Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

Once in a while, I’m gripped by the facts of a story so much I have to read it to the end even if I don’t like the style in which it’s told. Such is the case with Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally. Oskar Schindler was an industrialist and speculator in Cracow, Poland during the Nazi occupation. He liked to drink and was an unashamed womanizer. He seemed an unlikely candidate for one to try and save as many of the Jewish population as possible and yet he did. He put his own life in harm’s way many times, sometimes very recklessly. Yet he did and the author couldn’t say for sure why. I say, thank God for Oskar Schindler.

At first, the Jewish people of Cracow were forced into a ghetto within the city. About a year later, the ghetto was violently shut down and the citizens rounded up and put into a nearby concentration camp run by the sadistic Amon Goeth. That guy was a monster. When he wasn’t beating or terrorizing his servants, he was out playing random shooter of prisoners. He’d go out with his gun, take aim at a prisoner (who knows why) and kill that person. Or he’d get angry over nothing and shoot a prisoner. Schindler stepped in and finagled his employees out of that horrible camp by building one of his very own behind his factory. He rescued the employees of a fellow industrialist by housing those employees in the same camp. At Schindler’s camp, the SS was not allowed to roam around beating or terrorizing inmates at will. Schindler paid and paid with bribe after bribe.

Eventually, the local concentration camp was ordered to close and every inmate was to be shipped to notorious camps like Auschwitz. Again, Schindler saved over a thousand people by relocating his factory and bribing officials to allow him to bring 1,100 of the inmates with him.

When the war was over, Schindler lost everything—all his money, property and jewelry. He and his wife had to run for their lives—accompanied by 8 of the inmates. All of the former Jewish people in the camp wanted to protect the Schindlers and wrote letters praising him for what he’d done. After the war was over, they supported him when he needed financial help and had him live with them in their homes (mostly in Israel) for several months out of the year. When he died, he was buried in Jerusalem and was mourned by people around the world.

I’d never heard of him before! I’d heard of the movie, of course, but hadn’t had a chance to see it. When I saw the book at a library sale, I picked it up and I am ever so glad I did.

The biggest challenge I had was getting through some of it because of the wording. I don’t want to use the adjective “ponderous” and I’m too lazy to find a milder word that means almost the same thing. Some really amazing stories, fables and fact came to light (for me) and so I was able to wade through the prose which just seemed really heavy. Oh well. I’m glad I read it anyway.