book review schindler's list

Schindler’s List

Thomas keneally.

429 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 18, 1982

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Classic review: Schindler's List

A ''nonfiction novel'' based on the life of German industrialist Oscar Schindler.

By Bruce Allen

July 18, 2010

[This review from the Monitor's archives originally ran on Nov. 10, 1982.] The prolific and versatile Australian novelist continues to prove himself one of the least predictable, most interesting of contemporary writers. A series of fictional explorations of his troubled homeland culminated in that strident vision of racial oppression and its consequences ''The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith '' (1972). Since then, Keneally has ranged amazingly far afield, exploring the intricacies of human adversity undergone in such disparate theaters of operation as France during World War I (''Gossip From the Forest,'' 1976), the American South torn by our own Civil War (''Confederates,'' 1980), and the womb as observed by a sensitive fetus reluctantly about to enter the world (''Passenger,'' 1979).

It seems that Keneally's great subject is the tension between dramatic experiences or events and the ''ordinary'' people fortunate or unfortunate enough to live through them. That pattern shows itself again in Schindler's List , a ''nonfiction novel'' based on the life of Oscar Schindler , a German industrialist who, while closely allied with the Nazi high command throughout World War II years, operated factories in Poland and Czechoslovakia .

For these factories he reclaimed ''industrial prisoners,'' eventually releasing them to safety. Over 1,300 Jews were rescued from the death camps due to the efforts of this highly unlikely ''saviour'' - who, after his passing in 1974, was buried in Jerusalem and was designated a ''righteous person'' by the state of Israel .

Keneally's narrative weaves testimony from survivors who remember Schindler together with meticulous accounts of the deceptions he practiced on the SS (Nazi special police) officials whom he wined and dined. ''His . . . day was spent speaking to bureaucrats, his evenings in buttering them up,'' Keneally observes. A large part of the book comprises a manual showing how the Nazi system worked, and how Schindler manipulated and circumvented it. He was frequently arrested on suspicion of treasonable activity, but always managed to talk his way to freedom. He was capable of ingenious strategems, such as the argument that young children were correctly included on his ''list'' of those to be saved as ''skilled munitions workers.'' ''They polish the forty-five millimeter shells,. . . . They were selected for their long fingers, which can reach the interior of the shell . . . ,'' Schindler insisted.

In addition to this nearly documentary quality, the story's realistic feel is further qualified by Keneally's direct addresses to the reader, confiding to us his difficulties in rendering Schindler's personality credibly as fictionalized narrative. The unfortunate effect of this device is to heighten our confusion about the man Oscar Schindler - at times the playboy-dilettante (continuously involved in adulterous love affairs), at others the venerated object of ''Schindler's Jews'' (''He was our father, he was our mother, he was our only faith. He never let us down,'' is how one described him). This tension ought to bring the character to complex, arresting life; it doesn't, because the novel's narrative voice distances us from him so: Schindler never becomes more than a formally conceived and presented enigma.

It is necessary, then, to conclude that ''Schindler's List'' is not one of Thomas Keneally 's better books. Nevertheless, as an act of homage to a man we mustn't be allowed to forget, the book does its job movingly and well.

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The Student News Site of Elkhorn North High School

Book Review: Schindler’s List

The amazing story of how a German war profiteer and factory director saved many Jews during World War II.

By Molly Bruggeman , Reporter | December 16, 2021

Photo by Rotten Tomatoes

Schindler’s List By: Thomas Keneally.

Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneallyis a bestselling novel about a war profiteer and factory director working in Poland. Oskar Schindler makes his fortune and buys as many Jews as he possibly can. He works the ends of corrupt Nazi’s and Generals. Schindler set up his factory during World War II which had just started. The Nazis’s were loading Jews into a nearby town called Karkow which was starting to overcrowd. Schindler bought and hired over 1,000 Jews to work in his factory. This was saving the lives of so many Jewish people without Schindler even realizing it. This is because the Jews that are working in the factory do not have to see another concentration camp. Oskar Schindler was a hero to thousands of Jews that were saved during the war and who were also freed when the war ended in 1945.

I really enjoyed this novel because it spoke more about how a singular person saved the lives of thousands of people. This novel taught me a lot about bravery and courage. The strength that Schindler had throughout the entire book was insane. He took so many risks and dangerous moves all just to save “the enemies.” I thought that the plot was amazing and had a lot of twists and turns. There was never a dull moment in this novel. It is amazing to see how cruel the Germans were and how mistreated the Jews were during this time of war. This novel definitely shows what effect war can have on humanity. I think it’s really cool to see the fight and toughness in Schindler throughout the book. This book is now one of my favorites to read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes history or learning about World Wars.

Rating: 9.5/10

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It's All About Books

2014 , 4 Star Rating , Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEW: Schindler’s List – by Thomas Keneally

“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”

Schindler’s List is to be considered a classic and definitely worth reading, especially if you are interested in the history of the Second World War. I already read this novel before in high school, and I’ve seen the movie as well. But since it has been a while, I decided to read it again. I must admit that the movie moved me more than the book, which seemed a bit ‘dry’ at certain points. But still the story of Oskar Schindler and his Schindlerjuden will surely both shock and amaze you.

The novel tells us the story of how Oskar Schindler was able to save over one thousand Jews of a horrible death during the Second World War. It is a true story, which makes it that much more impressive. Schindler is a German industrialist who decided to start a factory with mostly Jewish workers, and thereby saving them of being send to Nazi death camps like Auschwitz. He encounters all kind of problems on the way and various people try to stop him, but the charmant Schindler is able to convince them all of the importance of his factory. It’s a story of heroes, tragedies, violence, hope. Families ripped apart by the Holocaust, others brought together again against all odds… And Schindler was there to protect his Schindlerjuden until the very end.

Schindler’s List is an impressive story of how one person can make a difference in so many lives in such a difficult situation. About a man who decided to go against the rules of the Nazi’s and do what he thought was just. A definite must read if you ask me!

SCHINDLER'S LIST

by Thomas Keneally ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 1982

Like Raoul Wallenberg, Oskar Schindler was one of those precious few ""righteous gentiles"" personally responsible for the saving of Jewish lives (estimated at about 1300) during the Holocaust. But what makes Schindler's story of compelling interest to novelist Keneally--who terms this book a ""nonfiction novel,"" an act of reconstruction and homage prompted by meeting one of the Schindlerjuden survivors in a Los Angeles store--seems to be Schindler's moral stance, a more equivocal one than that of brave, heedless Nordic-knight Wallenberg. Schindler owned and operated Nazi-sponsored factories--first one producing enamel-ware in Cracow; then a munitions plant in Brinnlitz, near Auschwitz. And the Jews whom he put on his list worked for him under S.S. guard, providing material for the Reich. Still, hardly anyone died while working for Schindler . . . and he patiently plucked Jew after Jew (by requisition) out of the deathly line of vision of Hauptsturmfuhrer Amon Goeth, commandant of the Plaszow camp in Cracow--a sadistic maniac who'd shoot a prisoner from his office window for sport; who'd ""shoot his shoeshine boy for faulty work; hang his fifteen-year-old orderly, Poldek Deresiewicz, from the ringbolts in his office because a flea had been found on one of the dogs; and execute his servant Liseik for lending a drozka . . . without first checking."" How did Schindler manage all this? Largely through frank bribery, personal charisma, sexual power, cronyism, and a kind of negligent charm in the company of Nazis. So, while Keneally's dramatization of this great man's exploits is lacking in novelistic shape or depth, the brutality and heroism are satisfyingly, meticulously presented--as plain, impressive, historical record; and if admirers of Keneally's more imaginative work may be disappointed, others will find this a worthy volume to place beside one of the several Wallenberg biographies.

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1982

ISBN: 0671516884

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1982

Categories: FICTION

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A Journey of Words

Book review: schindler’s list, schindler’s list by thomas keneally, my rating: 5 / 5 genre: nonfiction historical novel.

Most people have at least heard of this book, or the movie that was made from it, about the war profiteer turned savior of over a thousand Jews during WWII. I watched the movie in high school and then tried to read the book, but gave up due to how long and dry it was. That’s probably the biggest mark against the book for most people–it’s slow and plodding for at least the first several chapters. And throughout the entire book, the narrative is bogged down by so many names of locations and people, all of which are foreign to at least some of us (mostly Polish names, some German) and difficult to pronounce. However, I’m not sure Keneally should have done it differently, and if that is the only downside to the whole book, I would say there’s a lot of reason to push through it and keep going. It does pick up a little after some of the early chapters, and in the end, I’m really glad I read it.

One thing that’s always struck me about Schindler, and did even more so while reading this, is that he’s not necessarily the type of person you would picture as a “savior.” He was gruff, prone to fits of anger, and frankly had absolutely no respect for women at all. And yet, when he saw injustice and brutality happening, he was spurred into action. And while his motives for helping are examined multiple times in the book, it’s clear that it’s not just a matter of profit that he fights to keep his workers, considering the lengths he goes to at times to not just keep them but also to keep the SS from brutalizing them in his factory.

Though Schindler’s actions are the focal point, the book also takes an up-close look at some of the people eventually saved by him. The book reads like a series of vignettes about Schindler himself and various of the different Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews). Keneally states that he did his best to include only facts, while filling in conversation here and there, but because he couldn’t possibly have every single detail, the story at times reads more like looking down on a scene, rather than being right there in it while it happens, as we’ve come to expect from novels. He makes it clear, though, when he couldn’t corroborate a story, that it might be more legend than fact, and even this only happens a few times. Overall, the book is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and clear picture of one man who was completely unextraordinary most of his life, yet did an incredibly extraordinary thing during a dark and terrifying time in human history. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, I recommend reading this book to pretty much everyone who’s remotely interested in the subject matter, even if it does take you some time to get through it. It’s worth it.

