When the liquidation of the Jews occurred in 1943 the Jews were forced to leave the ghetto and move into Concentration Camps. In the film we see how Jews, as soon as they arrived, were ordered to strip naked while a doctor took a very quick look at them to determine whether or not they were essential workers. In the trains the women were pinching their cheeks to make it look as though they were red and healthy.
The unlucky Jews who were not classified as being essential workers were herded into very large gas chambers where the Nazi's would commit mass murder by poisoning every Jew in the chamber. They bodies which were removed by fellow Jews who were considered to be lucky due to their post before being burned to get rid of all of the evidence.
Overall we see the Nazi's as a heartless, vicious crowd of thugs.
Jewish Ghettos: Following the signing of the census in 1943, all Jews were forced to move into a tiny ghetto, which was only the size of 16 square blocks.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the Jews were then segregated following the arrival of Amon Goeth to Plasow. Essential workers were housed away from their families, as were the remainder of the men and in many cases, mothers and children were separated and forbidden to see each other.
While the Jews were 'coped up' in the ghetto, the Nazi's tried to find a 'Final Solution' of how to deal with the Jewish problem; the Jews.
In 'Schindler's List' we see incidents of police brutality as S.A men, unprovoked, attack and murder innocent Jews in the ghetto and we also see how the Jews totally feared the Nazi's and never 'stepped out of line.'
The ghetto was very crowded due to its over-population and as a result of this the whole place was very dirty. In fact, if an epidemic had started it would have spread very quickly and could have wiped out the entire ghetto in a matter of days.
Purpose of Concentration Camps: Most of the Concentration Camps were built especially, whenever the Nazis were debating at Wannsee, to over-work, murder and imprison the Jews.
In the film, Spielberg concentrates mostly on the Concentration Camp at Plasow and it's goings on inside. Plasow was a forced labour camp, which meant that Jews were not necessarily exterminated immediately, instead they done manual labour. The proceeds of this labour and hard work went towards the Nazi government.
The Jews, however, whom were classified as non-essential workers were stripped naked and put back on the trains which then headed straight to Auschwitz, or another extermination camp. They arrived off the trains unsure of what to expect and soon they were handed towels and soap and told to enter the 'shower room.'
The 'shower room' was a D-Coy and it was actually a massive gas chamber and as soon as the door shut behind them the Jews were condemned.
Inside the camps the Nazi's forced the Jews to build bigger extermination chambers - in most which cases, which would be responsible for the deaths of it's constructors.
Overall, the Concentration Camps were designed for the torture and downfall of Jewish religion and society and between the forced labour and extermination camps; they caused several million Jewish lives to be cut short.
Conditions in Camps: Camps were even more crowded and brutal than the ghetto. We see several cases of murder without provocation by the Nazi's, especially Amon Goeth. He sits perched up in his big house, which overlooks the camp and after coolly piecing together his rifle, picks a target and shoots him/her.
This shows how difficult and frightening it must have been for the Jews and gives us an insight into the cruelty, which went on inside the camps.
Crowdedness was the main problem which, most worried the Nazi's, and I am sure that if the Jews had of held an uprising then they would have overcame the Nazis due to their superior numbers.
But the Nazi's realised this and thus were quick to quench the hopes of the Jews by installing fear in them by killing and beating up innocent Jews.
In the extermination camps the problem of over-crowdedness was overcame by simply killing hundreds and thousands of Jews who were not totally satisfied with the housing situation.
In my opinion the Jews were in a way, lucky that an epidemic didn't break out, as it would have prematurely wiped out the ghetto.
Treatment of Jewish Children: Whenever Amon Goeth segregated the ghetto the children were forced to part with either one or both parents. Spielberg must have felt strongly about the torture, which the children were subjected to, as we witness several cases of Nazi brutality against the Jewish children.
One Jewish girl was caught smoking and as a punishment was trailed along the ground by her hair by an S.A man before being kicked and beaten.
Amon Goeth we see then, shooting and killing an innocent Jewish boy who was unable to scrub the lime scale from his bath.
The Jewish children obviously did not harbour any ill feelings against the Nazi's, as they would not have understood what was going on at the time and I think that Spielberg used this fact to his advantage in order to emphasise the cruelty of the 'Master-race.'
