“He who saves the life of one man, saves the entire world.” (Keneally 2003, p. 92). The Australian Keneally (2003) uses this remarkable sentence from the Talmud, the most important book of holy writings for Jews, to start his best seller, an impressive novel that shows eye-witness personal experiences during the Holocaust of the Second World War. Schindler´s list, part of the Penguin Readers series, tells the story of a rich German Catholic man whose unlimited relations with the Nazi leaders made him earn enough money to establish his own factory of enamelware products and to bribe the special military and security unit of the Nazi Party (SS), for Jews as essential workers.
Especially interesting is the author´s description of Oskar Schindler´s contact to the horrors of Auschwitz and how he took advantage of his fortune to save “his Jews”, as he called them, to their predictable end that the reader is really engaged in the story from the beginning to the end. “I decided at that moment to do everything in my power to defeat the system”. (Schindler, 1942, as cited in Keneally, 2003 p. 31).
The book is designed to provide a detailed account of what really happened during the concentration camps during the Second World War. In the introduction, Keneally (2003) presents a brief description of Schindler and his family. In addition to that, he emphasizes the way Schindler faces the Nazi system putting his life at risk every day. In chapter one, Keneally describes Schindler´s family and his adolescence in detail, and the way he relates with his Jews classmates. In chapters two, three and four, the author details Schindler´s beginnings as a businessman and the way he tries to be part of a system in order to establish his own factory.
“Oskar had worked hard to make friends with men who had influence in government offices and in the army, entertaining them at the best restaurants and clubs and remembering birthdays and other special celebrations” ( p. 13).
In chapters five, six and seven, Keneally (2003) describes in detail the horrors of the concentration camps and how shocking was for Schindler who witnesses everything. Not only does Keneally use direct language, he also presents clear examples, most of which are very cruel, to make the audience be really involved in each episode.
“Such killing was just sport to Goeth and his SS men… His quick method was to enter one of the cap workshops, order the prisoners to form two lines, and march one of them away. The prisoners in this line would either be taken to a hill behind the camp and shot immediately… or sent to the gas chambers in one of the death camps”. (p. 43).
Chapters eight, nine, ten and eleven are the most shocking chapters in this book. There is a detailed account of different strategies taken by Schindler in order to carry out his plan to save his Jews and the problems he has to face in having his list accepted by the Nazi authorities. The last three chapters are concerned with the end of the War and the future of Schindler´s Jews as well as his and his wife Emili´s own future.
Schindler´s list is more than a written story, it is a horror story that happened to real people. The use of metaphors as well as repetitive phrases are a well-developed strategy the author adopts so as to make the novel as real as what actually happened between 1939 and 1945.
“Oskar understood what this meant”… He “ noticed a slow-moving little child dressed in a small read coat and a cap at the end of the line. The bright colour caught Oskar´s eye”. (Keneally, 2003, p. 30).
The strength of this real and impressive novel is that the author uses all his skills as narrator to transform this well-known story in a memorable novel based on true facts. This book is strongly recommended since Keneally highlights every single detail in order to make the reader not only feel but also reflect upon the horrors of the Holocaust without resorting to any picture in between.
References
Keneally, T. (2003). Schindler´s list. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited
