Schindler's List

The Holocaust is a difficult topic to deal with as subject matter for a work of art; its horrors have been explicitly brought to light countless times in several different formats and knowledge of these horrors has pervaded our society such that nearly everyone has been exposed to them in some way or another. In order to tell an effective story about the Holocaust, one must do more than shock the reader with the evils that took place in concentration camps or Jewish ghettos--this has been done once and for all by those who lived through it. In Schindler's List, Thomas Keneally goes beyond such shock value by telling of the profound goodness that emerged--from such unspeakable evil--in the character of prison camp Direktor Oskar Schindler and his Schindlerjuden.
In his telling of the story, Keneally's sure-handed prose adds credibility and its occasional delve into the poetic adds great emotional weight. The effect of such a telling is that of a slow toxin that siezes the reader by the heart and squeezes to the point of anguish, leading to a novel that is both deeply moving and absolutely believable.
As for the story itself, Keneally focuses mostly on the the background, creeping around the edges. Whenactions and ambitions of Schindler, leaving the horror stories recessed in such evils are brought to the forefront of the tale, they are potent and real, but somehow serve more as chiaroscuro to the divine goodness of Schindler's deeds. Thus it is that much more effective when Schindler spends every bit of his entire life's fortune to literally buy life for as many of the Jews as he possibly can. When all is said and done, Keneally has done no less than consecrate the sanctity of life by weighing its importance against that of essentially meaningless things such as money.
By telling the story of a good man living in such evil times, Schindler's List has become an important addition to Holocaust literature.

"Oskar had done nothing astounding before the war and been unexceptional since. He was fortunate, therefore, that in that short fierce era between 1939 and 1945 he had met people who summoned forth his deeper talents." -comment by Emilie Schindler to a German TV documentary crew
This, of course, is the essential mystery of Oskar Schindler. How was it that this charismatic but morally ambiguous man, a failure in every other endeavor he ever engaged in, was both willing and able to save over a thousand Jews from Nazi predation? And, if someone like him was willing and able, why were other, arguably "better", Germans unwilling or unable to do the same?
These are the questions that Thomas Keneally's raises, but, despite the use of fictional techniques to tell the story, Keneally does not seek to answer them. Instead, he lays out the facts of the story (in thrilling fashion) and leaves the reader to search for answers. The result is an immensely human and interesting portrait of an enigmatic hero--infinitely more interesting than the simplistic black and white ubermensch of Spielberg's vapid movie.
Perhaps the greatest import of the book is that resistance was possible, even in Nazi Germany. In the face of this fact, those Germans who went along with the Nazis must be judged even more harshly. This book and Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners combine to make a powerful case for the view that the Final Solution was perpetrated by the German Nation as a whole and that most Germans were willing to see it happen. More than that, they raise the question of whether it is appropriate to consider the citizenry of totalitarian states to be merely innocent victims of the regimes, or whether we need to hold every citizen responsible for even the silent capitulation that enables a reign of terror to continue.
I know that Spielberg has made a big deal out of making his movie available to schools and young people; it would be much better to give them copies of this book. That a man like Oskar Schindler necessarily seems so remarkable to us, should be troubling to every person of conscience. This book forces us to look within and ask ourselves whether we too would have done the right thing. The answer is not as starkly clear as Hollywood would have us think.
GRADE: A

After seeing the film of SCHINDLER'S LIST, I had the feeling that it covered so much, included and recreated so much that it wasn't necessary to read the book.

Last month, I visited Jerusalem and toured the Holocaust Museum (a profoundly disturbing experience I would recommend to everyone). I also found Oskar Schindler's grave just outside the Old City walls and saw the small stones atop the gravemarker. (There's a sidewalk next to it now where the survivors filed past in the grass at the end of the film).

Now I wanted to read the book and I realized how wrong I'd been to ignore it. I finished it last night and can tell everyone: there is so much more to the story!

You will be even more blown away by Herr Direktor's wily recklessness in saving his Jews. As played in the film, Schindler makes the gradual realization of the horrors around him, breaking down at the end when the scale of the inferno hits him. In the book, Schindler knows what's happening to the Jews and he despises the SS Officers from the very beginning. Schindler constantly questions his workers about everything going on. He knew. And he did everything he could to save as many as he could from the very start of the madness.

Actually, SCHINDLER'S LIST should've been a mini-series like BAND OF BROTHERS. There was certainly enough material and you'll find that material in the book. As written, it's also very easy to see in visual terms.

Definitely read this. Like the film, I was brought to tears in the final chapters. An astonishing true story.

"The unconditional surrender of Germany," he said, has just been announced. After six years of the cruel murder of human beings, victims are being mourned, and Europe is now trying to return to peace and order".

Schindler's Ark tells a true story about a German gentleman, drinker and a womanizer who saved many Jewish lives during World War II. This powerful novel gives off a realistic sense of terror, describes the many horrific events and lots of romances being painfully torn apart. This is about a man who wrote a list, a list that made a great impact on many people's lives until one day when it all goes wrong.

Thomas Keneally has told the story in a way which will grip the reader. The reader will go through a whole array of emotions. This book invites us all to remember those lives, some of whom were taken and some of whom have changed forever! After all, this is a true story!

"The dust of the dead fell in hair and on the clothing hung in the back gardens of junior officers' villas".

This book is best suited for ages 13 and up.

I have wanted to see Spielberg's movie for quite some time, and I think I'm glad I read the book first. There is a lot of detail here that almost certainly will be lost in the movie.
Initially, there is the complexity that is Oskar Schindler himself. It is fascinating to follow his development from a war profiteer and a major operator in the black market to a man obsessed with saving as many Jewish prisoners as he can. It would be convenient to view Schindler as an industrialist using the Jewish prisoners as a cheap source of labor to boost his profits, but it is quite clear that he ultimately was willing to pay any price to save people. His actions could have easily cost him his life. One the other hand, care must be taken to recongize that Schindler was not a saint, but a flawed man who happened to have performed a great deed. His story is truly remarkable.
I also found that many of the descriptions of other individuals included fascinating details. Here we find an array of complex and all-too-human characters. Schindler's greatest gift seems to have been his ability to determine what was required to motivate individuals to help Schindler achieve his goals. He was a master a bribery, but could also locate unlikely sources of compassion and conscience. While this is a story that proves that not everyone looked the other way during the Nazi reign of terror, the shame of it is that the numbers of such people were so small.

Oskar Schindler was a drinker, a gambler, an adulterer, a war profiteer, a Nazi sympathiser - and a hero. During what is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of human history, in a time where a person would sell off their own grandmother to the Gestapo, his selflessness enabled the lives of 1500 Jews to be saved, and indirectly, he saved many more lives - the children, grandchildren, and greatchildren of "his" Jews are alive today because their ancestors were fortunate enough to have their names on his list.
You can't help but contrast him to the likes of Adolf Eichmann, who protested during his trial that he had no choice but to do what he did, he was a soldier who was "only following orders." Schindler too, had a choice, and his choice and its consequences are lovingly chronicled in Kenneally's book.
That he had the courage to make this choice is a point that should never be forgotten. And neither should Oskar Schindler.

