himself with intelligent assistants such as Stern.
The story is amazing and incredible. Schindler managed to save around 1200 people due to his amazing negotiating and drinking abilities. Moving his factory from Cracow to Brinnlitz in Moravia with his staff and using his own money to facilitate it was amazing. Keneally has woven fiction and non fiction into a moving and inspiration story. He captures well the horror of the camps with summary executions, the madness of Amon and his cruelty. The liquidations in the Cracow ghetto and how fate could be so arbitrary.
Before Schindler escaped to the American lines he was presented with a gift from the Schindlerjuden in the form of a gold ring with the inscription of ‘He who saves a single life, saves the world entire.’ This was an apt and poignant memorial.
It is a shame the movie did not show his escape from Moravia. However, the movie Schindlers List is a great movie and handles the story well.
April 27, 2021
I remember watching Schindler's List when it was first at the movie theatres. I didn't know of the story then - but I left the theatre in tears, never to be quite the same again. I have watched this so very many times, losing count years ago, and still crying at the end. I remain blown away every time I see the incredible acting by Fiennes, etc. and the hideous memories of the Holocaust.
Rarely is the film better than the book but I felt in this case it was.
Rarely is the film better than the book but I felt in this case it was.
March 22, 2013
""The critique of culture is confronted with the last stage in the dialectic of culture and barbarism: to write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric, and that corrodes also the knowledge which expresses why it has become impossible to write poetry today.
Theodore W. Adorno
Encapsulated in quotes such as the above is the pure devastating influence across history of the Jewish Holocaust during World War 2. As an event of magnitude it becomes hard for one to detach themselves from the large picture of upwards of 6 million slaughtered Jews and look at the individuals who survived. It is, as such, a failing of many historians, and history as it is taught, that the Jewish Holocaust is utilised as an easily accessible lesson in morality. In other words it becomes easy for one to use the Nazi Germans as the great modern symbol for overwhelming evil and ignore the many other forms 'evil' has taken in Communist Russia or China. Yet, what Thomas Keneally does in his work, with sympathy and with respect, is to chronicle the tale of one individual, lost within the dark seas of The Jewish Holocaust. Rather than observe the overall event and decry it as humanity at its basest he chooses to go beyond the surface and look at the individuals shaped and changed by the circumstances within which they found themselves.
In essence this novel is a curious amalgamation of history text and fictional story. Though the underlying elements are factually based, Keneally must adopt some licence in order to tell the story of Oskar Schindler as a narrative without the basis of solid quotes to lean upon. As such, the narrative technique adopted is a form of omnipotent narration whereby Keneally sets out upon a linear progression, routinely leaving this linear chronology to impose his own historical viewpoints or to insert further facts into the narrative.
Many will have seen the famed movie by Steven Spielberg which was based upon this novel. Though the movie is a stronger visual and emotional work it lacks some of the finer details of the novel, helping to create another strong novel and movie combination. For instance one watching the movie may not necessarily note that Schindler had three key women who he related to, and that on top of that he was liberal with several other women. One would not be able to understand that there were some individual Jews who despised Schindler for not including them on his list (though he could only save approximately 1200). One would not also be able to note little facts that add a touch of definition to the character of Schindler such as that he hated Amon Goethe while appearing friendly towards him and that he never suffered hangovers from intoxication.
A further mention on the characters within this novel is fascinating as what Keneally deals with is fact rather than fiction, though it may be fact tempered with fiction. Yet one can still observe that Schindler was no typical hero. He was a man who drunk heavily (and did not suffer ill effects), a man who loved women and as such had a wife, girlfriend and mistress. In other words Oskar Schindler was a rogue with a good and honest heart, a man who recognised that the Jews were still people regardless of any propaganda the German Nazis spread. Though he may have initially set out to use the Jewish workers as cheap labour, in the end Schindler ended up saving thousands through his factory and it is this that truly matters.
Amon Goethe, as the other main character in the novel is revealed as a truly debased individual. He was a man who clearly lacked his full sanity, a man who expected respect from his peers and equals and who believed that all who served him and worked with him were friends and allies. He was, like Schindler, a heavy drinker and Keneally suggests that he was also a womaniser, yet, where Schindler was a saviour of Jews, Goethe was a destroyer. There are many accounts within this text of Goethe routinely lining up Jewish workers and individuals and shooting them for sport or simply because he disliked the manner of their appearance. In many ways Keneally through his representations lines up Schindler and Goethe as counterparts, two sides of the one coin. One man a saviour and one man a villainous murderer. In many ways history is full of such counterparts and it is fascinating to reflect upon this idea.
This is a novel to be read now and well into the future. It is a novel to remind us as readers that even in the blackest pits of history there is always some form of hope, that there is always some individual who recognises what is true and honourable. It is a novel of history and a novel of the human condition and as such deserves to be read and recognised by all readers.
December 4, 2013
This was not a light read. It was, in fact, a very thought provoking book. The author has done very good research and he makes it very clear what is fact and what is supposition. I really like that in a historical work.
The first half of the book was harder to read because it involved the slow, steady slide into the evils of the holocaust. It was amazing to watch the Jews being transformed from citizens to substandard citizens and eventually to being seen as less than beasts. It all happened gradually, though, and so the transformation in status was grudgingly accepted (both by Jews and Germans who were upset about what was going on).
There were several scenes of violence that were disturbing to read about. That said, the author did a great job of not being overly graphic and detailed, and all of the accounts given were told because they really happened and were testified to by witnesses in his research. So, this wasn't gratuitous, pointless violence. Still, in some ways it was more disturbing because I knew this really happened. It was a good eye opener.
The second half of the book was easier to read as the end of the war approached and Schindler became like a madman on a mission to save as many Jews as possible. It was great to read about the ways that the system was outsmarted and Schindler's outrageous and audacious maneuvers to save lives.
At first I wasn't sure that I should read this book. Would it be too disturbing? Would it be inappropriate to be peeking in on the very private suffering of the people? In the end I am very glad that I did read it.
I feel that I now have a much better understanding of the holocaust. This book made the holocaust personal. It talked about lots of individuals (one town's worth) and their experiences. I also feel that I now have a better understanding of the human capacity both for horrendous evil and for equally astounding good.
I think the best part of this book is that during the holocaust it must have seemed like the world had ended, and yet the holocaust itself ended instead, and people were held accountable for the things they did when it felt like no one who cared was watching.
Most of all I was truly amazed by the horrendous things people endured, and yet they still kept fighting to live on for another day.
The first half of the book was harder to read because it involved the slow, steady slide into the evils of the holocaust. It was amazing to watch the Jews being transformed from citizens to substandard citizens and eventually to being seen as less than beasts. It all happened gradually, though, and so the transformation in status was grudgingly accepted (both by Jews and Germans who were upset about what was going on).
There were several scenes of violence that were disturbing to read about. That said, the author did a great job of not being overly graphic and detailed, and all of the accounts given were told because they really happened and were testified to by witnesses in his research. So, this wasn't gratuitous, pointless violence. Still, in some ways it was more disturbing because I knew this really happened. It was a good eye opener.
The second half of the book was easier to read as the end of the war approached and Schindler became like a madman on a mission to save as many Jews as possible. It was great to read about the ways that the system was outsmarted and Schindler's outrageous and audacious maneuvers to save lives.
At first I wasn't sure that I should read this book. Would it be too disturbing? Would it be inappropriate to be peeking in on the very private suffering of the people? In the end I am very glad that I did read it.
I feel that I now have a much better understanding of the holocaust. This book made the holocaust personal. It talked about lots of individuals (one town's worth) and their experiences. I also feel that I now have a better understanding of the human capacity both for horrendous evil and for equally astounding good.
I think the best part of this book is that during the holocaust it must have seemed like the world had ended, and yet the holocaust itself ended instead, and people were held accountable for the things they did when it felt like no one who cared was watching.
Most of all I was truly amazed by the horrendous things people endured, and yet they still kept fighting to live on for another day.
September 25, 2020
How does one review a novel of an era of such utter devastation?
Therein is the lesson for all - we are humans and all lives matter - those of the persecuted and the persecutors. No one life should have more power or importance than another.
It is for this reason we should all read this documentary novel; we are all responsible for our own humanity! Our moral fibre determines on which end of the scales we land and racial condemnation becomes that of those who feel entitled to righteous judgement of others.
In an era where we have once again resorted to labelling and identification of one group over another - it is belittling, worrying and undermining to claim any one life matters more than another.
