Drone Footage of Auschwitz

To mark the 70th anniversary since Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet soldiers a drone video was taken that shows the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today. The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and is visited by thousands of tourists and survivors every year. Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans during World War II. More than a million people – the vast majority of them Jews – died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army.

Why did he do it?

A question we have all pondered after watching ‘Schindler’s List’ is why did Oskar Schindler risk his life in order to save Jews? It was a time when terror reigned. The Jews had been dehumanised in non-Jewish eyes by Nazi propaganda and brutality. Tom Keneally, the author of the book Schindler’s List, quotes Schindler as having said that “A life is not worth a pack of cigarettes.” Yet Schindler risked his own life. Why?

An interesting discussion about Schindler’s actions can be found at The Southern Institute for Education and Research.

Why is Schindler’s List in black and white?

Many of you have asked why the director chose to film Schindler’s List in black and white.  This moving film is probably the most famous black and white film of modern times.  It is thought by many critics that Spielberg chose to film Schindler’s List in black and white to create an extra layer of horrific realism. It is interesting to note that this film did not have storyboards as director Steven Spielberg looked to Holocaust documentaries for inspiration which helps to explain the use of documentary style in the film.

Janusz Kaminski, Schindler’s List’s Director of Photography, said when he discussed the look:

“I was ecstatic to be working with Steven, and yet when we began filming it brought home the sickening reality of the Holocaust. The newsreel quality of the black and white seemed to fade the barriers of time, making [the footage] feel like an ongoing horror that I was witnessing firsthand. I think I can speak for the whole crew when I say the experience was sobering.”

It is also worth noting that the film was shot without the usual use of modern filmmaking tools such as cranes, steadicam and zoom lenses. There was much use of hand held camera shots (40%) which helped to make the film seem realistic. Perhaps the lack of more modern filmmaking tools also helped the viewer to focus on the story being told and help bring alive the time period portrayed in the film.

Good and evil in Schindler’s List

The essay below was written as an exercise in class and is not for NCEA but it does have interesting ideas. Have a look.

Schindler’s List examines man’s capacity for good and his capacity for evil. Discuss.

In the film Schindler’s List, through the characters of Oskar Schindler, Itzhak Stern and the Amon Goeth, director Steven Spielberg examines man’s capacity for good and his capacity for evil. There are strong comparisons between the three characters. Goeth is portrayed as being inherently evil, while Stern appears inherently good. Schindler however, is a character who, throughout the film is placed under pressure, and must decide whether he will do good or evil.

In the film Goeth embodies mans capacity to be evil. Throughout the film we see that Goeth, though given the opportunities to redeem himself, cannot resist the pull to harm, hurt and destroy other humans, he cannot resist the pull to evil. One of the strongest examples of this is where Schindler attempts to appeal to Goeth’s better nature. Schindler encourages Goeth to try pardoning someone, to let a Jew go free where he’d normally just kill them. Schindler explains to Goeth that real power is when one has every opportunity and reason to kill but chooses not to. Goeth gets his opportunity to try out pardoning someone when he comes across a young Jewish boy cleaning his bathtub. The boy has been unable to remove the soap scum. Obviously terrified the young boy stands rigidly before Goeth, awaiting almost certain death. The viewer can see that Goeth is weighing up in his mind whether to kill the boy or not. He pardons him. As the boy walks stiffly out of the house, back down to camp, Goeth leans on his bathroom sink, watching his reflection muttering ‘I pardon you’ to himself. We then flash back to the Jewish boy, just about back at camp, and as we watch a gun fires, and the boy collapses, dead.

Goeths true nature can be seen in this one action. All throughout the film Goeth murders innocent people, at random; shooting women and children off his balcony as he pleases. But in this scene the viewer is horrified to see that Goeth cannot do good. He pardons the boy, but this doesn’t sit right with Goeth. His desire to kill, overwhelms the opportunity he has to do good. He tries and fails to be merciful, and the viewer can see his cold hearted, murderous nature wins over him. Every man has this capacity, to do evil when we have the opportunity to do good. In the unfortunate case of Amon Goeth, he was a man who let his capacity to commit evil develop into a desire to do evil.