Since I hadn't seen the movie before reading the book, it gave such a powerful impression. An amazing story that have been very well written by Keneally. And even the story behind the book is a story of it's own, which makes the book even more special.
This is the story about Oscar Schindler, a German, who had a factory with Jewish slave workers in Poland during the 2nd World War. Schindler is corrupt, a heavy drinker and loves women. A powerful and provoking book about Holocaust and the Nazism. But Schindler wasn't a Nazi, and most of the Jews, that worked for him, survived Hitler. Over 6 million Jews were killed, mostly in concentration camps, and Schindler stands as a symbol to those to survied because of him. He managed to do justice when no one else seemed to care.
You'll be filled with anger, sadness and other emotions throughout the book, as it's so very provoking and sometimes sad. Highly recommended for anyone and everyone. You will not regret reading this book, and most likely you will read it again, trying to understand...

I loved this book full of raw emotion. I think this a must read because this atrocity is one we should never forget. If we do something like this could easily happen again and yes, it is happening in places today. As we are taken into the world of survivors just trying to find a way to escape the horrors of living one more day how can we not empathize and wish this would have never happened. This is a classic tale of human sorrow and should be read by all. Maybe what Schindler did to make up for his guilt can be an inspiration to all.

Keneally says that he is writing a novel here, but also that this is history. With these two partially contradictory claims, it is hard to know just how much of this book is truth and how much is fiction. Assuming mostly or all truth, this is an almost incredible story; Oskar Schindler, for almost no discernible reason, decided to preserve as many Cracovian Jews from the conquering Nazis as he could. The blurb claims he saved more than anyone else during that horrific period, which is fairly easy to believe, as one does not know of many being saved at all. Through the whole story Schindler carries the aura of invincibility and fore-knowledge which adds both credibility and colour to the characterisation. One cannot imagine an author seriously expecting to be believed when he claims to invent a man who, virtually in the shadow of Auschwitz, is able to winkle Jews away from the death-chambers; the very outrageousness of the claim speaks for it.

I saw the movie when it came out and just recently read the book. This makes it strange because I clearly pictured Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes in my mind's eye as I read.

This is an absolutely amazing story that details both the lack of humanity of some people and the humanity of others. The power of this story is undeniable.

Schindler was a bit of a scoundrel and definite ladies' man but was also a great salesman and networker. He was such an unusual source of tremendous good and his character is baffling. On the other hand, as I read, I stopped questioning why he was taking such risks to save the Jewish people from his factory and was just thankful that he was doing so. In the end, he wasn't a saint but simply a good person who chose to be honorable at great personal risk.

This is a story of how some people act reprehensibly to save themselves but offers hope for us all that some people simply wouldn't be part of the evil.

I found the movie to be a very true depiction of the book and both are very good.

Ultimately, Keneally had a difficult task. He had an amazing true story to tell and it was advisable not to corrupt the basic plot.

In the end, he simply told the story. I don't think the writing was particularly good nor bad.

The star is the true story and I'm glad Keneally let it be told.

Like many, I didn't even know about Oskar Schindler's amazing story until I saw the movie. I am also a voracious reader and when I find a novel of a movie I enjoyed I usually grab it and compare the differences. While Spielberg is to be commended on his incredible talent at filmmaking, there was much of this story that wasn't brought to the screen, and maybe couldn't have been, I'm not sure. This was such a powerful story that it needed to be told. Normally when we think of how truly evil our world has been, we have to travel much farther back than just the 2nd World War, but not in this case.
Oskar Schindler, risking his life and the lives of those he loved, made what he felt was the morally right choice by saving a few Jews while the Nazi's used his business to further the War effort for Germany. Rarely can we find someone who so selflessly risked their life in such a way to save a number of people his own government had marked for extinction. Oskar recognized what the Nazi's refused to acknowledge, that ALL human life is precious, regardless of race or color of skin. How much farther would we all be if everyone held fast to what Oskar risked his life to hold true?

There's some sort of charm and insight to every sentence in Thomas Keneally's exceptional novel. Indeed, Oskar Schindler was a scoundrel, a drunkard, a womanizer (unremittingly successful in all three), but he was refined and had a heart of gold. He was far from flawless, but flawed men are capable of great things. Thomas Keneally doesn't just bring him interestingly to life; he brings the situations to life as well. Sometimes, the novel seems immediate and urgent; other times, it seems sober and indifferent. The observations and keen duality of Keneally telling the story and BEING the story is very curious, and indeed, some of the events are just eye-poppingly coincidental, since many of them actually happened in history. One of the better Holocaust fiction, "Schindler's List" is powerful, compelling, brilliant, and exceptional.

Thomas Keneally's book shares the "kaleidoscope of stores" element similar to the film. Within this grand opus of "Moses Exodus", he zeroes in on the smaller trails of survival and horror the holocaust victims had to combat.

This review is dedicated by a Jew and Zionist Until Death, myself! , To the Righteous among the Nations, those Gentiles who have stood by the Jewish Nation in times of travail and murder, and those who continue to stand by Jews and Israel, in these frightening and sombre times of today.
Many people have wondered how the nation that gave us such great contributors to humanity, such as the Statesman Frederick the Great, the poet and writer Johan Goethe, and musicians such as Bach and Beethoven, could have allowed themselves to be led by the Satanic Adolph Hitler (may his evil name be erased from history) produced the SS and Gestapo, and allowed those evil forces to carry out the Holocaust against 6 million Jewish men, women and children, as well as millions of Roma, disabled people , Slavs and Armenians.
An yet we must not forget the righteous among the nations, which included Germans like Pastor Niemoller and Konrad Adenauer, who opposed the monstrous Nazi tyranny, and Oskar Schindler (and Emily Schindler) among others, who put their own lives on the line to save Jewish lives.
Oskar Schindler was a maverick Sudeten German industrialist, who put his life and livelihood on the line to save 6 000 Jews from the Nazi death machine.
Unlike the move "Schindler's List", in this book we read something of the world before and after World War II and the Holocaust (Shoah).
Hence we see something of the anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church, and how the centuries of Catholic poison against the Jewish people, in some ways paved the way for the horrors of the Shoah (as well as having caused untold suffering and death to Jews through the centuries - since Roman times! -and it continues to cause suffering and death today to Jews when the Catholic Church sides with Palestinian terrorists against innocent Israeli Jewish women and children!
In 1929 Oskar Schindler married Emilie, a German speaking Catholic girl (who would prove to have a heart of gold, but would be treated shabbily by Oskar). From her girlhood Emilie would have a close friendship with the daughter of the local Jewish storekeeper in her village, Rita Reiff.
On a visit to Emile's father, the parish priest told him that it was not good , in principle , for a Catholic girl to have a friendship with a Jew. It is a testament to Emilie's character that she resisted the edict of the bigoted priest, and remained a close friend Rita's, until Rita was executed by Nazi officials, in front of the store, in 1942.
It is a testament to the love and honour that Schindler would be held in by the Jews he saved and their descendents, that when this book was written by Thomas Keneally in 1982 (37 years after the war and 8 years after Oskar Schindler passed away) that a family called the C's who spread malicious rumours about Schindlers, still had to be protected by being granted anonymity by the author! Clearly the Schindlerjuden or their children or grandchildren could take revenge against the C's if the author had revealed their identity!
He was not held by all Germans with such esteem after the war, and as late as the 1960's were spat out and verbally attacked on the streets of Frankfurt (but more of that later).
Just as there have always been a handful of righteous Gentiles, so too there have always been Jews who have acted in ways that have brought destruction on their own people.
The Judenrat (The Nazi puppet councils of Jews) that helped the Nazis oppress their own people, where mainly made up of secular intellectuals, as are the leftist Jewish traitors today, like the loathsome Noam Chomsky, who back the `Palestinian' efforts to destroy the tiny Jewish State of Israel, and thereby subject the Jewish people to a second holocaust.
Over half of all holocaust survivors today live in Israel (as do many descendants of holocaust survivors), and it would be a hideous twist of history for these too to perish in the flames of anti-Jew hatred, as they would do if Israel was destroyed by forces of evil (G-D forbid that this should ever be allowed to happen!)
Towards his later life in the 1960's and early 70's Schindler would be well looked after by the Schindlerjuden in Israel (where he spent half of every year, spending the other half in Germany in poverty and loneliness), and he would choose to be buried in Jerusalem.
Many Schindler Jews mourned him at his funeral in Jerusalem in 1974.
While we will always remember evil enemies of our people those like Pharaoh Amalek, Haman, Torquemada, Chmielnicki, Hitler, Stalin, Gaddafi Arafat, Edward Said and Chomsky (may their souls be eternally erased), we too must remember the Righteous Among the Nations such as Rahab, Emperor Darius, Pastor Niemoller, Oskar and Emilie Schindler , Reverend Pat Robertson , David Dolan and Mike Evans (may they be eternally blessed).