As the author states, “the past is neater, and the present is complex” and we will all be judged in a crisis on how we choose to participate or stand-by, in action or inaction!
Therein is the lesson for all - we are humans and all lives matter - those of the persecuted and the persecutors. No one life should have more power or importance than another.
It is for this reason we should all read this documentary novel; we are all responsible for our own humanity! Our moral fibre determines on which end of the scales we land and racial condemnation becomes that of those who feel entitled to righteous judgement of others.
In an era where we have once again resorted to labelling and identification of one group over another - it is belittling, worrying and undermining to claim any one life matters more than another.
As the author states, “the past is neater, and the present is complex” and we will all be judged in a crisis on how we choose to participate or stand-by, in action or inaction!
March 17, 2017
This year I'm doing a Reading Challenge; so I have 26 books with specific subjects that I need to read.
Book 5: A non- Fiction book
I'm really conflicted about this book.
I don't like the Holocaust, I don't like these stories about it and most of all I don't like what was done to those poor people.
But still I read these book - why do I do it to myself?
This book was really depressing for me, I don't even know what I would have done in a situation like that.
The thing is this book was well written, and I love the perspective form which the story was told. I'm in awe of Oskar Schindler and what he did.
So, that's me confused in my own feelings and thoughts.
January 10, 2022
I read the original version, 'Schindler's Ark'. Amazing book. Why was the title changed? Maybe in line with Spielberg's masterpiece in cinema?
November 20, 2022
An incredible book.
A true look into our horrifying history - this book manages to portray the unspeakable experience people went through during the Holocaust on a daily basis in heartbreaking detail. A really hard book to read but it is worth it, it sheds light on our history and how we should never take our own privilege for granted, hopefully books like this will stop us from making the same mistakes again. It depicts how quickly a people can be corrupt through propaganda and powerful politics, it shows how our minds can be warped and our hearts manipulated.
'Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.'
‘I had to help them there was no choice’
‘If you saw a good going to be crushed by a car wouldn’t you help him?’ (The simplicity of this sentence, which has such meaning and impact).
The relationship between Oscar Schindler and ‘Schindler’s Jews’ was admirable, and it showed that not all men are innately evil, and that one man really can change the world or at least someone world. Not to forget Schindler’s workers to who played a key part in saving 100’s of people.
The book is very factual and sometimes doesn’t flow perfectly so it does take longer to read but I didn’t regret it and I will be re-reading this in the future, when my heart can bare it!
I have never actually seen the film and after reading this book I defiantly will be – if you are about to read this be prepared to be moved like never before, shocked and humbled.
Lest we forget!
A true look into our horrifying history - this book manages to portray the unspeakable experience people went through during the Holocaust on a daily basis in heartbreaking detail. A really hard book to read but it is worth it, it sheds light on our history and how we should never take our own privilege for granted, hopefully books like this will stop us from making the same mistakes again. It depicts how quickly a people can be corrupt through propaganda and powerful politics, it shows how our minds can be warped and our hearts manipulated.
'Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.'
‘I had to help them there was no choice’
‘If you saw a good going to be crushed by a car wouldn’t you help him?’ (The simplicity of this sentence, which has such meaning and impact).
The relationship between Oscar Schindler and ‘Schindler’s Jews’ was admirable, and it showed that not all men are innately evil, and that one man really can change the world or at least someone world. Not to forget Schindler’s workers to who played a key part in saving 100’s of people.
The book is very factual and sometimes doesn’t flow perfectly so it does take longer to read but I didn’t regret it and I will be re-reading this in the future, when my heart can bare it!
I have never actually seen the film and after reading this book I defiantly will be – if you are about to read this be prepared to be moved like never before, shocked and humbled.
Lest we forget!
September 5, 2019
This review is dedicated by a Jew and Zionist Until Death, myself! , To the Righteous among the Nations, those Gentiles who have stood by the Jewish Nation in times of travail and murder, and those who continue to stand by Jews and Israel, in these frightening and sombre times of today.
Many people have wondered how the nation that gave us such great contributors to humanity, such as the Statesman Frederick the Great, the poet and writer Johan Goethe, and musicians such as Bach and Beethoven, could have allowed themselves to be led by the Satanic Adolph Hitler (may his evil name be erased from history) produced the SS and Gestapo, and allowed those evil forces to carry out the Holocaust against 6 million Jewish men, women and children, as well as millions of Roma, disabled people , political dissidents , ;anti-social elements' like gays and prostitutes , Slavs and Armenians.