Jewish children had their heads shaved hastily to avoid getting head-lice and we are given an indication of how scared the Jewish children were when we see them hiding in the mass toilets which the Jews used.
Oscar Schindler obviously cared about the children as we see him protecting his young workers when officers mistake them for non-essential workers.
The children, although innocent were not excused from being put to death as we witnessed them being taken away in 3 lorry loads as they happily waved to their distraught parents who feared the worst for their loved ones.
Attitudes of Jews: From my point of view the Jews were an extremely harshly treated race, but despite this were unable to prevent this treatment due to their total fear of their German counterparts.
Throughout the entire 3-hour film we only see one or two instances of the Jews showing any resistance against the Nazis, and this gives us the impression that the Jews accepted that they were an inferior race and were totally petrified of the S.A men.
One such instance came whenever the Nazi officers ordered the liquidation of the ghetto but not all Jews abided faithfully to these instructions. Many of the Jews had sensed this order had been coming and thus had prepared hiding places in their apartments, eg. Beneath the floorboards etc.
Jews never communicated with Nazi officers or S.A men for fear of being shot or beaten and this sums up the situation between the races.
We see an example of how the Nazi men worked early in the film when the officers isolate a solitary Jew and surround him and intimidate him. They proceeded to humiliate him and cut off his hair, which was an important part of Jewish tradition.
Mr Spielberg also shows how the Nazis forced the Jews of all ages to get on to their knees and scrub the streets with toothbrushes.
Overall we get the impression from the film that the Jews were very scared, docile towards the S.A men and came to accept that they were an inferior race.
Selection of Jews for Work or Extermination: After Amon Goeth segregated the ghetto he decided that he would classify the Jews into two separate classes: Essential workers and Non- Essential workers.
Those Jews who were 'lucky enough' to be classified as being Essential workers were not exterminated, but instead were sent to forced labour camps. The others, who were seen as being non-essential workers, were sent directly to the gas chamber for extermination.
The process by which the Jews were classified was quite ludicrous. A German doctor sat perched on a chair while the Jews lined up in single file, one behind each other. The doctor took one very brief look at the Jew and from that, decided if he/she was an essential or non-essential worker.
In 'Schindler's List' we see how, on the train, the Jewish women pinched their cheeks to try and burst some blood vessels, in order to make their cheeks red and thus look healthy.
The Nazis did not like very educated Jews and put most teachers and talented musicians straight into the gas chamber as soon as they heard their professions.
Unfortunately, most of the Jews who were said to be non-essential workers were women and children, resulting in their extermination.
Transport of Jews to Death Camps: The Nazis herded the hundreds of thousands of non-essential workers on to massive freight trains and cattle wagons. These trains and wagons had previously been used to carry livestock or cargo across the country and there must have been a terrible stench in the compartments.
The trains were also segregated and Spielberg shows us, in the film, how sometimes between 30 and 40 Jews could be packed into one small compartment.
The Jews found it very difficult to breathe in the compartments as the vast numbers quickly used up all of the available oxygen. It was hard and extremely agitating for the Jews in the hot, humid weather and we see how the fought to get their heads out the small window.
These trains drove directly into the Concentration Camps where the majority of the Jews would go on to face their fate. Some journeys lasted up to 6 days and in the film we see how the Jews on board, speculated and debated over what would happen to them when they reached their destination.
Extermination: Hundreds and thousands of Jews were murdered even before they reached the Concentration Camps as we seen in the ghetto, due to S.A brutality. Spielberg shows several incidents where Amon Goeth or other Nazi officers shooting random Jews for personal pleasure or satisfaction.
Gas chambers had previously only been able to hold around 200 Jews but the Nazi's forced the Jewish captives to erect new larger, more efficient chambers in 1938 and soon most chambers could hold up to 2,000 Jews at once.
The Jews were told to strip naked in order to part-take in a mass shower. Sometimes they were handed soap and towels to avoid any arousing suspicion.
As soon as the Jews were all in the chamber, the large door was slammed shut behind them and, through an opening in the roof; a piece of crystallised prussic acid was dropped in.
The acid poisoned everyone and within 15 minutes the entire chamber was dead. Jewish prisoners dragged out the corpses, which were then incinerated.
In 'Schindler's List' we don't actually see the Jews being gassed but we do see a 'close shave' where a gas chamber was filled with Jews who expected the worst, but to their surprise the showers turned on and produced water for them to wash.