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Schindler's List

By Thomas Keneally

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About The Book

About the author.

Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty-three novels since, most recently Crimes of the Father , Napoleon’s Last Island , Shame and the Captives , and the New York Times bestselling The Daughters of Mars . He is also the author of Schindler’s List , which won the Booker Prize in 1982, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith , Gossip from the Forest , and Confederates , all of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written several works of nonfiction, including his boyhood memoir Homebush Boy , The Commonwealth of Thieves , and Searching for Schindler . He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney, Australia.

Product Details

Publisher: Atria Books (September 1, 2020)
Length: 416 pages
ISBN13: 9781982151041

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Raves and Reviews

"The remarkable story of a man who saved lives when every sinew of civilization was devoted to destroying them. [It] has the immediacy and the almost unbearable detail of a thousand eye witnesses who forgot nothing." — The New York Times Book Review

"A masterful account of the growth of the human soul." — Los Angeles Times Book Review

"An extraordinary tale...no summary can adequately convey the strategems and reverses and sudden twists of fortune...A notable achievement." — New York Review of Books

"One of the best works on the Holocaust, an absorbing, suspenseful book that transcends by far even the best docudramas on the subject." — Houston Chronicle

"A truly heroic story of the war and, like the tree planted in Oskar Schindler's honor in Jerusalem, a fitting memorial to the fight of one individual against the horror of Nazism." —Simon Wiesenthal

"An astounding story...in this case the truth is far more powerful than anything the imagination could invent." — Newsweek

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December 15, 1993 Review/Film: "Schindler's List": Imagining the Holocaust to Remember It By JANET MASLIN here is a real photographic record of some of the people and places depicted in "Schindler's List," and it has a haunting history. Raimund Titsch, an Austrian Catholic who managed a uniform factory within the Plaszow labor camp in Poland, surreptitiously took pictures of what he saw. Fearful of having the pictures developed, he hid his film in a steel box, which he buried in a park outside Vienna and then did not disturb for nearly 20 years. Although it was sold secretly by Titsch when he was terminally ill, the film remained undeveloped until after his death. The pictures that emerged, like so many visual representations of the Holocaust, are tragic, ghostly and remote. The horrors of the Holocaust are often viewed from a similar distance, filtered through memory or insulated by grief and recrimination. Documented exhaustively or dramatized in terms by now dangerously familiar, the Holocaust threatens to become unimaginable precisely because it has been imagined so fully. But the film "Schindler's List," directed with fury and immediacy by a profoundly surprising Steven Spielberg , presents the subject as if discovering it anew. TEXT: "Schindler's List" brings a pre-eminent pop mastermind together with a story that demands the deepest reserves of courage and passion. Rising brilliantly to the challenge of this material and displaying an electrifying creative intelligence, Mr. Spielberg has made sure that neither he nor the Holocaust will ever be thought of in the same way again. With every frame, he demonstrates the power of the film maker to distill complex events into fiercely indelible images. "Schindler's List" begins with the sight of Jewish prayer candles burning down to leave only wisps of smoke, and there can be no purer evocation of the Holocaust than that. A deserted street littered with the suitcases of those who have just been rounded up and taken away. The look on the face of a captive Jewish jeweler as he is tossed a handful of human teeth to mine for fillings. A snowy sky that proves to be raining ashes. The panic of a prisoner unable to find his identity papers while he is screamed at by an armed soldier, a man with an obviously dangerous temper. These visceral scenes, and countless others like them, invite empathy as surely as Mr. Spielberg once made viewers wish E.T. would get well again. But this time his emphasis is on the coolly Kafkaesque aspects of an authoritarian nightmare. Drawing upon the best of his storytelling talents, Mr. Spielberg has made "Schindler's List" an experience that is no less enveloping than his earlier works of pure entertainment. Dark, sobering and also invigoratingly dramatic, "Schindler's List" will make terrifying sense to anyone, anywhere. The big man at the center of this film is Oskar Schindler, a Catholic businessman from the Sudetenland who came to occupied Poland to reap the spoils of war. (You can be sure this is not the last time the words "Oscar" and "Schindler" will be heard together.) Schindler is also something of a cipher, just as he was for Thomas Keneally, whose 1982 book, "Schindler's List," marked a daring synthesis of fiction and fact. Reconstructing the facts of Schindler's life to fit the format of a novel, Mr. Keneally could only draw upon the memories of those who owed their lives to the man's unexpected heroism. Compiling these accounts (in a book that included some of the Titsch photographs), Mr. Keneally told "the story of the pragmatic triumph of good over evil, a triumph in eminently measurable, statistical, unsubtle terms." The great strength of Mr. Keneally's book, and now of Mr. Spielberg 's film, lies precisely in this pragmatism. Knowing only the particulars of Schindler's behavior, the audience is drawn into wondering about his higher motives, about the experiences that transformed a casual profiteer into a selfless hero. Schindler's story becomes much more involving than a tale of more conventional courage might be, just as Mr. Spielberg 's use of unfamiliar actors to play Jewish prisoners makes it hard to view them as stock movie characters (even when the real events that befall these people threaten to do just that). The prisoners' stories come straight from Mr. Keneally's factual account, which is beautifully recapitulated by Steven Zaillian's screenplay. Oskar Schindler, played with mesmerizing authority by Liam Neeson, is unmistakably larger than life, with the panache of an old-time movie star. (The real Schindler was said to resemble George Sanders and Curt Jurgens.) From its first glimpse of Oskar as he dresses for a typically flamboyant evening socializing with German officers -- and even from the way his hand appears, nonchalantly holding a cigarette and a bribe -- the film studies him with rapt attention. Mr. Neeson, captured so glamorously by Janusz Kaminiski's richly versatile black-and-white cinematography, presents Oskar as an amalgam of canny opportunism and supreme, well-warranted confidence. Mr. Spielberg does not have to underscore the contrast between Oskar's life of privilege and the hardships of his Jewish employees. Taking over a kitchenware factory in Cracow and benefiting from Jewish slave labor, Oskar at first is no hero. During a deft, seamless section of the film that depicts the setting up of this business operation, Oskar is seen happily occupying an apartment from which a wealthy Jewish couple has just been evicted. Meanwhile, the film's Jews are relegated to the Cracow ghetto. After the ghetto is evacuated and shut down, they are sent to Plaszow, which is overseen by a coolly brutal SS commandant named Amon Goeth. Goeth, played fascinatingly by the English stage actor Ralph Fiennes, is the film's most sobering creation. The third of its spectacularly fine performances comes from Ben Kingsley as the reserved, wary Jewish accountant who becomes Oskar's trusted business manager, and who at one point has been rounded up by Nazi officers before Oskar saves him. "What if I got here five minutes later?" Oskar asks angrily, with the self-interest that keeps this story so startling. "Then where would I be?" As the glossy, voluptuous look of Oskar's sequences gives way to a stark documentary-style account of the Jews' experience, "Schindler's List" witnesses a pivotal transformation. Oskar and a girlfriend, on horseback, watch from a hilltop as the ghetto is evacuated, and the image of a little girl in red seems to crystallize Oskar's horror. But there is a more telling sequence later on, when Oskar is briefly arrested for having kissed a young Jewish woman during a party at his factory. Kissing women is, for Oskar, the most natural act in the world. And he is stunned to find it forbidden on racial grounds. All at once, he understands how murderous and irrational the world has become, and why no prisoners can be safe without the intervention of an Oskar Schindler. The real Schindler saved more than a thousand Jewish workers by sheltering them in his factory, and even accomplished the unimaginable feat of rescuing some of them from Auschwitz. This film's moving coda, a full-color sequence, offers an unforgettable testimonial to Schindler's achievement. The tension in "Schindler's List" comes, of course, from the omnipresent threat of violence. But here again, Mr. Spielberg departs from the familiar. The film's violent acts are relatively few, considering its subject matter, and are staged without the blatant sadism that might be expected. Goeth's hobby of playing sniper, casually targeting his prisoners with a high-powered rifle, is presented so matter-of-factly that it becomes much more terrible than it would be if given more lingering attention. Mr. Spielberg knows well how to make such events truly shocking, and how to catch his audience off guard. Most of these shootings are seen from a great distance, and occur unexpectedly. When it appears that the film is leading up to the point-blank execution of a rabbi, the director has something else in store. Goeth's lordly balcony, which overlooks the film's vast labor-camp set, presents an extraordinary set of visual possibilities, and Mr. Spielberg marshals them most compellingly. But the presence of huge crowds and an immense setting also plays to this director's weakness for staging effects en masse. "Schindler's List" falters only when the crowd of prisoners is reduced to a uniform entity, so that events no longer have the tumultuous variety of real life. This effect is most noticeable in Schindler's last scene, the film's only major misstep, as a throng listens silently to Oskar's overwrought farewell. In a film that moves swiftly and urgently through its three-hour running time, this stagey ending -- plus a few touches of fundamentally false uplift, most notably in a sequence at Auschwitz -- amounts to a very small failing. Among the many outstanding elements that contribute to "Schindler's List," Michael Kahn's nimble editing deserves special mention. So does the production design by Allan Starski, which finds just the right balance between realism and drama. John Williams's music has a somber, understated loveliness. The soundtrack becomes piercingly beautiful as Itzhak Perlman's violin solos occasionally augment the score. It should be noted, if only in passing, that Mr. Spielberg has this year delivered the most astounding one-two punch in the history of American cinema. "Jurassic Park," now closing in on billion-dollar grosses, is the biggest movie moneymaker of all time. "Schindler's List," destined to have a permanent place in memory, will earn something better. "Schindler's List" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes violence and graphic nudity. Return to the Books Home Page

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Bibliophile , Book Reviews

Book Review # 291: Schindler’s List

1982 Booker Prize Winner

It is without a doubt that one of the darkest phases of contemporary human history is the Second World War. Nobody expected that the meteoric ascent of Der Führer, Adolf Hitler, in the German political ladder would lead to a devastation of global scale. As the Axis forces march towards and beyond their boundaries, they would leave death and destruction in their wake, stretching from Europe, to the Pacific, and to the Far East. The consequences of the war would resonate well beyond its time. With genocides, concentration camps, and slave labor commonplace, the war was a reflection of the human conditions. Its peak, the Holocaust, exhibited the extent of the darkest shades of the human spirit. It was a grim portrait.