An yet we must not forget the righteous among the nations, which included Germans like Pastor Niemoller and Konrad Adenauer, who opposed the monstrous Nazi tyranny, and Oskar Schindler (and Emily Schindler) among others, who put their own lives on the line to save Jewish lives.
Oskar Schindler was a maverick Sudeten German industrialist, who put his life and livelihood on the line to save 6 000 Jews from the Nazi death machine.
Unlike the move "Schindler's List", in this book we read something of the world before and after World War II and the Holocaust (Shoah).
Hence we see something of the anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church, and how the centuries of Catholic poison against the Jewish people, in some ways paved the way for the horrors of the Shoah (as well as having caused untold suffering and death to Jews through the centuries - since Roman times! -and it continues to cause suffering and death today to Jews when the Catholic Church sides with Palestinian terrorists against innocent Israeli Jewish women and children!
In 1929 Oskar Schindler married Emilie, a German speaking Catholic girl (who would prove to have a heart of gold, but would be treated shabbily by Oskar). From her girlhood Emilie would have a close friendship with the daughter of the local Jewish storekeeper in her village, Rita Reiff.
On a visit to Emile's father, the parish priest told him that it was not good , in principle , for a Catholic girl to have a friendship with a Jew. It is a testament to Emilie's character that she resisted the edict of the bigoted priest, and remained a close friend Rita's, until Rita was executed by Nazi officials, in front of the store, in 1942.
It is a testament to the love and honour that Schindler would be held in by the Jews he saved and their descendents, that when this book was written by Thomas Keneally in 1982 (37 years after the war and 8 years after Oskar Schindler passed away) that a family called the C's who spread malicious rumours about Schindlers, still had to be protected by being granted anonymity by the author! Clearly the Schindlerjuden or their children or grandchildren could take revenge against the C's if the author had revealed their identity!
He was not held by all Germans with such esteem after the war, and as late as the 1960's were spat out and verbally attacked on the streets of Frankfurt (but more of that later).
Just as there have always been a handful of righteous Gentiles, so too there have always been Jews who have acted in ways that have brought destruction on their own people.
The Judenrat (The Nazi puppet councils of Jews) that helped the Nazis oppress their own people, where mainly made up of secular intellectuals, as are the leftist Jewish traitors today who support BDS and threby back the `Palestinian' efforts to destroy the tiny Jewish State of Israel, and thereby subject the Jewish people to a second holocaust.
Over half of all holocaust survivors today live in Israel (as do many descendants of holocaust survivors), and it would be a hideous twist of history for these too to perish in the flames of anti-Jew hatred, as they would do if Israel was destroyed by forces of evil (G-D forbid that this should ever be allowed to happen!)
Towards his later life in the 1960's and early 70's Schindler would be well looked after by the Schindlerjuden in Israel (where he spent half of every year, spending the other half in Germany in poverty and loneliness), and he would choose to be buried in Jerusalem.
Many Schindler Jews mourned him at his funeral in Jerusalem in 1974.
Many people have wondered how the nation that gave us such great contributors to humanity, such as the Statesman Frederick the Great, the poet and writer Johan Goethe, and musicians such as Bach and Beethoven, could have allowed themselves to be led by the Satanic Adolph Hitler (may his evil name be erased from history) produced the SS and Gestapo, and allowed those evil forces to carry out the Holocaust against 6 million Jewish men, women and children, as well as millions of Roma, disabled people , political dissidents , ;anti-social elements' like gays and prostitutes , Slavs and Armenians.
An yet we must not forget the righteous among the nations, which included Germans like Pastor Niemoller and Konrad Adenauer, who opposed the monstrous Nazi tyranny, and Oskar Schindler (and Emily Schindler) among others, who put their own lives on the line to save Jewish lives.
Oskar Schindler was a maverick Sudeten German industrialist, who put his life and livelihood on the line to save 6 000 Jews from the Nazi death machine.
Unlike the move "Schindler's List", in this book we read something of the world before and after World War II and the Holocaust (Shoah).
Hence we see something of the anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church, and how the centuries of Catholic poison against the Jewish people, in some ways paved the way for the horrors of the Shoah (as well as having caused untold suffering and death to Jews through the centuries - since Roman times! -and it continues to cause suffering and death today to Jews when the Catholic Church sides with Palestinian terrorists against innocent Israeli Jewish women and children!