We do, however, see the incineration of the corpses in large hollows and there is more evidence of the burning of the bodies when grey/black ash is produced from the large chimneys in the Camps.
3) Do the other sources support the interpretation?
Attitudes of Nazis: The Nazis, on the whole, were portrayed as a very cold, heartless race that absolutely despised all Jews and took their anti-Semitism to the extremes.
We see how the Nazi officers and S.A men took pleasure in torturing, abusing and murdering innocent Jews. They seemed to enjoy installing fear in the hearts of every Jew and did not mind showing it.
An example of the hatred and callousness of the Nazis was supported by Source 4 in which Adolf Hitler himself is quoted as saying, "Out of the ghetto and into the ghetto with them."
In the following source (Source 5) Rudolf Hoss states, "The Jews are the sworn enemies of the German and must be eradicated. Every Jew we can lay our hands on is to be destroyed now, during the war, without exception."
Whenever the Jews are labelled 'Cargo' in Source 8 we see just how the Nazis regard the Jew's lives as being worthless. I get the impression that this view is shared by the Nazis in 'Schindler's List' and thus is the interpretation is supported by the sources.
Jewish Ghettos: In 'Schindler's List' we see how the Jews were forced into the ghetto after registering their names and being forcefully segregated. We also see how there were two or three families sharing single apartments and how Nazi officers regularly raided the apartments. The Nazis ruled supreme in the ghetto and we see it as being a dirty, overcrowded area, inhabited by very frightened Jews. The source supports this answer fully as it emphasises the scared, timid Jews.
In the final paragraph, Source 32 E.J Passant tells of the procedure taken following the capture of a Jewish region. This does support the interpretation as it tells how firstly the Jews were ordered to register and then subjected to hearing and comprehending with the Nuremberg laws. Next came enforced concentration and lastly came the deportation of the Jews into the Concentration Camps of Poland or Germany where, he says, 'Death through overwork, starvation, or the gas oven awaited them.'
Conditions in Camps: Camps, like the ghetto, were extremely crowded and again, the Jews constantly lived in fear of being killed. Spielberg shows us several instances where Nazis ruthlessly kill innocent, unarmed Jews. We see how the Jews are forced to work for the Nazis in the camps by building new gas chambers, etc. Source 6 supports this theory of the camps being chaotic, over-crowded and brutal. It is a painting by a former inmate, which shows women running along naked in a camp, being selected for extermination.
Source 15 also supports the interpretation: 'Men hardened by battle were sickened by sights, sands and stenches and by cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal human mind. Inmates testified to blows, beatings and kicking's as a part of daily life…'
Another source to back up my interpretation is Source 16, which states that some prisoners 'resorted to cannibalism' and were 'living in abominable squalor.'
Purpose of Concentration Camps: As we find out in the film, there were two different types of camps; Forced Labour Camps and Extermination Camps. 'Schindler's List' concentrates mainly on Plasow, which was a forced labour camp where Jews were made to work in factories, etc. One example of an extermination camp was Auswitch where thousands of Jews were gassed but it was not unusual for killings to happen regularly in forced labour camps.
Once again the Source 17 supports the interpretation in that it tells of the torture and murder of thousands of Jews in concentration camps. Source 17 also tells us that Auswitch was very successful in // the final solution as it could hold 2000 Jews in one gas chamber at any one time.
The map (Source 2) gives us a clear view of all of the sites of the Nazi Concentration Camps in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland of both denominations.
Treatment of Jewish Children: Spielberg shows us the brutality and ruthlessness of the Nazis when he shows the children being separated from their parents inside the camps and also by emphasising the terror of the Jewish children, who went to extreme measures to avoid the SS men, eg. Hiding in the communal toilets. We see several separate incidents of police brutality towards children including, beatings, kicking's shootings and shaving their heads.
Source 24 is an example, which supports the film. It describes discrimination against children: 'Children of a tender age were invariably exterminated since by reason of their youth they were unable to work…' In other words, children were seen as non-essential workers and as a result, were taken away to be gassed, just as depicted in 'Schindler's List' where we see 3 lorry loads of children being taken away to be murdered.