Indeed, the Second World War brought out the worst in humanity. However, in times of darkness, there are those among us who rise to the occasion. One of them is Oskar Schindler whose story was related by Thomas Keneally in his nonfiction novel, Schindler’s List (1982). Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908, in Zwittau, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Svitavy, Czech Republic) to an ethnically German family. His father was a farm machinery manufacturer. Prior to becoming a successful industrialist, Schindler worked in odd and interesting fields. After leaving school in 1924, he helped his father sell farm equipment. He would eventually work in different trades before joining the pro-Nazi Sudeten German Party (Sudetendeutsche Partei; SdP) in 1935. The following year, he started working as a spy for the Abwehr, the German Nazi military intelligence agency despite being a Czechoslovakian. One of his first brushes with death came in 1938 after he was arrested by Czechoslovak authorities on charges of espionage and was sentenced to death. He was later pardoned by the Reich as part of the Munich Agreement.

Meanwhile, the German armies were slowly making their move. On September 6, 1939, General Sigmund List’s division successfully took over Cracow (Kraków), an important city in southern Poland. A swarm of carpetbaggers began to flow into the city, eager to partake of the spoils of war. One of them was Oskar Schindler. After his application for membership in the Nazi Party was accepted, Schindler moved to Kraków where he eventually established himself as a wily industrialist. He first became active in the emerging black market before securing the lease of a formerly Jewish-owned enamelware factory he would rename Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik Oskar Schindler, simply referred to as Emalia. He commenced production and as production grew, so did the number of employees, some of whom were Jewish. Jewish would comprise half of his production line by mid-1942.

“Today is history. Today will be remembered. Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today is history and you are part of it. Six hundred years ago, when elsewhere they were footing the blame for the Black Death, Casimir the Great—so called—told the Jews they could come to Krakow. They came. They trundled their belongings into the city. They settled. They took hold. They prospered in business, science, education, the arts. They came with nothing. And they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries will be a rumor. They never happened. Today is history.” ~ Thomas Keneally, Schindler’s List

The operation of the factory was running smoothly. Despite the horrific news that started to grip the rest of the continent, the Jews employed by Schindler had little to fear as they go about their daily lives. Schindler, on the other hand, was earning a steady flow of income on the Jews’ labor. From this income, he managed to live a life of decadence. However, over the horizon, trouble is brewing. Everyone knew it would arrive; it was only a matter of when but even then, it still came as a surprise. In the fall of 1942, the Płaszów work camp was opened nearby. Jews from the Kraków ghetto were transported to the new camp which, early the following year, was taken command by sadistic SS officer Amon Göth.

Caught in dire straits, Schindler realized that he must forge a friendship with Göth to protect his interests. By sending alcohol and luxury items, mostly from the black market, Schindler managed to earn Göth’s confidence. After all, Schindler and Göth share a trait: the insatiable appetite for alcohol and other excesses. Having gained Göth’s trust, Schindler was able to obtain authorization to build a work camp separate from Płaszów in an idle lot adjacent to his factory. It was in this work camp that he housed his Jewish workers. Schindler also made sure that his workers were well looked after by providing them food, and medicine. He also saw to it that they were free from the abuses suffered at Płaszów. He stalled and intervened when there were attempts by SS officers to inspect the camp.

The first half of the novel captured the evils of the Holocaust. The readers witness what has, by now, become a ubiquitous scene. Keneally captured how the social status of Jews was transformed. It has been Hitler’s dream to re-establish the Aryan race and part of it was to purge the non-Aryan race, including the Jews and the gypsies. With Hitler’s successful annexation of Poland, the Polish Jews saw themselves being stripped of their citizenship and shipped to ghettos where they were treated as substandard citizens. With the escalation of violence, the Jews found themselves further pushed down the ladder as less than beasts. This part of the novel, however, took time to develop.

The tentacles of war, however, were making its presence more felt with the passage of time. In the twilight years of the Second World War, the purge of Jews sped up as the pressure from international observers was pushing the regime to remove traces of its atrocities. Schindler’s workers were yet again in fear of being slaughtered; Auschwitz, that citadel that has become synonymous with death, was just a couple hours away. Sensing the inevitability of danger, Schindler yet again pulled strings – bribing, charming, and greasing the higher-ups at the SS headquarters – to ensure that his Jewish workers will stay safe. His factory was decommissioned in August 1944 but he successfully obtained permission to transfer his factory to Brnĕnec (Brünnlitz) on the hills of Czechoslovakia, near his hometown.

“The moral universe had not so much decayed here. It had been inverted, like some black hole, under the pressure of all the earth’s malice—a place where tribes and histories were sucked in and vaporized, and language flew inside out. The underground chambers were named “disinfection cellars,” the aboveground chambers “bathhouses”.” ~ Thomas Keneally, Schindler’s List

To facilitate the transfer, a list of “skilled workers” was carefully drawn up by the Plaszow camp authorities. This forms the inspiration behind the book’s title. To be part of the list is a whole new lease on life. These “skilled workers”, however, were no ordinary skilled workers. Among them are rabbis, children, women, and anyone Schindler could think of. In the fall of 1944, cattle cars carrying between 1,100 to 1,300 Jews – the estimates vary – made their way across Poland, not into the killing fields, but into the safety of the Czechoslovakian hills. The Jews saved by Schindler would, later on, be referred to as Schindlerjuden, or Schindler’s Jews.

The novel introduced a vast and diverse cast of characters. However, the focus of the narrative was between Oskar Schindler and Amon Goeth. In the story, there was a dichotomy between what is essentially good and what is evil, that was personified by these two primary characters. Goeth represented everything evil. The war churned out a selfish and heartless sadist who found delight in inflicting pain on the Jews. Ironically, he lusted after his Jewish maid. Schindler, on the other hand, was portrayed as the Good German. He didn’t believe everything that the Nazi regime was saying against the Jews. He was, however, a man of contradictions. Despite being depicted as the epitome of goodness, he lived a self-indulgent lifestyle, which included proclivity towards the bottle and women. His infidelities have been a constant source of pain for his wife, Emilie. He also uses his connections to gain the upper hand in negotiations; it would also be a seminal part of his campaign to save the Jews.

Schindler’s motivation for protecting his workers was rarely ever clear, especially at the start. Questions still hound his true intentions. He, after all, brazenly took advantage of the cheap labor the Jews offered at the start of his enterprise. Is Schindler an anti-hero? The answer can be found in Keneally’s extensive research. Through interviews with surviving Schindlerjuden and different Second World War archives, he managed to identify the point in which Schindler decided to protect the Jews. While horseback riding on the hills surrounding Kraków, he witnessed an SS Aktion unfold on the Jewish ghetto below. The Jews were forcefully taken out of their houses. Those who resisted were shot dead, even in the presence of children. Witnessing the atrocious acts firsthand turned Schindler’s stomach. It was then that he resolved to save as many Jews as he can.

The amount of research poured to recreate the story of Oskar Schindler was astounding. And the starting point to this is as interesting as the novel itself. As noted in the Author’s Note, a chance encounter in 1980 led to the novel. Keneally, already an established author, was in Beverly, Hills, California looking for a briefcase when he chanced upon a luggage store owned by Leopold Pfefferberg, one of the Schindlerjuden. Pfefferberg immediately recognized Keneally and, while waiting for Keneally’s credit to process the payment, started telling him the story of Oskar Schindler: “ It was beneath Pfefferberg’s shelves of imported Italian leather goods that I first heard of Oskar Schindler.” The rest, they say was history. Keneally managed to conduct first place interviews with 50 Schindlerjudens from seven nations.

“Oskar knew people would catch that trolley anyhow. Doors closed, no stops, machine guns on walls—it wouldn’t matter. Humans were incurable that way. People would try to get off it, someone’s loyal Polish maid with a parcel of sausage. And people would try to get on, some fast-moving athletic young man like Leopold Pfefferberg with a pocketful of diamonds or Occupation złoty or a message in code for the partisans. People responded to any slim chance, even if it was an outside one, its doors locked shut, moving fast between mute walls.” ~ Thomas Keneally, Schindler’s List

Published in the Commonwealth as Schindler’s Ark , the book won the 1982 Booker Prize. It was a breakthrough win for Keneally whose works have been previously shortlisted three other times. However, the book suffered from structural defects that weighed down on the story of Oskar Schindler. There was an avalanche of characters, most of which showed little to no personalities to make them stand out. Each page brimmed with names and there was no delineation to identify who was inconsequential and who was relevant to the story. There were even names that were mentioned just once. While each one had a story to tell and a voice to be heard, the manner in which they were woven together was disjointed.