In 1929 Oskar Schindler married Emilie, a German speaking Catholic girl (who would prove to have a heart of gold, but would be treated shabbily by Oskar). From her girlhood Emilie would have a close friendship with the daughter of the local Jewish storekeeper in her village, Rita Reiff.
On a visit to Emile's father, the parish priest told him that it was not good , in principle , for a Catholic girl to have a friendship with a Jew. It is a testament to Emilie's character that she resisted the edict of the bigoted priest, and remained a close friend Rita's, until Rita was executed by Nazi officials, in front of the store, in 1942.
It is a testament to the love and honour that Schindler would be held in by the Jews he saved and their descendents, that when this book was written by Thomas Keneally in 1982 (37 years after the war and 8 years after Oskar Schindler passed away) that a family called the C's who spread malicious rumours about Schindlers, still had to be protected by being granted anonymity by the author! Clearly the Schindlerjuden or their children or grandchildren could take revenge against the C's if the author had revealed their identity!
He was not held by all Germans with such esteem after the war, and as late as the 1960's were spat out and verbally attacked on the streets of Frankfurt (but more of that later).
Just as there have always been a handful of righteous Gentiles, so too there have always been Jews who have acted in ways that have brought destruction on their own people.
The Judenrat (The Nazi puppet councils of Jews) that helped the Nazis oppress their own people, where mainly made up of secular intellectuals, as are the leftist Jewish traitors today who support BDS and threby back the `Palestinian' efforts to destroy the tiny Jewish State of Israel, and thereby subject the Jewish people to a second holocaust.
Over half of all holocaust survivors today live in Israel (as do many descendants of holocaust survivors), and it would be a hideous twist of history for these too to perish in the flames of anti-Jew hatred, as they would do if Israel was destroyed by forces of evil (G-D forbid that this should ever be allowed to happen!)
Towards his later life in the 1960's and early 70's Schindler would be well looked after by the Schindlerjuden in Israel (where he spent half of every year, spending the other half in Germany in poverty and loneliness), and he would choose to be buried in Jerusalem.
Many Schindler Jews mourned him at his funeral in Jerusalem in 1974.
November 25, 2021
"Όποιος σ��σει μία ζωή, σώζει τον κόσμο όλο". Αυτή είναι μία παλαιά Εβραϊκή φράση η οποία χαράχτηκε στο χρυσό (από τα δόντια που έδωσαν πρόθυμα κάποιοι κρατούμενοι) δαχτυλίδι που χάρισαν οι Εβραίοι κρατούμενοι στον Όσκαρ Σίντλερ όταν αυτός έφυγε, λίγο μετά τη παράδοση της Γερμανίας, στο τέλος του Β' Παγκοσμίου πολέμου. Η τύχη του δαχτυλιδιού, αγνοείται καθώς ο Όσκαρ έφυγε μεταμφιεσμένος "κρατούμενος" προκειμένου να ξεφύγει από το μένος των Ρώσων απελευθερωτών ή των ανταρτών. Λίγοι γνώριζαν ποιος ήταν πραγματικά ο Όσκαρ Σίντλερ. Οι περισσότεροι έβλεπαν έναν "Άριο", ��υτραφή, γαλανομάτη, πιθανότατα κάποιος Ες Ες που προσπαθεί να κρυφτεί! Ο Σίντλερ έπεσε θύμα ληστειών και από τύχη δε βρέθηκε νεκρός τις πρώτες μέρες αφότου έληξε ο πόλεμος. Ο Σίντλερ, αφού μαθεύτηκε η ιστορία του, λοιδορήθηκε από τους Γερμανούς συμπατριώτες του και πέθανε μόνος του σε ένα πολύ μικρό διαμέρισμα που είχε στη Φρανκφούρτη (θάφτηκε όμως με τους φίλους του στο Ισραήλ). Οι μόνοι που του στάθηκαν μέχρι το τέλος και πίεζαν προς όλες τις κατευθύνσεις για να αναγνωριστεί το έργο του, ήταν τα "παιδιά" του. Οι 1.200 Εβραίοι που σώθηκαν από τα φρικτά βασανιστήρια και το θάνατο, χάρις το θάρρος, τις θυσίες, το σθένος και τις αμέτρητες δαπάνες ενός επιχειρηματία ο οποίος προτίμησε να ορθώσει το ανάστημα του απέναντι στο σύστημα, να το κοροϊδέψει και εν τέλει, να το εκμεταλλευτεί προκειμένου να σώσει ζωές ανθρώπων!