This book is masterfully-written, accessible to the layman, fascinating, and gripping. You'll finish it at one go, if you are not disturbed. Wipe the tedious, overpraised Spielberg movie out of your consciousness--this story is too complex and monumental to be adapted to film (especially by the guy who directed Jurassic Park 2). Keneally has no answers for Schindler's actions--the man remains an enigma. The story, as it unfolds over the course of many years, examines exactly what Schindler achieved, and the odds against him doing so. Schindler was no saint: Keneally presents him warts and all. But thousands--literally thousands--of people are alive today because of him. Keneally has delivered a fitting legacy to one of the true heroes of the 20th Century.

Schindler's list was really interesting- i'm still deciding on whether i like it or not. for me, there are two main things that make a good story:
1)GOOD PLOT
Schindler's list definitely had a good plot. it was historical fiction, almost even non-fiction, and it was therefore based on true events. i've read tons of historical novels that just aren't that interesting- you have to stick to what actually happened in real history; they don't have that advantage that fantasy has where you can just make it up. but schindler's list wasn't one of those books. any holocaust book, we know, already has a good plot. the events that happened in the book are horrifying, as one can expect, but there is also hope- it'sone of those 'finding light in the darkness' kind of books that doesn't leave you depressed. so, i think Schindler's list definitely had the plot.
2)WELL WRITTEN
this is where the story let me down a little- yes, it is a classic, but many of the details were just too irrelevant. the middle part of the book was definitely the most well-written, and it described the suffering and pain of the Jew, Poles and gypsies in vivid, necessary detail. However, the beginning of the book was quite slow. i was disappointed when the first 100 pages couldn't be summed up in five pages. too much description went into the business and financial aspect of the story. Keneally also used a great number of German terms, which, only explained once, got confusing and frustrating throughout the course of the book.

all that aside, i'm still deciding- i personally don't think that enough of the book was written around the main subject- the holocaust. i liked how the author sometimes changed the perspectives and points of view so that the reader could see what the other characters were experiencing.
the book is a classic, which i haven't read much of, and i know my opinion differs from many other's, but that's what i think. all in all, the novel was extremely powerful in conveying the message to the reader: 'HE WHO SAVES ONE LIFE SAVES THE WORLD ENTIRE", and the plot itself was very powerful, but the book just lost me often. great plot, pretty good writing.
also as the reader you would need at least a general understanding of holocaust/WWII terms-the book can otherwise get pretty confusing. i recommend this to fans of The Book Thief, or Schindler's List (the movie). i know the book wouldn't appeal to everyone, but you should still give it a try, just be patient. :)

To anyone who has read this book it can come as no shock to learn that Keneally not only picked up the Los Angeles Times Award for Fiction but also the Booker Prize. Keneally confronts the Holocaust head on in cold factual style, with this account of the life of Oskar Schindler and the lives he saved.
The story, based heavily upon fact is so powerful and emotive that legendary Hollywood producer Steven Speilberg set about adapting it for film. This however, far surpases the film in terms of it's effectiveness in outlining the true horrors of the Holocaust. A tale that will disgust you, and a tale which will warm your heart. Two extremes of humanity meet each other - unparalled evil and raw, human compassion. This will always remain as one of the 20th Century's most influential books, it's implicit message will hopefully serve as a stark warning to future generations. The man, Oskar Schindler has been immortalised through this - hopefully he'll serve as inspiration for others in his position.

Schindler's List is unadulterated proof that a part-fact, part-fiction book can succeed. The product of painstaking archival research and personal interviews, Schindler's List is a riveting, painful account of a German entrepreneur's transformation into an extraordinary humanitarian who plucked from the jaws of death many thousands of people who were marked for extermination. Oskar Schindler is far from perfect. He's a hard-drinking womanizer and profiteer. But that's what makes him so appealing. Schindler rises above his faults, and, at great personal expense, risks his life to save thousands. Beware, this isn't a book for kids. There are many graphic scenes that adults will find hard to take. But it is a unique, redemptive story of a Holocaust hero that should be told as long as human beings walk the earth.

This book is not only a good biography of Oskar Schindler, but (I'm betting) helps the reader understand the Holocaust better than before reading this awesome novel. I had to read it a little at a time, and the writing was not the easist, but it became much easier to read as I went on and I am so glad that I persisted with it. It is a story of man gradually possessed by a goal which he basically manages to achieve. Kineally let the facts speak for themselves and there was little embellishment, yet I found myself thinking about the novel all day and literally couldn't wait for my evening read to see what Schindler was going to do next. Only four stars (wish could give 4 1/2!) only because at times there seemed to be a bit of dryness and way too many names. I would have loved to have had more character development of any number of characters, but I suppose Kineally would have given us that if he could.

This poignant book by Australian author Thomas Keneally, was originally published as Schindler's Ark and in which Spielberg based his move. Schindler is a bragging, boozing opportunist who makes a fortune in Poland during the second-world-war German occupation, buying up the businesses of dispossessed Jews. We read about his black market deals, his backslapping relationship with the authorities, his parties and his mistresses - and gradually discover that his lifestyle is a façade, that his true activity is saving thousands of Jews from the gas-chambers. A remarkable man and a testement that we should never forget the terror that the Jewish people were subjected to during world-war-two.

This book is both enjoyable and enlightening. It details how a German industrialist Oskar Schindler managed to save the lives of 1,200 Schindlerjudens (Schindler's Jews) during the Holocaust by sheltering them first in his enamelware factory in Zablocie, Cracow and later in his (supposedly) anti-tank shell factory in Brinnlitz, Monrovia.

