Schindler's List: Encyclopedia II - Schindler's List - Plot summary

Schindler's List - Plot summary

The movie begins with a depiction of a Jewish prayer. At the end of the Jewish prayer, a candle burns out, and the film changes from color to black and white, setting the mood for the dark content of the film.

Schindler's List - The German army invades Poland

The Polish Army has been defeated by the German Army in the initiating event of World War II in Europe. Jews living in occupied Poland are ordered to relocate to population centers. The film's action starts with crowds of Jews from all over the country, Hasidic, assimilated, rich, and poor, detraining in Kraków, and submitting their names to German officials waiting on the station platforms with typewriters and lists.

As this is happening, a newcomer has arrived in Krakow; his name is Oskar Schindler. Schindler, a heretofore unsuccessful businessman from Germany, has come to Poland with the hope of using the now abundant slave labor force of Jews and Poles to manufacture goods for the German Army. Schindler makes a very good impression with the occupation authorities early on, being a member of the Nazi Party and lavishing gifts and bribes upon the army and SS officials now running southern Poland. He becomes a friend to the SS and Police Leader of Krakow, Julian Scherner, and quickly calls in favors as Schindler begins to establish himself as a businessman in the Krakow region.

Schindler's List - Schindler's factory

With his military sponsors in his back pocket, he sets out to acquire a factory for the production of enamelware, mainly cookery. In his factory he is told to manufacture goods such as pots, pans, and cooking materials for the war effort. He hasn't the money to buy it, and his administrative skills are dubious at best, but he finds through his contact Itzhak Stern, a functionary in the local Judenrat (Jewish Council) who in turn has contacts with the now underground Jewish business community. Schindler makes the Jewish businessmen a deal they cannot refuse: they will loan him the money for the factory, and he will give them a small share of the pots and pans produced. He takes particular pleasure in telling them that they must take him at his word, and that no court would ever uphold a contract between a German and a Jew.

Schindler gets his money and starts the factory; he keeps the Nazis happy and enjoys his new-found wealth, while Stern actually operates the factory and uses his position to help his fellow Jews, who have now been confined to a ghetto within Krakow. Workers in Schindler's factory are allowed outside the ghetto, and are certified as "essential workers," guaranteeing that they will not be rounded up at night by the Gestapo. This last point is key, and Stern uses his considerable skills to make sure as many people as possible are deemed "essential" by the Nazi bureacracy, even children, the elderly, and the infirm — people who would otherwise be rounded up and sent away. Schindler becomes aware of what is going on, and seems embarrassed by the whole arrangement, but takes no action to stop it.

Where exactly the "unessential" people are sent is a matter of rumor among the Jews; a few suggest that they are taken off to concentration camps, but people hearing this reject the idea as ridiculous. One old woman exclaims, "We are their work force! Why would they want to kill their own work force?"

Schindler's List - The razing of the Ghetto

At this point, an SS officer named Amon Göth arrives in Kraków to initiate construction of a labor camp, Plaszow, and to take over control of the Ghetto. In what is considered by many one of the most disturbing scenes in the film, a Jewish engineer explains that a foundation has been improperly laid, and for this he has her shot in the head. He then, in the next breath, orders that everything she requested be done. Göth is the focus of the film's depiction of Nazi sadism and inhumanity, not only taking pleasure in murder and torture, but considering it an integral part of his job, a matter of duty. In one scene, he decides not to shoot a young boy for not properly cleaning his bathtub, but then, after reflecting, decides that he must be firm, and shoots him in the back as he walks away.

In due course, Göth razes the Kraków Ghetto, sending in hundreds of troops to clear the cramped rooms and shooting anyone who refuses or cannot leave. Schindler watches the massacre from the hills overlooking the ghetto, and is profoundly affected. But, he now faces the more immediate problem of how to run his factory without his workers. He meets Goeth, befriends him, and convinces him to let him keep his workers for considerable bribes and payoffs. Schindler is now, though reluctantly, sheltering people who have very few skills in his factory.