"Δύναμη είναι να έχεις τη κάθε δικαιολογία να σκοτώσεις και να μη το πράττεις" είπε κάποτε ο Σίντλερ. Και σε μία εποχή που η ανθρώπινη ζωή λογιζόταν κατώτερη και από ενός αδέσποτου, πόσο εύκολο θα ήταν να εκμεταλλευτεί ένας επιχειρηματίας τη κάλυψη που του έδινε το σύστημα; Πάνω σε αυτό το σύστημα "επωάστηκαν" κολοσσοί του σήμερα. Πόσο εύκολο ήταν να υποκύψεις; Πόσο δύσκολο (έως και ηλίθιο) ήταν να ρισκάρεις τη περιουσία και τη ζωή σου για χάρη ενός "Εβραίου"; Γιατί ακόμη και για έναν άνθρωπο, ο Όσκαρ έτρεξε, δωροδόκησε, ρίσκαρε τη ζωή του! Είναι ρομαντικό να διαβάζουμε για φανταστικούς ήρωες όπως ο "Γιάννης Αγιάννης", όμως όταν διαβάζεις για αληθινά πρόσωπα με ίδιες αρχές, ανατριχιάζεις, συγκινείσαι, νιώθεις πολύ λίγος... Έτσι ένιωσα διαβάζοντας αυτό το βιβλίο. Ένα υπέροχο βιβλίο βασισμένο σε αληθινά γεγονότα που δημιουργήθηκε μέσα από τις μαρτυρίες των επιζώντων και τη μεγάλη έρευνα του Thomas Keneally! Με καθήλωσε αυτή η ανθρωπιά, αυτό το πάθος να σωθεί και η παραμικρή ζωή, αυτή η στάλα στον ωκεανό των μελλοθάνατων. Είτε ήταν παιδί, είτε γυναίκα, είτε ηλικιωμένος, όλες οι ζωές μετρούσαν το ίδιο για τον Όσκαρ! Ολοκλήρωσα το βιβλίο μέσα σε μία εβδομάδα, κάτι που αποτελεί δείγμα του πόσο μου άρεσε. Είναι γραμμένο με τόσο ωραίο και άμεσο τρόπο που νομίζεις πως βρίσκεσαι εκεί, σε μία γωνία ��αι παρακολουθείς την αγωνία του Όσκαρ να τα φέρει πέρας απέναντι σε ένα τέρας που φάνταζε ανίκητο, το μίσος!
"Δύναμη είναι να έχεις τη κάθε δικαιολογία να σκοτώσεις και να μη το πράττεις" είπε κάποτε ο Σίντλερ. Και σε μία εποχή που η ανθρώπινη ζωή λογιζόταν κατώτερη και από ενός αδέσποτου, πόσο εύκολο θα ήταν να εκμεταλλευτεί ένας επιχειρηματίας τη κάλυψη που του έδινε το σύστημα; Πάνω σε αυτό το σύστημα "επωάστηκαν" κολοσσοί του σήμερα. Πόσο εύκολο ήταν να υποκύψεις; Πόσο δύσκολο (έως και ηλίθιο) ήταν να ρισκάρεις τη περιουσία και τη ζωή σου για χάρη ενός "Εβραίου"; Γιατί ακόμη και για έναν άνθρωπο, ο Όσκαρ έτρεξε, δωροδόκησε, ρίσκαρε τη ζωή του! Είναι ρομαντικό να διαβάζουμε για φανταστικούς ήρωες όπως ο "Γιάννης Αγιάννης", όμως όταν διαβάζεις για αληθινά πρόσωπα με ίδιες αρχές, ανατριχιάζεις, συγκινείσαι, νιώθεις πολύ λίγος... Έτσι ένιωσα διαβάζοντας αυτό το βιβλίο. Ένα υπέροχο βιβλίο βασισμένο σε αληθινά γεγονότα που δημιουργήθηκε μέσα από τις μαρτυρίες των επιζώντων και τη μεγάλη έρευνα του Thomas Keneally! Με καθήλωσε αυτή η ανθρωπιά, αυτό το πάθος να σωθεί και η παραμικρή ζωή, αυτή η στάλα στον ωκεανό των μελλοθάνατων. Είτε ήταν παιδί, είτε γυναίκα, είτε ηλικιωμένος, όλες οι ζωές μετρούσαν το ίδιο για τον Όσκαρ! Ολοκλήρωσα το βιβλίο μέσα σε μία εβδομάδα, κάτι που αποτελεί δείγμα του πόσο μου άρεσε. Είναι γραμμένο με τόσο ωραίο και άμεσο τρόπο που νομίζεις πως βρίσκεσαι εκεί, σε μία γωνία ��αι παρακολουθείς την αγωνία του Όσκαρ να τα φέρει πέρας απέναντι σε ένα τέρας που φάνταζε ανίκητο, το μίσος!