I watched the movie before I read the book. While the movie succeeds beautifully in portraying the human suffering and the thin ray of hope Oskar managed to instill in his prisoners/workers, the book includes a lot more little details that readers could appreciate. For example, while this is definitely a depressing book, I find the little dark comedies of life and witticisms quite enjoyable. For example, after the war, when there was disbelief surrounding the story of Oskar's improbable rescue of the Jews, he was challenged by some journalists and was confronted with the fact that he personally knew many of the high-ranking SS officials in the Cracow region and beyond. Oskar's coolly replied: "At that stage in history, it was rather difficult to discuss the fate of Jews with the Chief Rabbi or Jerusalem."

I you enjoyed the movie, the book won't disappoint. If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, I suggest you do both.

Learned of this is high school. We had to do a big end of the year paper on it. While writing my paper and talking with my grandmother about it, she imformed me that schindler is a cousin of mine....i found that to be pretty neat especially since i was so intetested in the book and the movie. I will defiantly be ordering the dvd all i have is the lovely vhs lol great movie for anyone who loves history!

The book is amazing for its wealth of information and doggedness to tell the story of not only Oskar Schindler but of what life was like for the people interned in the factories and death camps. In the author's note, Keneally tells that he chose to write the story as a novel but used documentary evidence and extensive interviews for most of the exchanges and conversations and all of the events detailed in the book and made reasonable constructs of conversations where only the briefest record exists. As a novel, the storytelling is lacking--it doesn't flow well or have a strong narrative--but as a record of a truth, it is astounding.

This is the most important book I've read so far this decade. The author Thomas Keneally writes extremely well and even if you know quite a bit about the Holocaust, you will learn more as a result of reading this book. Characters of all varieties are brought to life here and force you to consider ethical principles and the nature of human behavior.

I watched only part of the movie of this book as it made me nauseous. For those who may have avoided the movie for similar reasons, I can highly recommend the book. You can read it slowly, taking in all the historical facts, and though the brutality is described, you do not have to witness it with your eyes. It is still difficult but leads you more to an interior exploration of your own ethics and opinions about society.

One of the important aspects of the book is that Schindler was no angel. He had many character flaws. But he attempted to save as many victims of the Nazis as he could despite the danger. Therefore, the book though depicting the worst kind of brutality can give us hope. I urge you to read this book.

I read this book, titled "Schindler's Ark", as it was called BEFORE the movie was ever thought of in 1988. I had never heard of Oscar Schindler. I couldn't put the book down. However, one night when I was reading it, I suddenly flung it across the room in anger after reading a section about "man's inhumanity to man". Even though the movie is very good, it does not even come close to doing justice to the book.
True heroes are people such as Oscar Schindler, a man that deserves to be honoured in our hearts and minds forever. Mr Schindler I salute you; Thomas Kennealy you make me proud to be an Australian.

I'm amazed at the courage that one man showed in opposing, in his own way, the horror of the Nazi war machine. This book is not for the faint of heart, and I really can't say there is a happy ending, but it's important to realize that people can and do stand up against evil even under threat to their own lives. God bless people like Oscar Schindler.

Schindler's List is the story of Oskar Schindler, a German business man that saved the lives of "his" Jews (those that worked in his factory) during World War II. The book is, in large part, nonfiction: some dialogue comes from the author's brain, but the events and characters are generally based in well-researched fact. As a result, the text is informative but lacks emotion, gets bogged down in numbers and reports but still managing to introduce and discuss one small aspect of the war: a man who saved lives. To be honest, I only appreciated the book for its historical and educational value. As a novel, it's lacking in humanity and overfilled with detail. It didn't live up to my expectations.

I read this book to gain a better understanding rather than to be absorbed by the reading, and in terms of information and learning more about the Holocaust, I'm mildly satisfied by the text. It is very well researched and doesn't stray far from fact even when telling a story, and so the data is there. To that extent, it's an interesting, informative read, especially because it presents a smaller side of a large story by concentrating on a man that saved lives rather than a man who ended them or the people that died.

What the book lacks, however, is storytelling, and where the narrative fails the contents becomes much less interesting and much harder to absorb. Keneally becomes obsessed with his research, quoting numbers, dates, and full names as often as possible in order to base the story in fact. No doubt he is trying to maintain fidelity to the events and to Schindler himself; the result, however, betrays him. The book reads like a somewhat creative textbook and the facts have the same limited impact. Although the text claims to do otherwise, the focus on numbers and data detracts from the human element. The reader can't connect and so loses interest. As it is a novel, the book is disappointing, and because the novel fails the facts lose their impact.

I don't mean to say that the text is without merit. The research is there and the story is interesting and, needless to say, admirable. However, I expected a lot more, and was disappointed by my lack of emotional attachment to any part--plot, characters, ending. My holding back some of the data while still keeping to the truth, Keneally could have written a much more emotional, and therefore more effective, text.

It appears as though everyone loves the book and therefore I may be writing an unpopular review. However, though I think it is a valuable use of your time to digest Keneally's effort, I was a little surprised at its style and content. Now, I don't normally read fiction, so I probably don't have an adequate basis for judging good fiction, but when I saw it was a novel I figured it would be a pretty easy read.
I was surprised to find Keaneally's novel read a lot more like a biography--filled with facts, but not much of a plot. Most of the book is written in the narrative and there is very little dialogue. Though the facts are interesting and have valuable historical content, they do not read, at least for me, like a novel.
Also, the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the book is laden with German terms and words, which are in themselves educational and undoubtfully helpful for anyone who wishes to deny their ethnocentricity. However, I found the terms to be obtrusive to the flow of my read and found myself straining a little as the book got underway.
If you had the choice of reading the book or watching the movie, I would definitely recommend the book....the effort is worth your time. However, don't expect a light read. The book will flesh out the atrocity with greater detail and paint a picture of Schindler which is not quite matched by the movie. Hollywood seems to lack the objective approach. However, if you're not too interested in details, you don't mind a romanticized Schindler, and you have a hundred other books on your reading list, then see the movie and you'll probably still understand, at least in part, the essence of the Holocaust and the man with the list.

Schindler’s List is a movie, which is based on the novel titled Schindler’s Ark that portrays the challenges that the Jews faced in the hands of the Nazis. In this case, the director, Steven Spielberg, uses various techniques to create a similar setting to the World War II that gives all the specific elements that occurred at that time. The movie is insightful due to the themes addressed that looks at the life in the concentration camps and suffering from the harassment of the Nazi soldiers. Most importantly, Spielberg focuses on showing the role that Schindler plays in saving the innocent Jews that were at the risk of being attacked. Given that Schindler was a German and used that opportunity to save the Jews shows the risk that he was taking. Portraying the challenges that the Jews encountered illustrates a historical perspective of the issues that the minorities experienced during that time. It gives deeper insights into the World War II and the holocaust because Schindler persuades the Nazi soldiers from taking the Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp (Spielberg, 1993). The fact that Schindler used his money to move the Jews and even offered them jobs reveal how he did not consider the hate that was projected towards the Jews. Instead, he wanted to save them from the misery that they were facing. The visuals and sound play an instrumental role in capturing the emotions of the Jews and the Germans. For instance, the Jews are shown walking on a road dejected and uncertain of their future. By the roadside, the Germans are seen insulting and using every derogatory phrase while throwing dirt and snow on them (Spielberg, 1993). The scene illustrates the anger and the hate that the Germans portrayed on the innocent Jews due to the fact that Hitler had ordered that they should be killed. The depiction of the various events that occurred during that time can be uses as educational materials for the students. In summary, the movie talks about the emotional challenges that the Jews dealt experienced at the hands of the Nazi soldiers.

Schindlers list was a very enthralling read that came across as heavy duty the first time i read it and the second time i had a clear perspective as to what was actually going on. This book has won quite a few awards and the booker prize and definatley does deserve to have one them. Schindlers list is a book thats hard to put down even if it does loose you the first time around and is very well written, it's a powerful book and one of the real stand out war orientated novels, it's definatley one of the more stand out war books around thats a great book and i also think the schindlers list film was actually quite good aswell.

Schindler's list is a great book written by Thomas Keneally about Oskar Schindler, a 'nazi' member who saved thousands of Jews by having them to work for him and by making a lot of bribes and huge efforts to save as many Jews as possible. This is the best book about Holocaust and yet it can not describe not even 1% what the helpless Jews have been through during the Nazi's cowardish empire of horror. It is impossible to read this book and not feel all the terrors and injustice done to Jews. You simply become one of them.

Schindler's List, originally published as Schindler's Ark, is the true story of how Oskar Schindler, an aristocratic German industrialist, heavy drinker, briber, and womaniser, was transformed into a saviour during the horrors of World War II. His remarkable rescue of more than a thousand Jews is retold brilliantly in this honest and detailed account by Thomas Keneally.
The story is set in Poland, where Schindler struggled to protect his Jewish factory employees from the cruel and terrible claws of the extermination camps. Schindler's efforts in saving souls increased as the war worsened, and climaxed with Schindler's List, the book of life and ticket to freedom for many Jewish survivors, whose accounts are carefully retold in this book.
Although Keneally's long and descriptive sentences require patient concentration, and could become a stumbling block for some readers, once overcome, no reader could fail to be drawn into the action-packed plot. For Keneally summons terror and disgust with his gruesome profiles of the SS Gestapo, and draws smiles and smirks with his descriptions of Schindler's devious dealings with them.
In Keneally's book, metaphors and similes vividly contrast the characters and scenery, omitting no details, and succeed in taking the reader to a different time and place. Although a biography, and therefore brimming with names, dates, and numbers, Keneally manages to navigate history so that no event is left without significance.
Schindler's List is a riveting read which no one should miss out on, as not only is it an exciting story, it also gives an accurate glance into the labour camps of World War II, and takes a look at the darker side of humanity. A Booker Prize-winning novel, now also an Oscar-winning movie, Schindler's List is a must for anyone over 15.

Most people who haven't read this book undoubtedly have seen the film. Like nearly any film, it is better or more fulfilling to read the novel. This is somewhat different in that the movie is by any standard excellent. But you still lose crucial character development and details. The book is very well written and insightful, and even more moving than the film, which says a lot. Bottom line is, if you liked the film and the subject matter and are anxious to learn more in detail about the holocaust, this is an excellent resource and a hard book to put down.

You don't have to be a perfect person in order to make the world a better place. You can work on yourself and help others at the same time. When you reach a ripe old age, you still probably will not be a perfect person. That's okay. You can still do great things. Sure, I could have figured this out on my own, but it's nice to have a living, breathing example. I also learned that even with people who fundamentally disagree with you, you can be a lot more open than you would think. And instead of telling people that they should do something differently, which I suppose can be done well, Oskar asked people to help him with his project. "My workers . . . highly skilled . . . essential labor." It was genius. When I first heard of this story, I wondered if it was true. And sometimes I still find myself wondering, Did this really happen? Was Oskar really able to pull this off? Oh yes, he was able to pull it off. This is a true story. "Ah, Oskar Schindler, now there's a name people won't soon forget. For he, he did something extra-ordinary."

Schindler's List, the novel by Thomas Keneally, is a well researched but fictionally written book about the Holocaust. It tells the story of Oskar Schindler, who is a German businessman that enjoys a good cocktail party. Oskar has a wife, Emilie, but he cheats on her and doesn't treat her well. He takes over a factory previously owned by Jews. Schindler then begins to use imprisoned Jews to work in the factory. They were cheaper than normal laborers, so he used them as a way to make a larger profit. The cruelty of the Nazis progressed, and people in the ghettos began to say, "An hour of life is still life." It is amazing that nobody showed any resistance to this Nazi torture. Even a drinking buddy of Schindler's, Amon Goeth, brutally killed many people. Goeth even killed a young child that hugged his legs, pleading for life. Oskar began to get a soft spot for Jews, thinking that they should be respected as human beings. Some of the Jews he saw in the camps and ghettos were old prewar friends of his. He spent a lot of money in the black market to get extra food for them. At one point, Schindler was jailed, accused of being a "Jew Kisser." He was let out with a fine and a strong warning. He also received a letter that basically told him he better exterminate Jews or else. To pass SS inspections, he used bribes, like bottles of vodka and cognac. He opened up a second camp (mostly at his expense), which produced nothing. He did it just to save more Jews. They all wanted to get on Schindler's List. No Jews were murdered in Schindler's camps. Schindler's Jews were very thankful for him. It is true that one individual can make a difference, Schindler proves it by saving the lives of so many innocent people who, if it weren't for him, would have died.

I enjoyed this book. It was packed with some interesting and unbelievable Holocaust facts. This book told an amazing story of life, love, and courage. The only down to it is that it is very long and some parts can get very boring. There are also some German names that can get confusing, but they do not take away from the story. I would recommend this book to anyone that has the time to read it.

This is a rare example of a book being less interesting than the movie!

Of course, the story of over 1000 Jews being saved from death by German industrialist Oskar Schindler is gripping.

The problem lies with the poor writing which does not succeed in bringing coherently together the multiple pieces of research that were made. The chronology of events is at times shaky as is the characters’ psychology. The sources used are not explicitly identified and the reader often ends up confused.

Overall, it appears better to stick to the cinematic masterwork.

The book Schindler's List is one of the best Holocaust books I have ever read. It gives you real life accounts of prisoners from multiple concentration camps, from guards, and from others who knew Oskar Schindler about what actually took place during all the terror and evil of the time. In this book you can actually feel the terror and fear mothers had for their children. You can hear the cries of the children as their mothers are pulled away from them by Nazi guards. And you can see the sliver of hope offered by this stranger who is setting up a sub camp and wants you to be a resident of it.
This book is the true story put together by Thomas Keneally based on accounts of the Schindlerjuden, or Schindler's Jews. This man knows the fate of the millions of Jews in Europe. Like other factory owners, Schindler has many Jews who work for him in his factory. After a series of events Oskar Schindler builds his own camp for his workers to stay in. There he provides them with the more food and comfort than any other camp in Europe. He begins to build friendships with his "prisoners", and after the war is looked down upon for his acts of bravery and courage. His homeland becomes his enemy and Israel honors Schindler's actions in many ways.
While this book does get hard to understand at times, it is an excellent book that really blows you away with the actual stories of people who experienced such evil no one should ever have to go through. And through the tough times of Germany shines the hope of one man who was able to save more than 1,000 lives during this reign of terror.
(P.S. Scott says "Squids are our friends! And turtles will rule the earth in 100 million years. Please don't hurt Cindi's grade just because I'm insane.")