Attitudes of Jews: Spielberg portrays the Jews as an extremely scared, docile race in 'Schindler's List' and we get the impression that they, scornfully, respect the Nazis and SS Officers. It is clear that the Jews had accepted that they were an inferior race and were too frightened to anything about it.
Source 23 was a plea, which does support my interpretation, to the outside world, by a Jew who is incensed, as people outside Nazi-invaded countries will not come to their rescue.
In Source 29 we witness the fear in one mans mind as he crawled to Goeth begging for mercy and hugging his legs and ankles. The writer calls it 'the Ultimate Submission.'
Selection of Jews for Work or Extermination: In 'Schindler's List' we see how Nazi doctors take one brief look at the Jews and proclaim whether he/she is an essential or a non-essential worker. This of course is ridiculous but it saved time and was efficient. We hear Amon Goeth talk about how he hates Jewish musicians and educated Jews and instead preferred hardened labourers.
In Source 10 a statement reads: ' Jews capable of work will join labour gangs. Doubtless, a large part will fall away through natural selection; the remainder will be dealt with appropriately.'
Source 26 also supports the interpretation, 'Selection took place at a railway road as soon as the victims got off the trains… There were heart-rending scenes as wives were torn from husbands and children from parents.
Transport of Jews to Extermination Camps: The Jews were carried on freight and cattle trains and they were packed into small carriages where oxygen, water and food were scarce. Oscar Schindler, in the film, is seen to be hosing the Jews in the trains to prevent them dying of thirst or heat exhaustion. Of course, he was accused of being too friendly to the Jews and as a result was thrown in jail.
We watched a documentary from the Holocaust Educational Trust, which supports the film. It showed actual footage of Jewish deportation, which seemed identical to the film's portrayal of the version of events.
Extermination of Jews: There are several sources which support the fact that the gas chambers were totally brutal and deceiving, as the Jews thought that they were getting a shower but instead were being led into a gas chamber.
Rudolf Hess describes how the Jews were murdered and what usually happened in Source 9. Hess tells of how he liquidated 80,000 Jews in six months but then changed his methods. He built larger chambers, which could hold 2,000 Jews and stopped using carbon monoxide, preferring to use crystallised prussic acid. He knew the people were dead when they stopped screaming.
Source 14 explains that sometimes the Nazis handed the Jews soap and towels before locking them in the gas chamber. Then in Source 18, William Shirer says that Jews were packed into the chambers 'like sardines' and that through heavy portholes the SS Men could watch what happened when realisation struck the Jews and they stampeded towards the door.
Overall, I have come to the conclusion that, after studying the sources, it is evident that the sources definitely support the interpretations of the 9 points.
4) Is 'Schindler's List' an accurate interpretation of the Holocaust?
After analysing, in depth, the film and the sources I have come to the conclusion that 'Schindler's List' is an excellently researched and documented film which is very accurate in it's interpretations of the actual goings on during the Holocaust.
They say that photographs never lie and we are shown two photos in the booklet, which we received. The first (Source 3) shows a solitary Jew who has been singled out by several S.A men who are crowded around him. They appear to be intimidating the man and one of the officers is armed with a pair of scissors and seems to be ready to cut off the Jew's hair. This is just one of many examples which supports the view that the film is an accurate portrayal of the Holocaust.
The other photograph is found in Source 7 and is a lot more serious and morbid than the previous one. It shows an oven used to burn the bodies of the Jewish corpses in order to save space and get rid of all the evidence. In 'Schindler's List' we do not actually see an oven but we are lead to believe that they exist through the inclusion of the three large chimneys, which each expelled grey ash - the Jewish remains.
The painting, which was drawn by a former Concentration Camp inmate in Source 6 shows naked Jewish women being herded into what is probably a gas chamber and them, being supervised strictly by Nazi officers. Although the artist probably does harbour ill feelings towards the Nazis, I am quite sure that the painting is quite reliable and is similar to the actual events of the Camps.
The two separate maps, which show all of the sites of Camps and the numbers of Jews murdered in each country, are very helpful and as they are extracts from official books we can take them as being reliable.
Overall, I do think that Steven Spielberg has done a very good job in accurately portraying the Holocaust as we can see when we compare eyewitness accounts to the film itself. Not only did I find this film very entertaining but also very educational and for this reason I think that Mr. Spielberg deserves a lot of credit.
