Ana V.

initially:

I don't know how or why, but in the last two-three months I have been reading a lot of stuff about the War period of the 20th Century and I seem to have this impossible to fulfill desire to know more and more and so much more about the Nazi regime and Hitler and the Holocaust. I also seem to have a gruesome interest in the dirtiest, bloodiest, cruelest tortures that the Jews or any other ethnic were put through.

Maybe I need to see a doctor.

Anyhow, this book was another good reference to the Holocaust period and how that affected the lives of many people across the entire Europe. In this particular work, it's all about this guy, Oskar Schindler, a man that risked a great deal of things in order to save what he could of the Jew population of Poland.

I'm writing this review after some time went by since I finished the book, and I still find Schindler a very powerful character. I don't know if it's just because the way he was depicted by Keneally, but when I think Oskar Schindler, I see this big, masculine being that likes to drink and have fun and doesn't care about social opinion and still knows all the tricks to getting everybody's affection - and by everybody I mean the right people in the right position in the system.

This Oskar realized at one point that he couldn't do much for the whole Jew population that was suffering and that he couldn't save them all. Still, when he saw how many risks he would go through if the wrong man would find out he helps them, he said : "Yeah, no problem. I'll do it."

To this day, the people that he saved remember him as a party lover, and also as an angel. Their food ratios were not good, but they were better than what Dachau, Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Treblinka, Sobibor and other camps got. They didn't die - they were frightened, and sure some of them died, but most of them got to keep their breaths. They got to get through the war without being tortured or just simply gassed, and they got to live to tell others about it.

Yes, of course, we can all argue - so what? another 6 million Jews died then and compare some thousands to some millions and the proportion isn't enough to help Schindler's cause. Yes, you're right. But in my opinion, it matter that he tried. When one man decided then so save even one Jew, it was brave, courageous and outrageous. Schindler saved more than that and he most of the times placed himself as a target for the system, so they won't see what he was actually doing.

Now, seriously, there must be something wrong with me for liking this kind of story. Oh well. Fuck it.

update:

i just saw the movie today with my History teacher and a couple of students. it's really really good. a beautifully made piece, awesome imagery and resembling the work/world/time, a good eye for detail. movie is 9/10 for me.