It is during the clearing out of the ghetto that Spielberg introduces a character known as "the girl in red": a little girl wearing a red coat. The color of the coat stands out, because it is the only object that appears in color throughout the entire film (except for two instances of a candle flame); the rest of the movie is filmed in black-and-white, except for the final present-day coda. Film critics and scholars have suggested the appearance of the girl in the red coat is a "marker" used by Spielberg to denote the transformation of Schindler's personality. The first time she appears, Schindler changes from a cold-hearted businessman into a different person; he makes his first attempts to covertly assist his workers and save them from persecution and death afterwards. With the second appearance of the little girl in red, Schindler makes a further transformation into an altruistic angel whose primary motive is not profit, but rather to save the lives of his workers.

• • as a note (in my personal recollection): the events in the previous two sections are not chronologically correct. the quote about killing the work force actually occurs after the ghetto is razed and the jews are in the labor camp. The foundation being poured is one of the buildings of the labor camp- also after the evacuation of the ghetto. Schindler's semi-catharsis, while watching the destruction of the ghetto, happens before Goeth shoots the boy in the back- it was at Schindler's suggestion for him to express power by refusing to kill the "offending" person.

Schindler's List - The list

To Amon Göth's considerable consternation, and to Schindler's horror, an order arrives from Berlin commanding Göth to exhume and destroy all bodies of those killed in the ghetto razing, to dismantle the Plaszow, and to ship the whole population to Auschwitz. He explains to Schindler that he is being asked to do this straightaway (and it is the administrative burden that horrifies him, not the thought of having to destroy "every rag") "As soon as I can arrange the shipments, maybe thirty or forty days — that ought to be fun." Schindler prevails upon Göth to let him keep his workers, so that he can move them to a factory in his old home of Zwittau-Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia, away from the Holocaust — now fully underway in Poland. Goeth acquiesces, for a payoff in the order of millions of Reichsmarks. So that his workers can be kept off the trains to the killing centers, Schindler, with Stern, assembles a list of his workers.

This list of "skilled" inmates was Schindler's List, and for many of the inmates of Plaszow camp, being on the list meant the difference between life and death. Except for a railway mishap, in which one of the trains carrying women was accidentally redirected to Auschwitz, all the people on Schindler's list arrive safely at the new site. Those who went to Auschwitz were soon returned by a train which was sent to Schindler's camp, after Schindler bribes another Nazi official. Once the workers arrive in Czechoslovakia, Schindler institutes firm controls on the Nazi guards assigned to the factory, permits the Jews to observe the sabbath, and spends the rest of his fortune bribing Nazi officials. He runs out of money just as the war in Europe comes to an end.

As a German, a Nazi, and a "profiteer of slave labor" (his words), Schindler must flee the oncoming Soviet Army. He packs a car in the night, and bids farewell to his workers. They give him a letter, explaining to others that he is not a criminal, and they also give him a ring, engraved with the Talmudic quotation, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." Schindler is wracked with guilt, seeing his car, and realizing he could have bribed ten more people from Göth for it. He pulls the Nazi Party pin from his lapel, and cries, "This is gold. I could have gotten one more person for this. He would have given me one... One more person." He then leaves. The next morning, a Russian dragoon arrives, and announces to the Jews, "You have been liberated by the Soviet Army!"

Schindler's List - The coda

The film ends in Israel, at the grave of Oskar Schindler, in the present day. The actors portraying the major characters in the film pass by the grave, and place stones on it, while the actual persons they portrayed walk beside them doing the same. The camera pans, revealing a long line of people.

In a final scene, a man places a rose on the grave, and stands contemplatively over it. Though many believe it to be Director Steven Spielberg, it is actually the shadow of Liam Neeson who portrayed Oskar Schindler in the film and is the only actor not present in the aforementioned line of people. (www.imdb.com)

Tagline: Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Plot summary", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki