History Coursework
"Schindlers List"
My coursework is about the film "Schindlers List" the film is directed by Steven Spielberg, who is actually a Jew himself. Steven Spielberg collected most of his evidence from the book "Schindlers Ark," the author of the book is Thomas Keneally. The film is about Nazi Germany punishing and killing the Jews. The point I want to find out is if the film "Schindlers List" based on Thomas Keneallys book "Schindlers Ark" is historically accurate?
Some directors make movies to get money or to become famous, or even to win awards. But Steven Spielberg might have made the film for other reasons. He might have made the film for personal reasons, like Spielberg was a Jew and that the film was about Jews, or even to make a political point to say that this event actually took place. Also that Steven Spielberg had a lot of information at his disposal from the book "Schindlers Ark", and he could also get information from the survivors as well to help him make the movie. Steven Spielberg also probably made the film to make money or to become more famous. Steven Spielberg had a lot of pressure by making the movie; he wanted to make the movie reliable. If he didn't make the film reliable and just making it all Hollywood the Jewish survivors would discredit the movie and that could ruin Steven Spielberg reputation, personally and professionally. There was also other pressures that might reduce the reliability that the film also had to be interesting and exciting so he exaggerated in a couple of parts in the movie, and Spielberg also had to add in parts to the movie. One of the hardest pressures Spielberg had was to fit the movie into three hours, so Spielberg had to leave out bits to not overrun the movie so the people wouldn't get bored when watching the film.
The film "Schindlers List" is based on a true story, but that doesn't mean that it is completely reliable. Steven Spielberg movie is a true story and he had wealth of evidence from Thomas Keneallys book "Schindlers Ark". Thomas Keneally wrote "Schindlers Ark", he dedicated the book to Leopold Pfefferberg, Leopold Pfefferberg was an Schindler survivor, and Pfefferberg gave a lot of information to help the book and the film. Pfefferberg said Schindler was a German 'bon-vivant' which means high living, speculator, and a charmer, and sign of contradiction that salvaged a cross-section of condemned race during the years of the Holocaust, or Shoah in Hebrew. Thomas Keneally interviewed fifty Schindler survivors who had settled all over the world, like in Australia, Israel, West Germany, Austria, U.S.A, Argentina and Brazil. Interviewing all these Jews would give Keneally a lot of evidence which then Spielberg could use to make his film more historically accurate, but this doesn't mean its reliable, the Jews were a lot older so they could forget some things and make things up to get sympathy of people from other countries. Thomas Keneally also visited some locations that are in the book and film, like Cracow that was Schindlers adopted city, Plasowis were Amon Goeth had a labour camp in Lipowa Street; Zabloche is were Schindlers factory still stands today. Auschwitz is were the women prisoners were rescued. Any moviemaker making a history film needs evidence but Steven Spielberg didn't need to find or look for evidence, he had all the evidence in the book to make his film. He didn't need fiction as he had lots of real life details to use.
Survivors of the Shoah provided more evidence for Spielberg's movie. Ben Kingsley interviews Steven Spielberg, who was so moved when filming "Schindlers List" after that he even went on to set up a history foundation called survivors of the Shoah. This is to record thousands of hours of survivor's accounts using groundbreaking technology in a race against time before the remaining survivors die. You will be able to use online access, and being stored in a visual history archive based in its Los Angeles headquarters. It is estimated that three hundred thousand Shoah survivors still exist today who ...
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Survivors of the Shoah provided more evidence for Spielberg's movie. Ben Kingsley interviews Steven Spielberg, who was so moved when filming "Schindlers List" after that he even went on to set up a history foundation called survivors of the Shoah. This is to record thousands of hours of survivor's accounts using groundbreaking technology in a race against time before the remaining survivors die. You will be able to use online access, and being stored in a visual history archive based in its Los Angeles headquarters. It is estimated that three hundred thousand Shoah survivors still exist today who can testify on video about their life before, during and after the Holocaust. As Spielberg called it, "a living document" of "this extreme example of racial hatred." "The accidental hero" is a documentary where Joan Bakewell is interviewing some Schindler survivors who have actually seen and know what habits he has, like leaving packets of cigarettes on workers tables, so they could sell them to buy food, Schindler also did not allow any of his workers get hit or shot by the guards in his factory, Schindler also liked the women workers in his factory. In this documentary you see pictures of Schindler and Goeth, also there is pictures of the camps that Steven Spielberg could use in his film to make it more reliable. Even though the film has so much evidence backing it up, I still think there is some doubts in the film that we don't have evidence about like Schindler sitting on the hill in a white horse watching the Jews getting read out of the ghettos. I think these bits are dramatised, we have no evidence that this ever happened. Also not all-Jewish evidence maybe totally reliable because the Jews are a lot older now and can forget what happened or that they want it to sound worst than it really was for sympathy. But overall there was lots of real life detail to make a reliable movie.
I am going to describe briefly some of the most famous scenes. The liquidation of the ghetto, in that scene it is were the Germans rounded up the Jews and cleared them out of the ghettos. During the clearout even some of the Jews neighbours told the Germans were all the Jews lived in the village. Another scene is when the German doctors are selecting out the weak prisoners in the camps, even some of the prisoners trying to make themselves look healthy by cutting their fingers and wiping the blood on their face to make their face a bit of colour, even some Jews tried switching lines to try and stay alive. Some of the characteristics of Oscar Schindler, Schindler was a womaniser and like to go to parties. At the start Schindler started a factory for one reason only, that was to make money. While the film goes on Schindler start to change his mind especially towards the Jews when he seen the liquidation of the ghetto, all the Jews going to the camps either to work or to be gassed. Schindler had another habit, he used to set packets of cigarettes on the table for the workers to get food.
In source one provides a lot of evidence to backup these scenes. The book "Schindlers Ark" make it easier to make the movie, because Spielberg didn't have to make up new characters or any scenes because the book had all the evidence, from the survivors, which could tell Keneally what Schindler was like and what happened the Jews, and how they were treated, what the camps and backgrounds were like, and all this evidence could go towards making the film more reliable. The detailed research of the book meant there was no need for fiction. There was a mass of real life detail to use to make a reliable historical movie. Source three Survivors of the Shoah provides a width of evidence when Spielberg tries and gets as much evidence as he could, so it would make his film more realistic. He did this, so if any one tried to say anything bad about the movie, he could say to them look at all the evidence I collected to prove that it happened so how could you say this is to unrealistic. Source four 'the accidental hero', will provide and help to make the film historically accurate. Joan Bakewell interviews some Schindler Jews to find out what type of person Schindler was. This will help Spielberg to make his movie more accurate. The Schindler Jews could evidence of what habits Schindler had, and how he treated his workers, to make Schindler character in the movie, more like the real Schindler. With this evidence people can't say that Schindler didn't do all these things, Spielberg has the evidence from his workers. These little scenes about Schindlers behaviour in the movie are accurate because this programme interviewed real survivors who said this is how he behaved. Source nine will help to backup scenes in the movie. Helen Lewis book 'a time to speak'. Helen Lewis was a Jewish survivor of a camp. Helen Lewis didn't work for Schindler but she still gave evidence about the camps. In this piece of evidence it shows Helen Lewis in a selecting scene were the German doctors are selecting the Jews, it also shows how the Jews tried to escaped from the doctors by switching lines and many other tricks, some of them worked but some didn't.
That large amount of evidence from the Jewish side, but we have also got evidence from the other side, the Germans. It not very often you get evidence from both sides. In source six is a picture of Plaszow labour camp, where woman prisoners pulling heavy trucks. This piece of evidence will help make the realism of the film better, help make the backgrounds better. The picture will also help Spielberg choose the right costumes for the movie as well. The picture will help Spielberg in another way; it will help him to know what sort of tasks the woman prisoners had to do in the camps. In source seven is a map showing 'German official plans for the Final Solution, 20th January 1942.' This map proves that the Wannsee Conference took place. The map shows were all the Jews were situated and how many Jews were in each region, this piece of evidence proves that the Germans were planning to round up the Jews. The Germans were good at keeping records, when the Germans captured a country they gathered up the Jews and put them onto ghettos and then into camps either to work or to die. This proves scenes in the film were the Jews wore a yellow star and were they were moved into the ghettos as quickly as possible. In source eight it shows a map of the Germans rounding up the Jews and putting them into death camps. Himmlers Order of 19th July 1942, telling the Germans that the deadline was on 31st December 1942 as the final date when the Jewish population must have been depart from the general government. This piece of evidence proves that it was planned and there was an order to wipe out the Jews from a Nazi Official. This all confirms what happened to the Jews and also supports the historical evidence in the movie for the liquidation of the ghetto scene.
There is people who deny that the holocaust happened, with all that evidence there is people who still deny that it happened. Lady Mosley and David Irving, who are not just ordinary people, they are well known revisionist historians, they have received a lot of attention from the media with there views. There not the only well known people who deny the holocaust. There is two major American politicians, Pat Buchanan and David Duke. Jean Marie Le Pen in France is a major force in national politics and a holocaust denier. Why do these revisionists deny the holocaust? Are they anti Jewish. Do they want to become famous by selling books, or do they just enjoy being controversial and awkward.
There are other problems that could backup the movie of not being accurate. The accuracy of the Jewish evidence, the survivors are old and may exaggerate a bit because they forget part and just make it up, or do the Jewish survivors just want people to feel pity on them. Dramatisation in the movie is another problem that can make the film unreliable, we don't have evidence that Schindler ever wore a white or he was sitting on top of the hill when he seen the Jews getting put out of the ghetto. In the film, Spielberg made Schindler look like to much a saint person. But I still think with all the evidence and doubts that the movie is still historically accurate.
After viewing the movie, could this movie be a "living document" about the holocaust for future generations? "Schindlers List" is based on a true story with a lot of evidence backing the film up. How can this movie be a lively form of historical record? Some people don't like reading a book because they find it boring and it takes too long to go through the whole book, some people prefer just watching a video because it doesn't take as long to watch the video and its easier to picture yourself in the movie than just reading a book. Is it a realistic movie based upon a broad amount of quality evidence? Yes, it is a realistic movie and has a lot of evidence backing it up like the fifty survivors or even the book that gave a lot of evidence. Is there need for caution and balance when viewing it as a living historical record? Of course there is and Spielberg knew this and that's why he started Survivors of the Shoah. At the end of the movie the Jewish survivors even appeared in the film so that proves they thought the film was all right or they wouldn't have appeared in the film. My opinion on this is that I think the film will be a living document in the future, and I don't know how people could deny the holocaust even know there is so much evidence supporting the movie and that the holocaust actually happened, and all the evidence isn't just from the Jews there is even evidence form the Germans. I personally feel that the movie is historically accurate for people to watch a bit of what happened to the Jews in the holocaust. The film helps keep alive this memory and brings the past to life about the holocaust. Beyond the film there is a mass of real life evidence and Spielberg helped to gather this up to support his movie by setting up Survivors of the Shoah and its ICT records.
Stephen Lyons 11G4