June 1, 2023
"Chi salva una vita, salva il mondo."
La figura di Oskar Schindler, bevitore, donnaiolo (aveva uno stuolo di amanti nonostante una moglie che gli è stata vicina e lo ha anche aiutato nella sua impresa), giocatore, avido e corrompibile, mi aveva affascinata già durante la visione del film anni fa, proprio per il fatto di non riuscire a capire la sua ambiguità.
Con questo libro ho avuto giusto qualche chiarimento in più, ma rimane ancora in un alone di mistero il motivo che lo spinse a intraprendere quella sua personale lotta al nazismo.
Il testo non è un vero e proprio romanzo, più una cronaca che, fra l'altro, non ha nemmeno un filo temporale e pochissimi dialoghi e, per questo potrebbe risultare pesante, soprattutto nella prima parte, ma, la forza delle immagini descritte dall'autore in maniera nuda e cruda, senza nessun tentativo di romanzare la tragedia della Shoah, colpisce dritta allo stomaco.
Come ogni volta che mi avvicino a questo genere di letture, sono state tante le sensazioni provate: rabbia feroce, orrore, dolore, angoscia. Stavolta però, nuove emozioni si sono fatte strada dentro di me alla fine del libro, la gratitudine, la riconoscenza, per questo uomo imperfetto che, dopo tutto, si è ritrovato anche solo e dimenticato. Il libro infatti continua la narrazione rispetto al film e ci fa vedere uno scorcio di dopoguerra. Non so se consiglierei la lettura ai più giovani, primo, per lo stile non molto scorrevole, ma anche perché davvero alcune scene sono forti e per niente edulcorate, ma, noi adulti, che tendiamo spesso a dimenticare, dovremmo leggerlo.
La figura di Oskar Schindler, bevitore, donnaiolo (aveva uno stuolo di amanti nonostante una moglie che gli è stata vicina e lo ha anche aiutato nella sua impresa), giocatore, avido e corrompibile, mi aveva affascinata già durante la visione del film anni fa, proprio per il fatto di non riuscire a capire la sua ambiguità.
Con questo libro ho avuto giusto qualche chiarimento in più, ma rimane ancora in un alone di mistero il motivo che lo spinse a intraprendere quella sua personale lotta al nazismo.
Il testo non è un vero e proprio romanzo, più una cronaca che, fra l'altro, non ha nemmeno un filo temporale e pochissimi dialoghi e, per questo potrebbe risultare pesante, soprattutto nella prima parte, ma, la forza delle immagini descritte dall'autore in maniera nuda e cruda, senza nessun tentativo di romanzare la tragedia della Shoah, colpisce dritta allo stomaco.
Come ogni volta che mi avvicino a questo genere di letture, sono state tante le sensazioni provate: rabbia feroce, orrore, dolore, angoscia. Stavolta però, nuove emozioni si sono fatte strada dentro di me alla fine del libro, la gratitudine, la riconoscenza, per questo uomo imperfetto che, dopo tutto, si è ritrovato anche solo e dimenticato. Il libro infatti continua la narrazione rispetto al film e ci fa vedere uno scorcio di dopoguerra. Non so se consiglierei la lettura ai più giovani, primo, per lo stile non molto scorrevole, ma anche perché davvero alcune scene sono forti e per niente edulcorate, ma, noi adulti, che tendiamo spesso a dimenticare, dovremmo leggerlo.
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