Itzhak Stern is the representative of man’s capacity for good. He is a stark contrast to both Goeth and Schindler as throughout the film. Consistently Stern puts himself on the line for the sake of the wellbeing of his fellow Jews; he, unlike Schindler, never gives in to selfishness, and acts only for the benefit of his people. We see this selflessness, when he is given power over Schindler’s company and is able to recruit whoever he wants. Stern hires Jews who are likely to be killed because they are deemed to be too old, too young or too sick to work. Stern knows what the fate of these people will be, and does all he can to protect them. In this way huge numbers of Jews were saved, as the healthy ones were sent to work at labour camps while Stern hired the others for work at Schindler’s factory. Stern goes to incredible lengths to secure the fate of his people. We see him making fake work passes for those who would otherwise be exterminated because of age, health, or working background. This shows him putting in extra work and effort to save the Jews destined for the concentration camps. Stern has opportunity to benefit himself in his job of running Schindler’s factory, he is able to make false statements in the accounting books to take money or make side deals for personal benefit. Instead he works overtime, ensuring the wellbeing of current workers and creating papers for new workers. Stern is the ultimate opposite of Goeth, who in every thought and action is thinking of himself. Stern is pure and selfless.

Oskar Schindler is the character who must choose between good and evil. He is, by nature, a businessman, whose aim in life is to acquire as many material possessions as possible. To begin with, he sees the Nazi treatment of the Jews only as a money making scheme for himself. He meets with Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern in an attempt to set up a company with him. It doesn’t really bother him that Stern is a Jew, because he is someone who can help him financially. We see his initial indifference towards Stern in his first meeting with him. Stern introduces himself and tells Schindler that ‘by law, I must tell you that I am a Jew’. ‘Well, I am a German, so there we are’ is Schindler’s reply. Schindler is initially portrayed as someone who is not necessarily evil, but indifferent. He ignores the plight of the Jews. But as the film progresses, and his involvement with the Jews increases, he can no longer remain indifferent. Circumstances force him to choose how he reacts to the ‘Jewish problem’. Schindler has a capacity for good, and a capacity for evil, as do all men. But when placed under pressure, he chooses to use his capacity for good. When his Jewish workers are to be taken to Auschwitz, a death camp in Poland where they will almost certainly be killed, Schindler chooses to do good. And we see that he does in fact have incredible capacity for good, because in saving his Jewish friends, he has to risk his life, and to give up all that he owns. The things that were originally so important to him no longer hold such a significant place in his life.

Schindler as an admirable character

This essay may help those of you who are revising Schindler. I have already had some feedback and students have told me to fix up the student’s punctuation – Jew’s to Jews – good spotting! And that the essay needs a discussion of filmic detail – camera work in particular and that quotations need to be added.

Analyse how one main character or individual changed to become more (or less) admirable.

In the film Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg, the main character of Oscar Schindler dramatically changed into a vastly more admirable character than when we were first introduced to him. As Schindler gained more wealth and power he had more experiences which tested his moral fibre and the decisions he made were what changed the viewers opinions of him to see him as more admirable by the end of the film.

Schindler was firstly seen as a selfish entrepreneur with a love of luxury and thrived off the profits of slave labour during World War II. His pot factory, however, soon became a haven for Jews as Schindler collected them from labour camps, mostly in Poland. As Schindler went to the labour camps he would be witness to many brutal shootings of the innocent and undeserving Jews. As the Holocaust worsened, Schindler heard more horrific stories which he could no longer ignore and quickly wrote up a list, with the help of his financial advisor, an intelligent Jew, Itzak Stern. With the names of hundreds of Jews. Schindler took the list to the commandant of the labour camp and demanded ‘what is one worth to you’, ‘tell me, just tell me, what is one worth!’ This is the major turning point for the character of Schindler as we see he has realised the true value of money and life. This quote shows how he is willing to pay any amount to save the lives of the Jews.