Overall, what didn’t work was the manner in which Keneally related the story of Oskar Schindler. As the story moved forward, it became clearer that Keneally was unsure of how to deliver the story. His resolve to remain loyal to Oskar’s story was commendable. He endeavored to do just that but it never fully came across. The result was an amalgamation of fiction and historical textbook. The strange mix muddled the story and the result was a perplexing work of historical fiction: “ So the story of Oskar Schindler is begun perilously, with Gothic Nazis, with SS hedonism, with a thin brutalized girl, and with a figure of the imagination somehow as popular as the golden-hearted whore: the good German.”

Not all stories end the way we want them to. The years following the end of the war were difficult for Schindler. He separated from his wife and his business ventures failed. He spent the rest of his years living off on donations from the Schindlerjuden. In 1974, he passed away in a small one-room apartment in Frankfurt where he was living alone. While Schindler’s List suffered from literary blunders that significantly weighed down its impact, it cannot be denied that the story of Oskar Schindler needs to be heard. Each story emanating from one of the darkest phases of recent human history needs to be heard, after all, and that includes Schindler’s and the Schindlerjuden’s. Ultimately, Schindler’s story showed how war brings out the best and worst in mankind. Goeth exhibited monstrosity. Schindler, on the other hand, showed his innate goodness: “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”

Characters (30%) – 20% Plot (30%) – 22% Writing (25%) – 11% Overall Impact (15%) – 10%

A lot has been said about Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s List. In fact, an officemate keeps singing songs of praise for the movie. Because of these accolades, and the positive feedback the book and the move received from almost everyone, I was really looking forward to reading the book. I even included it in my 2021 Top 21 Reading List. Such was my expectation of the book that I had to ensure that it is going to be a part of my 2021 reading journey. Soon enough, I started reading the 1982 Booker Prize-winning novel, as part of my February 2021 Booker Prize Month. I have to admit, I struggled with the book, especially at the start. I appreciate the story of Oskar Schindler and his heroics during a period that was covered in darkness. He was basically sacrificing himself to save a couple of lives. However, the way his story was related was a strange convergence of fictional story, and historical text, and these two elements would constantly clash against each other. It was the writing that really weighed down on me. I do appreciate the extent of Keneally’s research but the number of narrative threads muddled the main story. It is an important piece of history and Schindler’s story is an inspiring one. However, the writing did not do it justice. Nevertheless, Oskar Schindler’s story must still be read.

Author: Thomas Keneally Publisher: Touchstone Book Publishing Date: 1993 Number of Pages: 397 Genre: Historical Fiction

A stunning novel based on the true story of how German war profiteer and prison camp Direktor Oskar Schindler came to save more Jews from the gas chambers than any other single person during World War II.

In this milestone of Holocaust literature, Thomas Keneally uses the actual testimony of the Schindlerjuden – Schindler’s Jews – to brilliantly portray the courage and cunning of a good man in the midst of unspeakable evil.

About the Author

Thomas Michael Keneally was born on October 7, 1935, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was raised in the timber and dairy town of Kempsey, New South Wales. In 1942, the family moved to 7 Loftus Crescent, Homebush, a suburb in the inner west of Sydney. He was enrolled at Christian Brothers St Patrick’s College, Strathfield where he studied Honours English for his Leaving Certificate in 1952. He also won a Commonwealth scholarship. At the age of 17, he entered St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly, to train as a Catholic priest but he left before his ordination. Before pursuing a career as a writer, Keneally worked as a schoolteacher. From 1968 to 1970, he also worked as a lecturer at the University of New England.

Under the pseudonym Bernard Coyle, Keneally published his first story in The Bulletin Magazine in 1962. Two years later, his first novel, The Place at Whitton , was published. His third novel, Bring Larks and Heroes (1967), has cemented his reputation as a historical novelist, and even won him the 1967 Miles Franklin Award. He would win the award again the following year with Three Cheers for the Paraclete (1968) while An Angel in Australia (2000) and The Widow and Her Hero (2007) would be shortlisted and longlisted, respectively. His works were also shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, starting with The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) in 1972. It would be succeeded by Gossip from the Forest (1975) in 1975 and Confederates (1979) in 1979. He made a breakthrough in 1982 when his nonfiction novel, Schindler’s List (1982), published as Schindler’s Ark, in the UK, finally won him the elusive Booker Prize in 1982. The book was eventually adapted into a film directed by Steven Spielberg in 1993; it won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Keneally, along with his daughter Meg Keneally, also wrote a historical crime series that would later be called The Monsarrat Series . The first installment to the series, The Solder’s Curse , was published in 2016. Other books in the series include The Power Game (2018) and The Ink Stain (2019). His latest novel, The Dickens Boy , was published in 2016. Keneally has also written plays, nonfiction books, screenplays, and essays. Keneally also won the Los Angeles Times Prize, the Mondello International Prize. He was also named a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and made a Fellow of the American Academy.

Keneally married Judy Martin n 1965. They have two daughters, Margaret and Janet. He currently resides in Sydney.

Schindler’s List

Oskar Schindler would have been an easier man to understand if he’d been a conventional hero, fighting for his beliefs. The fact that he was flawed – a drinker, a gambler, a womanizer, driven by greed and a lust for high living – makes his life an enigma.

Here is a man who saw his chance at the beginning of World War II and moved to Nazi-occupied Poland to open a factory and employ Jews at starvation wages. His goal was to become a millionaire. By the end of the war, he had risked his life and spent his fortune to save those Jews and had defrauded the Nazis for months with a munitions factory that never produced a single usable shell.

Why did he change? What happened to turn him from a victimizer into a humanitarian? It is to the great credit of Steven Spielberg that his film “Schindler’s List” does not even attempt to answer that question. Any possible answer would be too simple, an insult to the mystery of Schindler’s life. The Holocaust was a vast evil engine set whirling by racism and madness. Schindler outsmarted it, in his own little corner of the war, but he seems to have had no plan, to have improvised out of impulses that remained unclear even to himself. In this movie, the best he has ever made, Spielberg treats the fact of the Holocaust and the miracle of Schindler’s feat without the easy formulas of fiction.

The movie is 184 minutes long, and like all great movies, it seems too short. It begins with Schindler ( Liam Neeson ), a tall, strong man with an intimidating physical presence. He dresses expensively and frequents nightclubs, buying caviar and champagne for Nazi officers and their girls, and he likes to get his picture taken with the top brass. He wears a Nazi party emblem proudly in his buttonhole. He has impeccable black market contacts, and he’s able to find nylons, cigarettes, brandy: He is the right man to know. The authorities are happy to help him open a factory to build enameled cooking utensils that army kitchens can use. He is happy to hire Jews because their wages are lower, and Schindler will get richer that way.

Schindler’s genius is in bribing, scheming, conning. He knows nothing about running a factory and finds Itzhak Stern ( Ben Kingsley ), a Jewish accountant, to handle that side of things. Stern moves through the streets of Krakow, hiring Jews for Schindler.

Because the factory is a protected war industry, a job there may guarantee longer life.

The relationship between Schindler and Stern is developed by Spielberg with enormous subtlety. At the beginning of the war, Schindler wants only to make money, and at the end he wants only to save “his” Jews. We know that Stern understands this. But there is no moment when Schindler and Stern bluntly state what is happening, perhaps because to say certain things aloud could result in death.

This subtlety is Spielberg’s strength all through the film. His screenplay, by Steven Zaillian , based on the novel by Thomas Keneally , isn’t based on contrived melodrama. Instead, Spielberg relies on a series of incidents, seen clearly and without artificial manipulation, and by witnessing those incidents we understand what little can be known about Schindler and his scheme.

We also see the Holocaust in a vivid and terrible way. Spielberg gives us a Nazi prison camp commandant named Goeth ( Ralph Fiennes ) who is a study in the stupidity of evil. From the veran da of his “villa,” overlooking the prison yard, he shoots Jews for target practice. (Schindler is able to talk him out of this custom with an appeal to his vanity so obvious it is almost an insult.) Goeth is one of those weak hypocrites who upholds an ideal but makes himself an exception to it; he preaches the death of the Jews, and then chooses a pretty one named Helen Hirsch ( Embeth Davidtz ) to be his maid and falls in love with her. He does not find it monstrous that her people are being exterminated, and she is spared on his affectionate whim. He sees his personal needs as more important than right or wrong, life or death. Studying him, we realize that Nazism depended on people able to think like Jeffrey Dahmer.

Shooting in black and white on many of the actual locations of the events in the story (including Schindler’s original factory and even the gates of Auschwitz), Spielberg shows Schindler dealing with the madness of the Nazi system. He bribes, he wheedles, he bluffs, he escapes discovery by the skin of his teeth. In the movie’s most audacious sequence, when a trainload of his employees is mistakenly routed to Auschwitz, he walks into the death camp himself and brazenly talks the authorities out of their victims, snatching them from death and putting them back on the train to his factory.

What is most amazing about this film is how completely Spielberg serves his story. The movie is brilliantly acted, written, directed and seen. Individual scenes are masterpieces of art direction, cinematography, special effects, crowd control. Yet Spielberg, the stylist whose films often have gloried in shots we are intended to notice and remember, disappears into his work. Neeson, Kingsley and the other actors are devoid of acting flourishes. There is a single-mindedness to the enterprise that is awesome.

