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.
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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 ...

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