Schindler’s character is contrasted with the character Amon Goeth, the commandant of the labour camp. The contrast between the two emphasizes to the audience how admirable Schindler becomes. Both men reach positions of power because of the war and have many lives at their finger tips. Goeth, after a night of drinking, eating and partying, gets out of his bed and with a smoke in his mouth, idly shoots Jews in the camp below who are simply going about the chores they have been assigned. This horrific behaviour and brutality towards the Jew’s demonstrates how easily power can corrupt one’s mind and Goeth sees the Jews as worthless. The viewer is shocked by these scenes as we cannot understand how a human could mercilessly kill another and we then realise how ‘angelic’ the actions of Schindler are.

One of the final scenes where Schindler is leaving his factory to escape the police is a moment where Schindler’s transformation into a morally good and admirable person is concreted. With tears in his eyes Schindler exclaims this watch, one. And this car, that’s five for this car alone. As he reminisces over how many more lives he could have saved the viewer is convinced of Schindler’s transformation from a selfish entrepreneur to a selfless hero. He saved the lives of over one hundred families yet still feels guilty as if it weren’t enough. Schindler did a very admirable job at saving so many lives and many people would aspire to become what he had transformed into in such a tough situation.

Schindler went from one extreme to the other in his transformation so the change in becoming more admirable was much more dramatic to the viewer. Schindler began as a selfish man but redeemed himself by saving so many innocent lives then claiming it wasn’t enough. This made the viewer see Schindler as a character to admire by the end of the film.

Schindler’s List section on moodle updated

I am updating moodle and there are more resources under Schindler’s List.

Schindler’s List cinematic techniques

Schindler’s List portrays an incredible story of human suffering, agony, and death alongside incredible human courage, tenacity, hope, and endurance. Director Steven Spielberg was ability to capture graphically the nature of ruthless, mindless cruelty and savagery perpetrated on the Jews under the Nazi regime.

If you would like to recap the cinematic techniques used in the film, go here.

Schindler meets Goeth

Here is a sequence of screenshots from the scene where Amon Goeth meets Oskar Schindler. You can see Goeth’s fascination with Schindler.

Cross-cutting in Schindler’s List

Director Steven Spielberg uses parallel editing, or cross-cutting, a cinematic convention in which two or more concurrent scenes are interwoven with each other, throughout Schindler’s List. Parallel editing illuminates the stark difference between the hardships of the Jews and the comfort and optimism of Schindler and the Nazis in Poland. One scene to look at is when Schindler moves into his luxury apartment in Kraków soon after the Jewish owners are evacuated by the Nazis and sent to the Kraków ghetto (pictured above). We see the Nussbaums, under the watchful eye of SS officers, grab everything of value they can fit into a suitcase as they are forced from their luxury apartment and forced to join the Jews marching to the Kraków ghetto. These wealthy people are obviously outraged at their treatment. As they make their way to the ghetto, the scene cuts to Schindler entering the very same apartment seemingly moments after the family left. He tours the expansive, richly furnished apartment, admiring the luxurious furnishings and decorations. As he does so, the family arrives in the ghetto to find a tiny, dark, dirty room waiting for them. Sprawled on the Nussbaums’ bed, Schindler says, “It couldn’t possibly be better.” The scene then cuts back to the Nussbaums. Mrs. Nussbaum, with unconvincing optimism, remarks to her husband that “it could be worse.” Mr. Nussbaum responds, “How could it possibly be worse?” By interweaving these moments into a single scene, Spielberg forces the viewer to confront the bitter irony of the situation in which Schindler benefits from the Nussbaums’ misery. In addition, Schindler at this point in the film takes no notice of and has no remorse for the evacuated couple. The tremendous impact of his callousness is intensified in light of the family’s suffering. Read more about parallel editing (cross-cutting) at Sparks Notes.

Schindler’s List Posts

Now that we are writing essays on the film, have a look at the Schindler’s List category on this blog. There are lots of interesting and useful posts – including essays to check out.