At the end of the film, there is a sequence of overwhelming emotional impact, involving the actual people who were saved by Schindler. We learn that “Schindler’s Jews” and their descendants today number about 6,000 and that the Jewish population of Poland is 4,000. The obvious lesson would seem to be that Schindler did more than a whole nation to spare its Jews. That would be too simple. The film’s message is that one man did something, while in the face of the Holocaust others were paralyzed. Perhaps it took a Schindler, enigmatic and reckless, without a plan, heedless of risk, a con man, to do what he did. No rational man with a sensible plan would have gotten as far.

The French author Flaubert once wrote that he disliked Uncle Tom’s Cabin because the author was constantly preaching against slavery. “Does one have to make observations about slavery?” he asked. “Depict it; that’s enough.” And then he added, “An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.” That would describe Spielberg, the author of this film. He depicts the evil of the Holocaust, and he tells an incredible story of how it was robbed of some of its intended victims. He does so without the tricks of his trade, the directorial and dramatic contrivances that would inspire the usual melodramatic payoffs. Spielberg is not visible in this film. But his restraint and passion are present in every shot.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Ben Kingsley as Itzhak Stern
Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler

Directed by

Steven Spielberg

Based On The Novel by

Thomas Keneally

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“A lot of people were interested in playing Schindler, and a lot of them were movie stars, and to all of them I promised never to divulge any of their history with me,” says Steven Spielberg (left), photographed Jan. 5 at Quixote Studios West Hollywood with Liam Neeson, who got the part.

‘Schindler’s List’: An Oral History of a Masterpiece

Thirty years after sweeping the Oscars, Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Martin Scorsese and others reveal the untold story behind one of the most revered films of all time, including George Lucas' secret behind-the-scenes role, how Mel Gibson was put forward to play Schindler and more.

By Scott Feinberg

Scott Feinberg

Executive Editor of Awards

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“ Schindler’s List was never a cure for antisemitism,” emphasizes Steven Spielberg . “It was a reminder of the symptoms of it.”

“A Mission You Must Assign Yourself”

The book, published in 1982 in England and Australia as Schindler’s Ark and later that year in the U.S. as Schindler’s List , was penned by the Australian author Thomas Keneally after he encountered one of the Jews rescued by Schindler, Leopold Page, in Beverly Hills, where Page had opened a leather goods shop after the war. Page, incidentally, had years earlier pitched the story of his rescuer to Hollywood; in 1963, Casablanca co-writer Howard Koch penned a script based on Page’s story for MGM, and Sean Connery was approached about starring, but that version never panned out.

SPIELBERG I wasn’t sure if I could get a script developed from the book. The book didn’t have a narrative that was obvious to the naked eye. It was full of names, facts, dates and times — certification of authenticity. The great mystery, though, which I could never solve when I read it, was: Why did Schindler do this? Why did he risk his life and spend 95 percent of the money he’d amassed to buy his workers back from [Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp commandant] Amon Göth and eventually bring them to freedom? Every time I look at my Rosebud sled hanging on the wall, I think, “I never had the Rosebud moment for Schindler’s List that Orson Welles found for Citizen Kane .”

SPIELBERG I hadn’t made what I’d call my first “adult” film, and I was terrified of Schindler’s List being my first, because what if I wasn’t mature enough? I was certain I wasn’t ready to deal with the gravitas of that subject matter, morally or cinematically, and I felt I lacked the wisdom to be able to discuss the story in the inevitable conversations that all of us have after our films are ready to be released. But I didn’t want to stop the story from getting out into the zeitgeist, so I went to Sydney Pollack. He tried and decided he wasn’t able to do it. I might’ve mentioned it to Barry Levinson at one point; I think Barry passed. And I went to Marty [Scorsese], and Marty was intrigued. It was Marty who hired Steve Zaillian, so the greatest contribution Marty made was finding the best screenwriter to adapt Keneally’s book.

“We Pulled Out Every Card We Had”

Scorsese agreed to direct Schindler’s List . Over time, though, Spielberg began to regret giving it away. For one thing, he had begun to make adult-friendly movies.

SPIELBERG I couldn’t have made Schindler’s List without The Color Purple and then Empire of the Sun . Those were my two huge stepping stones before I really took a deep breath and said, “Now I’m ready.”

He was also troubled by rising Holocaust ignorance and denialism in America and, in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, hate abroad.

His 1991 marriage to Kate Capshaw, who converted to Judaism ahead of their wedding, was another major factor.

SPIELBERG When I married Kate, a lot of things opened up in me. One thing was being able to embrace the impossible. It made me take risks more than I had ever taken before. And I thought that if I was going to take a risk, the greatest risk — not just to myself and my career but to the entire survivor community — was taking on Schindler’s List .

CAA’s Ovitz represented Scorsese; he didn’t represent Spielberg, but he wanted to. He says he saw an opportunity to satisfy one A-list client and sign another.

The filmmakers recall it somewhat differently.

SPIELBERG I would never have done that. Marty would never have done that. There was never a trade.

MARTIN SCORSESE I’d just come off [directing the 1988 film] The Last Temptation of Christ . There was a lot of controversy and difficulty, and a lot of blame was put on the Jewish community, which totally threw me. I was very sensitive to the reactions. With the Catholic one [ Last Temptation ], I could argue; with other groups, I had to be very careful. I’d asked Steven Zaillian to come on to do the script, but by the end of it, I felt that if there was any controversy that would come up, I didn’t know if I could’ve stood my ground in terms of who the man [Schindler] was. I didn’t want to do more harm to the Jewish community. I knew it was Steve’s passion project for many years. So I gave it back.

OVITZ Marty did Cape Fear , and it turned out to be a huge hit. He made some money.

Spielberg and Zaillian took a research trip together.

SPIELBERG I said, “Let’s go to Auschwitz” — I had never been — “and let’s go to Poland. Let’s visit all the locations that Thomas Keneally researched.” So we flew to Poland and spent time at the site of the Płaszów forced-labor camp. We went to Schindler’s actual apartment. And we went to Auschwitz, which was the most impactful experience I’d ever had up to that point in my life. Then we got back on the plane and I said to Steve, who had written a 105-page screenplay for Marty, “This has to be a 175-page script. I don’t care how long the film is. You brilliantly scratched the surface, and you’ve solved some major issues in bringing a narrative to the story, but we have to go deep with it.”

Around then, another Ovitz client, Michael Crichton, wrote Jurassic Park . Ovitz says he offered the film rights, with Spielberg attached as director, to Universal — and also began to nudge the studio about Schindler’s List.

OVITZ I got this crazy idea that I should attach Schindler’s List to the Jurassic Park deal, but I really couldn’t make it a “condition” of the deal. This is where it got really sticky and delicate. I called Sid, and so did Steven. And we said, “Look, we’ve got this movie, Schindler’s List . It’s about the Holocaust. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be real. Steven wants to make it.”

Spielberg completed principal photography on Jurassic Park and hoped to begin making Schindler’s List immediately.

SPIELBERG Tom Pollock, who was running the feature division of Universal, said, “I think it’s great that you’re interested in doing Schindler’s List , but you’ve got to finish Jurassic Park first.” I was in post on Jurassic Park . I said, “I think I can overlap. I can do Schindler’s List while I’m finishing Jurassic Park .” Tom resisted that. He said, “ Jurassic Park is a huge piece of business for this company; you can’t abandon it.” I said, “Tom, I’m not going to abandon it. I’ve locked the film. All I have left to do is mix it, score it and correct the color.” And he said, “Well, you can’t do that from Eastern Europe.” And I said, “Yes I can.”

Pollock acquiesced. Spielberg planned to edit Jurassic Park from Europe, but privately sought stateside help with its sound mixing. His solution has never previously been reported.

Then came another battle with Pollock.

SPIELBERG Tom found out that I’d decided to shoot the film in black-and-white. He was really upset about that. He called me and said, “It’s a challenging piece of business by itself. The subject matter alone doesn’t guarantee any return” because they had agreed to put up $20 million to make the film. “But if you make it in black-and-white, it’s going to give us no chance to be able to recoup our investment.” I said, “If I make it in color, it’s going to do what shooting Color Purple in color did to Color Purple .” Color Purple should’ve been in black-and-white. I was accused of beautifying Color Purple because it had such a bright palette for such a dark subject. I said, “Except for George Stevens’ footage of the liberation of Dachau, everything that anyone’s ever been exposed to about the Shoah has been in black-and-white. I will not colorize the Holocaust.” He said, “Well, why don’t you shoot the film in color, you can release it in black-and-white, but we will sell the cassettes in color?”

OVITZ You couldn’t sell a black-and-white video cassette if your life depended on it. It wasn’t doable. No one had ever done it.

SPIELBERG And I said, “No, it’s a black-and-white movie.”

With the project a go, Spielberg refused to take a salary.

SPIELBERG I considered it to be blood money.

“That’s Him”

Spielberg wound up with two fellow producers on the film.

SPIELBERG Branko Lustig came to my office and pitched my other producer, Jerry Molen, on his qualifications by rolling up his sleeve and showing his Auschwitz numbers tattooed on his forearm.

Spielberg began casting 126 speaking parts, nearly all with European actors.

CAROLINE GOODALL (Emilie Schindler) Steven really didn’t want American actors playing these roles, because he felt that European actors had a visceral understanding of the second World War.