The book Schindler's List is one of the best Holocaust books I have ever read. It gives you real life accounts of prisoners from multiple concentration camps, from guards, and from others who knew Oskar Schindler about what actually took place during all the terror and evil of the time. In this book you can actually feel the terror and fear mothers had for their children. You can hear the cries of the children as their mothers are pulled away from them by Nazi guards. And you can see the sliver of hope offered by this stranger who is setting up a sub camp and wants you to be a resident of it.
This book is the true story put together by Thomas Keneally based on accounts of the Schindlerjuden, or Schindler's Jews. This man knows the fate of the millions of Jews in Europe. Like other factory owners, Schindler has many Jews who work for him in his factory. After a series of events Oskar Schindler builds his own camp for his workers to stay in. There he provides them with the more food and comfort than any other camp in Europe. He begins to build friendships with his "prisoners", and after the war is looked down upon for his acts of bravery and courage. His homeland becomes his enemy and Israel honors Schindler's actions in many ways.
While this book does get hard to understand at times, it is an excellent book that really blows you away with the actual stories of people who experienced such evil no one should ever have to go through. And through the tough times of Germany shines the hope of one man who was able to save more than 1,000 lives during this reign of terror.
(P.S. Scott says "Squids are our friends! And turtles will rule the earth in 100 million years. Please don't hurt Cindi's grade just because I'm insane.")

There are a lot of reasons why I loved Schindler's List. I mainly liked it because it was written so well. It took a few pages before I got into it, but after that it was hard to put down. Some parts were a little bit hard to understand. That was mostly because of all the German words and names. They were easy to skip over and didn't take away from the book at all. Thomas Keneally did an excellent job researching the book. I liked the fact that there was so much detail. It made you feel like you really were there. I also liked that there were so many different characters. Sometimes you would meet a character in one chapter for only a few paragraphs, then you wouldn't find out what happened to them until way later in the book. Even though that made it hard to keep all the characters straight, I still liked it because it keep the book from getting boring. You were always wondering what was going to happen to somebody or if someone would get out of jail or be killed. The reason that this was such a good holocaust book is that it shows the war from so many different views, and how for two opposite people the war could mean two compleatly different things. This is a very good book that has action, mystery ,and drama all in one. I recommend it to anyone.

In the book Schindler's List, by Thomas Kealley, it takes place during WWI, Germany. The main character in this book is Oskar Schindler, who is a catholic German, that gives his life saving to save over 1200 Jews from labor camps, and gas chambers. Oskar Schindler took in a Jewish man who he had taken a liking to. This man helped Oskar with papers he had to make for the Jewish people who worked for him. These papers had to be shown to the Nazi soldiers that they belonged to Oskar Schindler. If any Jews did not have these papers then on the spot the soldiers would ship them away to camp, and there they would become slaves. One day he had forgotten his papers, when he was walking across the street a solider stopped him and asked for his papers. He couldn't find them so the solider arrested him and put him on a train to a Jewish camp. Luckily Oskar found this out before the train left and got to the train station in time to get him off of the train and back to safety. I only recommend this book if the subject of the holocaust does not bother you. I really enjoyed this book because reading a true story is so much better to me then something made up. The truth in this book really makes you think how cruel the Germans were at this time, but not ever German was a bad seed.

Schindler's List was a very good. The first couple pages where very hard to get in to then it got better as it went. I liked the part when the soldier saw this lady he knew so he tells her to hide and then he tells the rest of the soldier that there was no one there. I think that young soldier that remakeable courage for doing that. I also liked how Schindler risked his own life to save about 1,300 Jews from the gas chamblers. I didn't like that Schindler had like 2 to 3 lovers not counting his wife. The end of the book was the best. It was very sad. I felt sorry for Schindler in the end when he was like broke in the end from helping all the Jews. I think Schindler was a remakeable man not counting the lovers part. I really respect Schindler for what he did. I think more of our Nation should be like Schindler and help peolpe. I would highly recommend this book to all of you. I think you will enjoy this book to the very end.

Schindler's List has quickly become a modern classic. Frequently, books with such sensitive subject matter are not subject to the same scrutiny as books with less disturbing topics. But apply that scrutiny to this book and the book holds firm. It is excellently written, harsh and clear in its detail as well as quite historically accurate.

"Schindler's List" is about a heroic and brave man named Oskar Schindler. He was a German officer in WWII who saved 600,000 Jewish souls. Defying Hitler and every other German officer Oskar Schilinder saved millions. An innocent girl in a red coat triggered him to save these Jews by trading buying or even beating in a game of cards. He saved so many by gambling with their very lives. I thought that this was an amazing book that made you part of the story.

Seriously what can I say about this book? IT IS AMAZING. If you haven't read it, have you been under a rock your whole life? The book definitely takes a long time to read/get through but it is worth it. The story is so interesting, inspirational, and tugs at your heartstrings. The movie is great too. So if you're not much of a reader, watch the movie.

"Schindler's List" written by Thomas Keneally is a great book that took place in the late 193s. Oscar Schindler is a rich German man who trys to save as many Jews as possible from a nazi camp. I would say that Keneally's book is for ages 12 and up.I think this book is for this age range because of some gruesome details. This book can be appreciated by people of all ages. I'm 13 and it is my favorite book, and my grandpa,65, loved it. "Schindlers List" is a true story about Oscar Schindler and the Schindler Jews.The book is based on the movie "Schindlers List". If you like reading about history and war, you'll love this book.

This is the story about Oscar Schindler, a German, who had a factory with Jewish slave workers in Poland during the 2nd World War. Schindler is corrupt, a heavy drinker and loves women. A powerful and provoking book about Holocaust and the Nazism. But Schindler wasn't a Nazi, and most of the Jews, that worked for him, survived Hitler. Over 6 million Jews were killed, mostly in concentration camps, and Schindler stands as a symbol to those who survived because of him. He managed to do justice when no one else seemed to care.
This story was set in the early 1900's in Germany when Hitler was still in power and killing off the Jews.
The genre of this book I think is historical non-fiction.
The author of this book did a good job with dramatic scenes in this book and also the details and such in this book.
Schindler's list does a very good job at the descriptions in the book and they did a good job with the problem. The problem was that Schindler was trying to protect his men from Hitler because they were Jewish.
I would suggest this book to a audience who like historical novels and people who really love exciting interesting books.
This book reminds me of a lot of other books in the over all picture about discrimination and the fight to survive. The book it reminds of the most and that I would recommend if you liked this book is a One Day in the Life of Ivan Densavich.
The author in this book used a lot of metaphors and language and synonyms that I really didn't understand, but form what I understood I liked.
This book was very tough to read and I recommend reading it over a long period of time and in short intervals each time you read.
Schindler's List brought me to the edge of my seat every time I picked it up and it was hard for me to put it down when I started. The only reason that I would is because of lack of understanding but don't let that scare you from reading this book because it is a compelling and great story.

Mr. Keneally's wonderfully written book - as the film which followed - is a powerful reminder that even in history's most bloody and barbaric century decency and morality did yet exist, even if on too small a scale. I suggest the hardcover edition, as this is not a story to be read once and discarded, but periodically re-read and passed on. One of the great classics of this era.

This book is horrendous, terrible, amazing, sympathetic, and heroic all at the same time. How humans can do this to each other is beyound me, and thankfully beyound most of us in this world. Simply breathtaking at times. Makes me really appreciate the freedoms we all share. Just read it, you won't be disappointed!

I read Schindler's List for my English class, and I found it an educating and interesting experience for me and my friends, but it was extremely confusing. I found it especially difficult to discern a plot or theme from the book. I digress however, the life and escapades of Oskar Schindler are worth reading about and I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Holocaust or World War II.

Thomas Keneally's account of war profiteer Oskar Schindler's fight to save a remnant of Jews from the unspeakable evil now known as the Holocaust (originally published as "Schindler's Ark") is moving. See my review of the movie below for more info. Rated PG-13 for intense thematic elements, violence and language.

This book gives a lot detailed information and shares a number of things that we need to know about, I recommend that school students read this book. It will show them that suffrage took place not only now but than also. Many of us think that we going through now but it was something back in the days. Even though they did not have what we have they been through something even worst and I say to the writter job well done. I get the point and the understanding.

An excellent book, particularly if you have prior knowledge of the subject. The beginning of the book does start out slowly, however. It does pick up after about 125 pages. I know it's a lot, but its sooooo worth it!

One of my favorite books. Thomas Keneally writes about a good german who saves the most number of jews during the holocaust. Though the movie portraits only the good side of Schindler, the book gives a more clear picture of Schindler's character. The first chapter itself puts you right into the ww2 picture. From there, Keneally tries to portray the unspeakable horror done to Jews by the Nazis. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in knowing about what happened to jews during the ww2.

Schindler was an amazing man that gave hope to many Jewish people in a era where they all thought there was no hope what so ever. Schindler saw past what many other NAZI's saw, Jew's are people to, with the same hopes and dreams as any other person. They shouldn't be executed due to their religious beliefs. Keneally did a great job portraying the hurt and pain of the Jewish people during the holocaust, a horendous event that took place during World War Two. Highly Recommended AMAZING BOOK!!

So, you want to know about Schindlers list. If you have alot of time on your hands, then I would choose this book. This work, for some people may be hard to follow, or to understand because it has many strange and unfamiliar names of people and places. If you have seen the movie, do not try to think of it too much as you read because it is like most books that have been made into movies, very different. this is a very good story, and teaches you how cruel man can really be.

Schindler's List, by Thomas Keneally, while extraordinarily accurate on the events of World War 2, was not a very captivating story. It's about a man, Oskar Schindler, who starts off as a first class industrialist who recruits Jewish workers to work in his labor camp. Oskar, who had many important contacts in the military and government, was able to supply his Jewish workers with more food, clothing, and better living conditions that any of the camps that had been established for the Jews in World War 2. In other words, if you worked for Schindler, you were in paradise. As the mass murders of the Jews in the concentration camps began, and Schindler's labor camp was moved from Moravia to Brinnlitz, Schindler became obsessed with the welfare of the Jews. He concocted a list of 1000+ Jewish prisoners from concentration camps to go and "work" in his labor camp in Brinnlitz, though they didn't do much working. Finally, after a long, hard battle, the Schindler and imprisoned Jews were liberated.
The plot of the story was itself amazing, but the way it was written wasn't as extraordinary. Thomas Keneally used many German words in his writing that made it hard to understand what he was talking about. Also, at some points of the story, he would be telling them very well but then would stray from the subject. It is very easy to get confused while reading this book. He would sometimes go into far too much detail, making the story too much for what it should have been. The structuring of the sentences was also quite extravagant, sometimes too extravagant to understand. So in conclusion, the book Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally was a very good story, but simply not very well written.

One of the best novels I ever read on the Holocaust. One man really does make a difference. Without Schindler hundreds of Jewish prisoners would have been exterminated in the death camps. A fast, easy reading book with characters who are simply evil incarnate. Schindler was a saint and the world should never forget what he did during the war.

Schindlers List is a true story of a heroic man who used his fortune to build a camp to pretect Jews fromt he Nazis during WW2. This book is very inspiring with a lot of detail in the characters personalities and in the description of the killings and torture the prisoners had to go through. It wasnt the best book but it was a really good book. One of the most interesting ive read.

I gave Schindler's list five sttars because of the great details and extremes Schindler went to. Shindler was a great man he was very great in helping over 1200 jews. he had help after the war but only because he saved jews wich became successful when he didn't. It was a great book to read i think it took four weeks. but it was one of the best i've ever read and i despratly want to see the movie.

Based on Movies. This book is so well placed in time I had to re-read it again. Keneally does a great job here writing such a timeless classic, that I could not put it down at all. It took me 9 days to finally read it.

I'm a pretty big fan of holocaust books. I LOVED Survival in Auschwitz and Night. This, however, seemed more in the nature of a school textbook and was focused on the life of Schindler, the man, rather than the events of the holocaust itselt. Obviously, the world begs to differ; this book was just not for me.

This review is dedicated by a Jew and Zionist Until Death, myself! , To the Righteous among the Nations, those Gentiles who have stood by the Jewish Nation in times of travail and murder, and those who continue to stand by Jews and Israel, in these frightening and sombre times of today.
Many people have wondered how the nation that gave us such great contributors to humanity, such as the Statesman Frederick the Great, the poet and writer Johan Goethe, and musicians such as Bach and Beethoven, could have allowed themselves to be led by the Satanic Adolph Hitler (may his evil name be erased from history) produced the SS and Gestapo, and allowed those evil forces to carry out the Holocaust against 6 million Jewish men, women and children, as well as millions of Roma, disabled people , Slavs and Armenians.
An yet we must not forget the righteous among the nations, which included Germans like Pastor Niemoller and Konrad Adenauer, who opposed the monstrous Nazi tyranny, and Oskar Schindler (and Emily Schindler) among others, who put their own lives on the line to save Jewish lives.
Oskar Schindler was a maverick Sudeten German industrialist, who put his life and livelihood on the line to save 6 000 Jews from the Nazi death machine.
Unlike the move "Schindler's List", in this book we read something of the world before and after World War II and the Holocaust (Shoah).
Hence we see something of the anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church, and how the centuries of Catholic poison against the Jewish people, in some ways paved the way for the horrors of the Shoah (as well as having caused untold suffering and death to Jews through the centuries - since Roman times! -and it continues to cause suffering and death today to Jews when the Catholic Church sides with Palestinian terrorists against innocent Israeli Jewish women and children!
In 1929 Oskar Schindler married Emilie, a German speaking Catholic girl (who would prove to have a heart of gold, but would be treated shabbily by Oskar). From her girlhood Emilie would have a close friendship with the daughter of the local Jewish storekeeper in her village, Rita Reiff.
On a visit to Emile's father, the parish priest told him that it was not good , in principle , for a Catholic girl to have a friendship with a Jew. It is a testament to Emilie's character that she resisted the edict of the bigoted priest, and remained a close friend Rita's, until Rita was executed by Nazi officials, in front of the store, in 1942.
It is a testament to the love and honour that Schindler would be held in by the Jews he saved and their descendents, that when this book was written by Thomas Keneally in 1982 (37 years after the war and 8 years after Oskar Schindler passed away) that a family called the C's who spread malicious rumours about Schindlers, still had to be protected by being granted anonymity by the author! Clearly the Schindlerjuden or their children or grandchildren could take revenge against the C's if the author had revealed their identity!
He was not held by all Germans with such esteem after the war, and as late as the 1960's were spat out and verbally attacked on the streets of Frankfurt (but more of that later).
Just as there have always been a handful of righteous Gentiles, so too there have always been Jews who have acted in ways that have brought destruction on their own people.
The Judenrat (The Nazi puppet councils of Jews) that helped the Nazis oppress their own people, where mainly made up of secular intellectuals, as are the leftist Jewish traitors today, like the loathsome Noam Chomsky, who back the `Palestinian' efforts to destroy the tiny Jewish State of Israel, and thereby subject the Jewish people to a second holocaust.
Over half of all holocaust survivors today live in Israel (as do many descendants of holocaust survivors), and it would be a hideous twist of history for these too to perish in the flames of anti-Jew hatred, as they would do if Israel was destroyed by forces of evil (G-D forbid that this should ever be allowed to happen!)
Towards his later life in the 1960's and early 70's Schindler would be well looked after by the Schindlerjuden in Israel (where he spent half of every year, spending the other half in Germany in poverty and loneliness), and he would choose to be buried in Jerusalem.
Many Schindler Jews mourned him at his funeral in Jerusalem in 1974.
While we will always remember evil enemies of our people those like Pharaoh Amalek, Haman, Torquemada, Chmielnicki, Hitler, Stalin, Gaddafi Arafat, Edward Said and Chomsky (may their souls be eternally erased), we too must remember the Righteous Among the Nations such as Rahab, Emperor Darius, Pastor Niemoller, Oskar and Emilie Schindler , Reverend Pat Robertson , David Dolan and Mike Evans (may they be eternally blessed).

Great fictional story!! This book and the movie it's based on are total works of fiction. Just looking at the aerial view of the camp you can see that the claims of the shooting from the tower was impossible. This whole thing is complete fiction just like the rest of the atrocity stories about Germany in ww2. It's all fake and has been proven to be fake. If only you had the ability to remove your religious belief in the holocaust and critically look at the evidence with a rational mind you would see that it's total garbage. There was no homicidal gas chambers in ww2. Open your eyes and take off your blindfold.

I was surprised by how similar the book was to the movie; there was a little extra detail, but not on any major points. I thought it was reasonably easy to read, and it whetted my appetite for a factual biography of Schindler which I will soon start to read.

I was glued to the pages of SL, but I was hungry for a deeper story that may or may not be born out by the facts. Why did Schindler do what he did, and why didn't he ever do anything of consequence before or after ? If anyone's interested, I'll expand. Jack

I was surprised by how similar the book was to the movie; there was a little extra detail, but not on any major points. I thought it was reasonably easy to read, and it whetted my appetite for a factual biography of Schindler which I will soon start to read.

I'm a pretty big fan of holocaust books. I LOVED Survival in Auschwitz and Night. This, however, seemed more in the nature of a school textbook and was focused on the life of Schindler, the man, rather than the events of the holocaust itselt. Obviously, the world begs to differ; this book was just not for me.

This review is dedicated by a Jew and Zionist Until Death, myself! , To the Righteous among the Nations, those Gentiles who have stood by the Jewish Nation in times of travail and murder, and those who continue to stand by Jews and Israel, in these frightening and sombre times of today.
Many people have wondered how the nation that gave us such great contributors to humanity, such as the Statesman Frederick the Great, the poet and writer Johan Goethe, and musicians such as Bach and Beethoven, could have allowed themselves to be led by the Satanic Adolph Hitler (may his evil name be erased from history) produced the SS and Gestapo, and allowed those evil forces to carry out the Holocaust against 6 million Jewish men, women and children, as well as millions of Roma, disabled people , Slavs and Armenians.
An yet we must not forget the righteous among the nations, which included Germans like Pastor Niemoller and Konrad Adenauer, who opposed the monstrous Nazi tyranny, and Oskar Schindler (and Emily Schindler) among others, who put their own lives on the line to save Jewish lives.
Oskar Schindler was a maverick Sudeten German industrialist, who put his life and livelihood on the line to save 6 000 Jews from the Nazi death machine.
Unlike the move "Schindler's List", in this book we read something of the world before and after World War II and the Holocaust (Shoah).
Hence we see something of the anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church, and how the centuries of Catholic poison against the Jewish people, in some ways paved the way for the horrors of the Shoah (as well as having caused untold suffering and death to Jews through the centuries - since Roman times! -and it continues to cause suffering and death today to Jews when the Catholic Church sides with Palestinian terrorists against innocent Israeli Jewish women and children!
In 1929 Oskar Schindler married Emilie, a German speaking Catholic girl (who would prove to have a heart of gold, but would be treated shabbily by Oskar). From her girlhood Emilie would have a close friendship with the daughter of the local Jewish storekeeper in her village, Rita Reiff.
On a visit to Emile's father, the parish priest told him that it was not good , in principle , for a Catholic girl to have a friendship with a Jew. It is a testament to Emilie's character that she resisted the edict of the bigoted priest, and remained a close friend Rita's, until Rita was executed by Nazi officials, in front of the store, in 1942.
It is a testament to the love and honour that Schindler would be held in by the Jews he saved and their descendents, that when this book was written by Thomas Keneally in 1982 (37 years after the war and 8 years after Oskar Schindler passed away) that a family called the C's who spread malicious rumours about Schindlers, still had to be protected by being granted anonymity by the author! Clearly the Schindlerjuden or their children or grandchildren could take revenge against the C's if the author had revealed their identity!
He was not held by all Germans with such esteem after the war, and as late as the 1960's were spat out and verbally attacked on the streets of Frankfurt (but more of that later).
Just as there have always been a handful of righteous Gentiles, so too there have always been Jews who have acted in ways that have brought destruction on their own people.
The Judenrat (The Nazi puppet councils of Jews) that helped the Nazis oppress their own people, where mainly made up of secular intellectuals, as are the leftist Jewish traitors today, like the loathsome Noam Chomsky, who back the `Palestinian' efforts to destroy the tiny Jewish State of Israel, and thereby subject the Jewish people to a second holocaust.
Over half of all holocaust survivors today live in Israel (as do many descendants of holocaust survivors), and it would be a hideous twist of history for these too to perish in the flames of anti-Jew hatred, as they would do if Israel was destroyed by forces of evil (G-D forbid that this should ever be allowed to happen!)
Towards his later life in the 1960's and early 70's Schindler would be well looked after by the Schindlerjuden in Israel (where he spent half of every year, spending the other half in Germany in poverty and loneliness), and he would choose to be buried in Jerusalem.
Many Schindler Jews mourned him at his funeral in Jerusalem in 1974.
While we will always remember evil enemies of our people those like Pharaoh Amalek, Haman, Torquemada, Chmielnicki, Hitler, Stalin, Gaddafi Arafat, Edward Said and Chomsky (may their souls be eternally erased), we too must remember the Righteous Among the Nations such as Rahab, Emperor Darius, Pastor Niemoller, Oskar and Emilie Schindler , Reverend Pat Robertson , David Dolan and Mike Evans (may they be eternally blessed).

Great fictional story!! This book and the movie it's based on are total works of fiction. Just looking at the aerial view of the camp you can see that the claims of the shooting from the tower was impossible. This whole thing is complete fiction just like the rest of the atrocity stories about Germany in ww2. It's all fake and has been proven to be fake. If only you had the ability to remove your religious belief in the holocaust and critically look at the evidence with a rational mind you would see that it's total garbage. There was no homicidal gas chambers in ww2. Open your eyes and take off your blindfold.