For Oskar Schindler, numerous A-listers were put forward, but Spielberg zeroed in on Liam Neeson, an Irishman who’d read for the part of Dr. Rawlins in Empire of the Sun and then offered to read opposite young actors being considering for the part that Christian Bale eventually played.

LIAM NEESON (Oskar Schindler) It was a full day. Afterwards, we were chatting and Steven said, “You should get yourself out to L.A. We need people your age and your type.” And I was like, “Oh, OK, that’s great to hear.”

In early 1993, Spielberg, his wife, Kate Capshaw, and his mother-in-law went to see Neeson on Broadway in Anna Christie .

LIAM NEESON I gave her a big hug.

SPIELBERG Kate kept elbowing me in the side. “That’s him! That’s him!”

NEESON The mythological story is, Kate said to Steven when they were driving home, “That’s just what Schindler would have done, was give my mother a hug!”

Neeson tested for the part — and then there was radio silence. Rumors abounded about who else Spielberg was considering.

NEESON I heard Harrison Ford’s name. Costner’s name. The Australian actor Jack Thompson — I thought, “Oh, yeah, Jack looks very like Schindler.” I looked nothing like Schindler. Anyway, it was always in the back of my head, but I wasn’t holding out huge hope.

SPIELBERG A lot of people were interested in playing Schindler, and a lot of them were movie stars, and to all of them I promised never to divulge any of their history with me, so I’m not saying those names are accurate. I’m saying there were a number of people, even more than the names you gave me.

OVITZ Mel Gibson’s name came up. He was interested. His agent put him forward. But it wasn’t going to happen. Steven wanted a non-movie star for the part.

Spielberg eventually offered Neeson the job, and urged him to model his performance on the Time Warner CEO Steve Ross, a close friend who died in late 1992.

NEESON I started getting a little bit confused because I’d think, “Who am I playing here? Am I supposed to be playing Steve Ross or Oskar Schindler?” Because I was also watching a couple of documentaries on Schindler. But the videos did help, I must admit.

Neeson, while finishing his play’s Broadway run, knew he had other work to do, too.

NEESON Tim Monich is an extraordinary dialect coach. I was able to work with Tim for several sessions, and he taped some stuff for me that I could listen to, to work on a general kind of Sudetenland accent. Steven also said I had to gain a bit of weight, so when I heard that, Natasha [Richardson, the late actress who was his wife] and I went to Joe Allen every night to get their famous chicken wings. And I was drinking in those days, so I kind of increased the Guinness intake, all for the sake of art.

Spielberg, meanwhile, faced a logistical challenge.

Then came a call from Billy Wilder.

Now it was time for everyone to head to Poland.

NEESON We finished the play on a Sunday afternoon. The next morning, I was flying out to Kraków. And then the morning after that, I was at the gates of Auschwitz.

“De-Hollywood-ize My Own Intuition”

Production centered in the Polish city of Kraków, which everyone remembers as freezing and bleak. Throughout the 72-day shoot, which began on March 1 and ran into June, the cast and crew stayed at the Hotel Orbis Forum.

GOODALL Kraków was just coming out of the Cold War — it was still in the Cold War! Everything was gray, covered in snow and freezing. And we were in this Soviet-era, brown-on-brown, very basic hotel. But everyone was in it except for Steven, so that was great.

EMBETH DAVIDTZ (Helen Hirsch) There was a really weird little bar downstairs where you’d have a drink when you got home from work, and then everyone would go to their little post-communism square room.

Spielberg stayed nearby.

SPIELBERG We rented a house that was KGB headquarters before the wall came down. It was a very secure blockhouse with about seven rooms that we turned into bedrooms. It was surrounded by a big fence on about an acre and a half of property, always snowed in, and six of my seven kids were there, sometimes all seven.

OVITZ They set up satellites and all kinds of tech equipment that no one knew existed so that Steven could edit at night.

Filmmaking got underway.

NEESON Steven was moving at such a fast pace. His energy was phenomenal. This was the first time, he told us, that he’d directed without a storyboard.

SPIELBERG The thought process was to de-Hollywood-ize my own intuition, my fallback safety net, which is to do a bunch of fancy shots. I left the crane at home. I even left the playback machine at home. I wanted to be as analog as possible.

GOODALL He was doing 48 setups a day! We had two or three cameras at a time. He was like, on fire.

RALPH FIENNES (Amon Göth) I remember Ben Kingsley saying, “He’s putting the camera in all the right places.”

STEVE BAUERFEIND (Spielberg’s 25-year-old production assistant) Steven would say, “Let me have a camera,” and he would put the camera on his shoulder and go in the middle of the action.

FIENNES I’ve worked with quite a few directors since, and none of them have had that kind of excitement about making a film. Steven gave me wonderful ideas. A lot of the things that I did that people commented on were ideas of his, like taking the cigarette off the parapet before I shoot the gun.

OVITZ I will never forget going to the set of Schindler’s List , and having dinner with Steven and Kate, and Steven having to excuse himself to go edit after he’d shot an entire day.

The gravity of the subject matter hit at unexpected moments.

BAUERFEIND There were many survivors that found out we were doing the movie, so they would come to Kraków and find out where we were shooting. I remember so many times somebody from production would come up and tell one of Steven’s assistants that there was a woman there who was one of Schindler’s survivors, or who had lived in Kraków, and he would always go and talk to them, these cute little old ladies [the first being Niusia Horowitz, who had been saved by Schindler ] telling the story of some experience they’d had. I remember one was about how people, when they were in the camps, in order to be able to keep gold as a currency, would pull out their fillings, put them in bread and eat it, and would just keep recirculating the gold so that they could have it as currency to trade. The script would evolve during filming because he’d be like, “I heard this incredible story …”

To many, the film’s most stunning sequence, up there with the opening of Saving Private Ryan in the Spielberg pantheon, is the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto, which runs for 15 minutes and was shot entirely with handheld cameras and which includes a flash of color: a little girl in a red coat.

Some on the film encountered antisemitism in Poland, even a half century after the war.

BEN KINGSLEY (Itzhak Stern) I can describe it as a low, sinister hum, like a piece of music, running through all our days, this base note of hatred.

DAVIDTZ I walked into a store with Janusz [Kamiński, the film’s Poland-born cinematographer] and was speaking English, so this woman there probably knew we were there for the movie, and she became really aggressive and animated. I left. I remember Janusz, who is very frank, saying, “Fucking Poles, man. They’re just antisemitic.”

NEESON I heard my own driver talking in a not very nice way about Branko Lustig. It was just a throwaway comment about their salary or something. He mumbled to himself something like, “Well, of course, he’s a Jew.”

FIENNES I was getting ready to do a scene. I was standing, not shooting, but I had my S.S. uniform and coat on, and a little Polish lady came up and said something, smiling. I had at that time befriended a lady called Batia [Grafka], who was the head of props and was Polish. This woman said something, and Batia’s face clouded over. I said, “What did she say?” Batia said, “She said, ‘The Germans weren’t such bad people.’”

The shoot took a heavy toll on Spielberg.

SPIELBERG The hard days were beyond my imagination, and the easy days were never easy. Everything we shot at Auschwitz with the women, when the women’s train was reassigned to Auschwitz, that was the toughest.

NEESON Steven, very sweetly, always shared his vulnerability, which I loved in him.

SPIELBERG Often I was a basket case, just a wreck, and Kate always sat with me, let me get it out and talked me through it, or just let me be quiet and she would be quiet. We’d sit there and look at each other. Emotionally, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done as a filmmaker.

Mid-shoot, Spielberg’s spirits were lifted at a Passover Seder that he hosted at the Hotel Forum.

SPIELBERG All of a sudden, all the German and Austrian actors that were playing the Nazis came in, put on yarmulkes and sat down next to the Israeli actors, who shared Haggadahs with the actors who were playing their oppressors. I sat at the head of the table and couldn’t contain myself. It was one of the most extraordinary, beautiful things I’d ever witnessed.

Additionally, Spielberg’s friend Robin Williams helped.

NEESON Steven would tell us afterward the sorts of things Robin would say. Once he started a riff of “I’m not a Nazi, I’m a nutsy,” all this sort of shit.

Toward the end of the shoot, Spielberg had an idea for a new ending.

SPIELBERG We were about three weeks from wrapping, and what was keeping me up at night was: Was my movie strong enough? I always edit as I shoot, so I see scenes cut together, and I knew what I had — I thought at that point that it was the best work I’d ever done as a filmmaker. I rarely say that about myself, but I said it about that film because it was apparent to me that I’d never done anything like this before, and I was so proud of the work. But who would believe the story? Who would believe that this really happened? Would this story just feed more Holocaust-denying? In order to ensure that people would know that this wasn’t dreamt up by the guy that made E.T. and Raiders and Jaws and Close Encounters — I had all those films working against me, in a way, taking on the Shoah — I needed to come up with something that would verify the story I was telling. I said to Branko, “Can we get as many of the Jews that Schindler saved as possible to come to Jerusalem? They can line up and go past Schindler’s grave and put commemorative stones on the grave. What I would do is get the people whose story we’re telling and put the castmember next to the actual person.”

NEESON Steven had originally wanted Ben and myself to dress up as our characters. I begged him not to. “Please, Steven, please.” I just felt that would be kind of insulting to the Schindlerjuden . Anyway, he scrapped that idea. These lovely people arrived. And we had a fucking party — the wine, the whiskey, I’d never seen such joyous celebrating!

DAVIDTZ We went to this reception downstairs where all these amazing people were. I met Helen Hirsch, who was this tiny firecracker. They had translators, and everyone was paired up with their person. I remember this very lively, alive group of people. I, of course, wanted to ask the deep questions. They didn’t want to talk about it.

Mrs. Schindler arrived from Argentina, where she had fled with Schindler after the war, and where he later left her.

GOODALL She said, “I’ve never been to Israel. And I’ve never seen his grave.” To suddenly be confronted by your husband’s grave must have been enormous for her.

The next day, everyone headed to the Mount Zion Roman Catholic Franciscan Cemetery.

GOODALL Emilie had actually been walking the night before, but she was in a wheelchair the next day. I rather feel it was because she’d had a few! It was very stony, pushing that wheelchair. My fear the whole time was that it would go over something and she’d take a tumble.

JOHN WILLIAMS (composer) When it ended, I couldn’t speak, it was such a jolt. The lights went on and I stood up, left the room and walked around outside for a few minutes, reflecting on what I’d seen. I came back in and said to Steven, “Steven, you need a better composer than I am for this film.” And he said to me, “I know, but they’re all dead.”

Williams got to work.

WILLIAMS I went right off from our meeting there to Tanglewood to do my summer concerts, and I started working at the piano on Schindler’s List . Steven and Kate came up, and I played them what I’d written, and they chose the theme that we all know. The music is very simple, which I think we all agreed it needed to be. It needed to almost sound like an old friend, like an old grieving compatriot.

“Spielberg Was My Second Schindler”

The film’s world premiere took place Nov. 30 in Washington, D.C., at the new U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

BRUCE FELDMAN (Universal Pictures senior vp marketing/Oscar campaigner) Everybody was there: President and Mrs. Clinton, all kinds of congresspeople, celebrities. It was a big night.

OVITZ It was swarming with Secret Service.

FIENNES I can remember, “All stand for the president of the United States!”

SPIELBERG The most remarkable thing for me was after the credits rolled, nobody moved, left their seat, talked to each other, stood up to start milling around, looked to see where I was sitting. They sat there for a long time, not moving.

Critics raved, including Siskel and Ebert (both chose it as 1993’s best), Variety ’ s Todd McCarthy (“the film to win over Spielberg skeptics”) and The New York Times ’ Janet Maslin (“Spielberg has made sure that neither he nor the Holocaust will ever be thought of in the same way again. … You can be sure this is not the last time the words ‘Oscar’ and ‘Schindler’ will be heard together”).

MARVIN LEVY (Spielberg’s personal publicist) At the official Academy screening, so many people showed up that they had to also use an extra theater, and I don’t know if that accommodated everyone.

Filmmakers reacted similarly. Scorsese said, “I admired the film greatly.” Roman Polanski declared, “I certainly wouldn’t have done as good a job as Spielberg.” And Wilder gushed, “They got the best. They couldn’t have gotten a better man. The movie is absolutely perfection.”

ANNETTE INSDORF (Columbia University film professor/author of Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust ) It validated and valorized them. Spielberg brought Holocaust remembrance into popular culture and gave people like my own mother, who survived Auschwitz, an implicit invitation to talk about what they experienced and witnessed.

CELINA BINIAZ (92-year-old Holocaust survivor) Schindler gave me a life, because by putting me on the list with my parents, he saved me. I was liberated by the Russian Army on the 9th of May, 1945, from the Schindler factory, which was part of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. I was the youngest female on what is now known as “the list” — I was only 13 — and for 40 years after, I never spoke about it. I lived in a community on Long Island, and nobody there knew of my Holocaust experiences. It was only with the introduction of the film that I spoke. I can’t tell you what an impact that film has had on my life. I always say that Steven Spielberg was my second Schindler. He gave me a voice.

“Manna From Academy Voters”

Schindler’s List was the clear frontrunner for numerous Oscars, but nothing is certain until envelopes are opened.

Even 30 years ago, though, it was common to send voters screeners, in those days on VHS.

SPIELBERG I stopped that. They said, “You could lose the Oscar.” I said, “I’m probably not going to win, anyway.” And the studio said, “But we’d like to win.” I wouldn’t let them. I said, “Please do not send out screeners. I want this film to be seen in the company of strangers. I want people to go into movie theaters and sit there with people they don’t know and share this experience communally. It’s not asking a lot.”

Instead, an elegant booklet was mailed to Academy members.

FELDMAN Steven had hired David James to be the unit photographer. He was a top figure in set photography, and he took lots of pictures that were very atmospheric — dark settings, smoke curling up from a cigarette, the sky looking really great. So we had all this incredible artwork to work with. My feeling was, “Why don’t we just let the picture sell itself? Just show them these pictures. Don’t put any quotes or braggadocio.” We didn’t need to say “For your consideration.” Everyone knew what it was.

On Feb. 9, 1994, the Oscar nominations were announced. Schindler’s List landed a field-leading 12. Harvey Weinstein, whose Miramax was distributing Jane Campion’s Palme d’Or winner, The Piano , which received eight Oscar noms, including best picture, began mounting an aggressive challenge. He ran as many as seven ads a day in the trades.

OVITZ The agency was fighting Harvey Weinstein tooth and nail. We wanted Steven to win. Harvey was just relentless on Academy campaigns, because he made these movies that didn’t have big commercial appeal, and the Academy Awards — this was kind of folklore — allegedly added $10 million to $20 million of box office to a movie.

Weinstein, full of bluster, told The Wall Street Journal he thought “a major upset” was possible, and the Los Angeles Times , “I keep hearing that Chariots of Fire music,” referencing a famous Oscar upset.

CYNTHIA SWARTZ (Miramax senior vp special projects/Oscar campaigner) If you think that I spent a second thinking that The Piano could beat Schindler’s List , you’ve got to be crazy. It was ridiculous.

The 66th Oscars took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 21, 1994.

SPIELBERG I never expected to win because I’d never won an Oscar. I thought, “Why should this night be different than every other night? Because it’s a good movie and people are loving it? People loved E.T. , and I didn’t win for that. The Color Purple had the most nominations of any film that didn’t win any. And just on and on. I always privately, with friends, said, “I’m going to be like Sidney Lumet and Alfred Hitchcock [who never won competitive Oscars], I’m not going to be like William Wyler or John Ford [who won multiple]. I’m not going to win an Oscar. But it’s OK.”

BAUERFEIND They set up a big screen in the courtyard. I think we had a costume party to celebrate the movies that were up or something. I drank a lot. They were managing expectations for what was going to happen after what happened with The Color Purple . It was just going to be a fun party to celebrate that the film was nominated — and then it became the most fun party when the film kept winning.

The film’s nominees, of course, were at the ceremony, which was hosted, for the first time, by Spielberg’s Color Purple star Whoopi Goldberg.

SPIELBERG Whoopi’s always been my good-luck charm. When she came out to host, that was the one time I said, “Oh, shit, we could win.”

Some associated with Schindler’s List came up short, including best actor nominee Neeson and best supporting actor nominee Fiennes. But the film had won five Oscars heading into the final two categories. Best director was presented by Clint Eastwood.

SPIELBERG Clint, since Play Misty for Me , has been one of my closest friends. He comes out and he says, “Big surprise!” And I thought, “Oh, my God.”

But the winner was Spielberg, who began his speech: “I have friends who have won this before, but — I swear — I have never held one before.”

BINIAZ It literally brought tears to my eyes when he won the award — not the film, Steven .

OVITZ They finally took him seriously.

SPIELBERG Standing up there and looking at everybody, who were standing when I got up to accept my first Oscar, I was so filled up. I was just overflowing with so many different feelings. Even looking back, I can’t break down what all of them were, but I felt vindication and deep pride. My wife and mom were sitting next to each other. I looked right into their eyes and said to myself, “OK, if you start to cry, bite your tongue. You may bleed, but you cannot cry.”

Spielberg walked into the wings and was asked to wait there because the next category was best picture, presented by his friend and frequent collaborator Harrison Ford. Ford opened the envelope and read, “ Schindler’s List .” It was the first film about the Holocaust — and the first black-and-white film since The Apartment 33 years earlier — to win the top Oscar. Spielberg, flanked by Lustig and Molen, declared from the podium: “This is the best drink of water after the longest drought in my life.”

SPIELBERG I’d always wanted to win the Academy Award, and I never had, so it had been a bit of a feeling of being in the desert. I did feel like it was a dry spell, and suddenly it rained manna from heaven — manna from Academy voters! ( Laughs .)

The rest of Spielberg’s speech was devoted to urging people to listen to the then-350,000 living Holocaust survivors and to teach the Holocaust in schools.

BAUERFEIND We all got to work early and lined up on the main driveway of Amblin. When Steven drove in, everyone was outside clapping and cheering for him. It was a really cool moment.

“The Best Movie I’ve Ever Made”

Spielberg didn’t direct again for three years. He was recovering from Schindler’s List and launching both DreamWorks and the Shoah Foundation . The latter recorded some 53,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors.

KRISTIE MACOSKO KRIEGER (producer) Steven did not set out to change the world, but I think he did.

Since Schindler’s List , there’s been an explosion of films about the Holocaust — among them, Life Is Beautiful , The Pianist , Son of Saul and current best picture Oscar nominee The Zone of Interest .

SPIELBERG The Zone of Interest is the best Holocaust movie I’ve witnessed since my own. It’s doing a lot of good work in raising awareness, especially about the banality of evil.

But antisemitism and Holocaust denialism rage on.

ROBERT WILLIAMS (USC Shoah Foundation executive director) The largest set of recent testimonies that we’ve taken have been from Israel. We’ve been taking testimony of survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks. We have more than 360 of those.

BINIAZ I think, at this point, it would be really interesting to rerelease the film. For all these Holocaust deniers, for the people who say it couldn’t have happened, yes, it did, and maybe to see it again would be important.

Schindler’s List has been selected for the AFI and Time lists of the 100 greatest films of all time, the Vatican’s list of the 45 most important films ever and the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.

GOODALL My kids’ history book talks about Schindler’s List , and there’s a picture in there of me. It’s quite an honor, isn’t it?

FIENNES It was an extraordinary thing to be part of, being close to that level of filmmaking, that artistry, that creative energy.

DAVIDTZ I’d give anything to go back as my grown-up self and relive a day or two there.

KINGSLEY It’s in my DNA, the experience. It’s laminated into my body. It was a sublime opportunity and a great experience.

GOODALL If that was the only thing that I’d ever done, it would have been enough.

No filmmaker has ever had a better year than Spielberg’s 1993: the biggest blockbuster of all time, to that point, and the best picture. But Schindler’s List holds a particularly special place in his heart.

SPIELBERG It’s the best movie I’ve ever made. I am not going to say it’s the best movie I ever will make. But currently, it’s the work I’m proudest of.

An abbreviated version of this story first appeared in the Feb. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe .

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Publisher: Atria Books (September 1, 2020)
Length: 416 pages
ISBN13: 9781982151041

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Schindler's List Kindle Edition

Print length 418 pages
Language English
Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
Publisher Atria Books
Publication date August 6, 2013
File size 9351 KB
Page Flip Enabled
Word Wise Enabled
Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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Working with the actual testimony of Schindler's Jews, Thomas Keneally artfully depicts the courage and shrewdness of an unlikely savior, a man who is a flawed mixture of hedonism and decency and who, in the presence of unutterable evil, transcends the limits of his own humanity.

About the Author

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ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00C4GJ8WY
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atria Books (August 6, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 6, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 9351 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 418 pages
#73 in Classic Historical Fiction
#217 in Classic Literary Fiction
#303 in Classic American Literature

About the author

Thomas keneally.

Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty novels since. They include SCHINDLER'S ARK, which won the Booker Prize in 1982 and was subsequently made into the film Schindler's List, and THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH, CONFEDERATES and GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST, each of which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent novels are THE DAUGHTERS OF MARS, which was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2013, SHAME AND THE CAPTIVES and NAPOLEON'S LAST ISLAND. He has also written several works of non-fiction, including his memoir HOMEBUSH BOY, SEARCHING FOR SCHINDLER and AUSTRALIANS. He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney.

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Customers find the storyline powerful, disturbing, and credible. They also appreciate the content, saying the book really tells us so much more about an amazing man and his wonderful achievement in rescuing so many Jews. Readers describe the writing style as superb and the reading experience as good. However, some find the book difficult to get through.

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Customers find the book a good read.

"...The result is a nuanced portrait of Schindler that is imminently readable for any audience ...." Read more

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Customers find the writing style superb, with scrupulous research and forceful imagery. They also say the story manages to show little miracles sprinkled all throughout.

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Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
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Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
Schindler's Ark = Schindler's List, Thomas KeneallySchindler'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 ...
Classic review: Schindler's List
Classic review: Schindler's List. A ''nonfiction novel'' based on the life of German industrialist Oscar Schindler. Schindler's List By Thomas Keneally Simon and Schuster 398 pp., $15. What are ...
Book Review: Schindler's List
This novel definitely shows what effect war can have on humanity. I think it's really cool to see the fight and toughness in Schindler throughout the book. This book is now one of my favorites to read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes history or learning about World Wars. Rating: 9.5/10. Leave a Comment.
BOOK REVIEW: Schindler's List
Title: Schindler's List Author: Thomas Keneally Genre: History, Non Fiction, WWII, Classics First published: October 18th 1982 Finished reading: February 14th 2014 Pages: 400 (Original title: 'Schindler's Ark') "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire." Schindler's List is to be considered a classic and definitely worth reading, especially if you are interested in the…
Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction
SCHINDLER'S LIST. by Thomas Keneally ‧RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 1982. Like Raoul Wallenberg, Oskar Schindler was one of those precious few ""righteous gentiles"" personally responsible for the saving of Jewish lives (estimated at about 1300) during the Holocaust. But what makes Schindler's story of compelling interest to novelist Keneally--who ...
Book Review: Schindler's List
Though Schindler's actions are the focal point, the book also takes an up-close look at some of the people eventually saved by him. The book reads like a series of vignettes about Schindler himself and various of the different Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews). Keneally states that he did his best to include only facts, while filling in ...
Amazon.com: Schindler's List: 9780671880316: Keneally, Thomas: Books
Schindler's List is a remarkable work of fiction based on the true story of German industrialist and war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who, confronted with the horror of the extermination camps, gambled his life and fortune to rescue 1,300 Jews from the gas chambers. Working with the actual testimony of Schindler's Jews, Thomas Keneally artfully ...
Schindler's List
Schindler's List. The acclaimed bestselling classic of Holocaust literature, winner of the Booker Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, and the inspiration for the classic film—"a masterful account of the growth of the human soul" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). A stunning novel based on the true story of how German war ...
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
Schindler's List. In remembrance of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the Nazi concentration camps, this award-winning, bestselling work of Holocaust fiction, inspiration for the classic film and "masterful account of the growth of the human soul" (Los Angeles Times Book Review), returns with an all-new introduction by the ...
Schindler's List
Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty-three novels since, most recently Crimes of the Father, Napoleon's Last Island, Shame and the Captives, and the New York Times bestselling The Daughters of Mars.He is also the author of Schindler's List, which won the Booker Prize in 1982, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates, all ...
Schindler's Ark
Schindler's Ark is a historical fiction published in 1982 by the Australian novelist Thomas Keneally.The United States edition of the book was titled Schindler's List; it was later reissued in Commonwealth countries under that name as well. The novel won the Booker Prize, [1] a literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, and ...
The List is Life: On the 30th Anniversary of Schindler's List
Released thirty years ago last month, "Schindler's List" went on to become a genuine blockbuster, finishing fourth at the international box office for 1993 (behind only "Jurassic Park," "Mrs. Doubtfire," and "The Fugitive"). It also became an Oscar juggernaut, with 12 nominations and seven wins, including Best Picture and Steven Spielberg's long-awaited first win for Best ...
Nonfiction 'Schindler'S List' and A Fiction Prize
100 Best Books of the 21st Century: As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
Schindler's List Analysis
Dive deep into Thomas Keneally's Schindler's List with extended analysis, commentary, and discussion ... Zweig, Paul, "A Good Man in a Bad Time," in New York Times Book Review, October 24, 1982 ...
Review/Film: "Schindler's List": Imagining the Holocaust to Remember It
Schindler is also something of a cipher, just as he was for Thomas Keneally, whose 1982 book, "Schindler's List," marked a daring synthesis of fiction and fact. Reconstructing the facts of Schindler's life to fit the format of a novel, Mr. Keneally could only draw upon the memories of those who owed their lives to the man's unexpected heroism.
Amazon.com: Schindler's List: 9781982151041: Keneally, Thomas: Books
Schindler's List. Paperback - September 1, 2020. by Thomas Keneally (Author) 4.7 3,542 ratings. See all formats and editions. In remembrance of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the Nazi concentration camps, this award-winning, bestselling work of Holocaust fiction, inspiration for the classic film and "masterful ...
Book Review # 291: Schindler's List
One of them is Oskar Schindler whose story was related by Thomas Keneally in his nonfiction novel, Schindler's List (1982). Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908, in Zwittau, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Svitavy, Czech Republic) to an ethnically German family. His father was a farm machinery manufacturer.
Schindler's List movie review (1993)
In this movie, the best he has ever made, Spielberg treats the fact of the Holocaust and the miracle of Schindler's feat without the easy formulas of fiction. The movie is 184 minutes long, and like all great movies, it seems too short. It begins with Schindler ( Liam Neeson ), a tall, strong man with an intimidating physical presence.
Amazon.com: Schindler's List: 9780671516888: Keneally, Thomas: Books
Hardcover - September 1, 1994. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction. Schindler's List is a remarkable work of fiction based on the true story of German industrialist and war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who, confronted with the horror of the extermination camps, gambled his life and fortune to rescue 1,300 Jews from the gas ...
'Schindler's List': An Oral History of a Masterpiece
The book, published in 1982 in England and Australia as Schindler's Ark and later that year in the U.S. as Schindler's List, was penned by the Australian author Thomas Keneally after he ...
Schindler's List
Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty-three novels since, most recently Crimes of the Father, Napoleon's Last Island, Shame and the Captives, and the New York Times bestselling The Daughters of Mars.He is also the author of Schindler's List, which won the Booker Prize in 1982, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates, all ...
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally (ebook)
In this milestone of Holocaust literature, Thomas Keneally, author of The Book of Science and Antiquities and The Daughter of Mars, uses the actual testimony of the Schindlerjuden —Schindler's Jews—to brilliantly portray the courage and cunning of a good man in the midst of unspeakable evil. "Astounding…in this case the truth is far ...
Amazon.com: Schindler's List eBook : Keneally, Thomas: Kindle Store
Winner of the Booker Prize Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction. Schindler's List is a remarkable work of fiction based on the true story of German industrialist and war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who, confronted with the horror of the extermination camps, gambled his life and fortune to rescue 1,300 Jews from the gas chambers. ...

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Book Review # 291: Schindler’s List

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