Schindler's Gist

Act 1

Exposition:

Fifty of my family members were slaughtered during the Holocaust, while others escaped to America, others to Argentina, Congo, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. My eldest living Jewish relative, Rae, was seven-years-old when she fled occupied Rhodes via Brussels, Paris, and Lisbon for New York in 1940. Rae escaped Europe with my great-grandmother Madeleine, beloved for her fierce love and resilience, who arrived in New York 38-weeks pregnant with my grandfather. I’d heard their story my whole life, but it felt distant in the way that ancestral stories can.

Soon, there will be no Holocaust survivors alive anymore. Their stories will get hazier and hazier. From documentary to fictional drama, the silver screen has kept stories alive that would otherwise be lost to history, and these films help me deal with my own distance from my culture and family lineage. But, not all Holocaust films do justice to the horrors of this history. What do great Holocaust films look like, and is the criticism that has been lobbied against them justified?

Act 2

Rising Action:

There have been well over 400 Holocaust films and a few that critics regard as some of the greatest historical and anti-war films ever made. Schindler’s List (1993) directed by Steven Spielberg is by far the most famous and critically acclaimed Holocaust film. The film’s popularity has also brought controversy since Oskar Schindler, a Nazi who witnesses the horrors of his party with his own eyes and then secretly helps save 1,200 Jews, is the main character. About this film, legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick once said to his co-writer on Eyes Wide Shut, Frederic Raphael, “Think that was about the Holocaust? That was about success, wasn’t it? The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. Schindler’s List was about six hundred people who don’t.” Here Kubrick expresses his belief that Schindler’s List does not display the true brutality of the slaughtering of millions of innocent people. Instead Spielberg shows Jews who were saved by a Nazi who had supported putting them in the concentration camps in the first place.

Twist:

Though I agree with Kubrick's opinion that Schindler's List strays away from the reality of so much death, I disagree with his general distaste for the film and I believe Schindler's List is as close as to a perfect example of what a Holocaust film can be. The film is shot in black and white, except for one small part. Oskar Schindler is looking down at the concentration camp as he spots an innocent little girl with a bright red coat. Later on, he spots that same little girl in the red coat, but this time she has been brutally murdered. This is the moment everything changes for Schindler. He realizes the true extent of the atrocities committed by Nazis like him. Though the killing depicted in film is tame by Kubrick's standards, it shows the effect it has on Schindler. Spielberg humanizing the antagonist is what makes this a great Holocaust film.

What does it mean to humanize a character? In the film, we spend a lot of time with the Nazis, not just Oskar Schindler. Ralph Fiennes’ character is the Nazi Amon Goeth, yet Spielberg gives him an unexpected character arc. He is this incredibly evil man who, for fun, snipes the Jews in the concentration camp from his home atop the hill and even takes in a Jewish girl named Helen Hirsch as his own personal maid. He abuses her but forms a terribly intimate connection with her. By the end of the film when the Nazi’s lose the war, he is forced to escape and pleads to Helen to go with him. She declines, but the audience sees that he feels he can’t live without her, a Jew, and we see how he actually has human emotions. But how can such a horrible human have human qualities? What makes him so evil, instead of an emotionless robot, is exactly that he remains human just like us, suggesting that anybody can commit crimes against humanity while another person, like Schindler, can prevent them. Schindler’s List is a great Holocaust film because it shows the emotional development of Schindler, who gains the empathy the Jewish characters his Nazi counterparts can’t. Spielberg sends a message to the audience that the Nazis felt human emotions like love and loss but still chose to kill innocent people.

Act 3

Climax:

What is another great Holocaust film? In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter director Michael Haneke said, “For me, the only film about the Holocaust that, for me, is responsible as a filmmaker is Alain Resnais‘ Night and Fog.” Night and Fog takes a documentary approach to showing footage of Auschwitz from the 1950s and archival footage of the Holocaust while we hear a voiceover explaining the history of the Nazis' crimes against humanity. This film takes a very different approach than Spielberg's 1993 film and not only in its two and half hour shorter runtime. I don't completely agree with Michael Haneke's statement. Night and Fog is a responsible Holocaust film, since it lectures the audience with information that covers all aspects of the concentration camps to how they were built. But Schindler’s List is responsible as well. Spielberg uses character development to perfect a narrative feature and goes beyond Kubrick’s point and uses violence as a reaction instead of just an act.

We need both Night and Fog and Schindler's List because of their vastly different approaches to filmmaking. Variation in filmmaking is an amazing thing that pushes the artform forward while creating new ways to tell stories. We need as many Holocaust films as possible because as time moves forward, we will begin to forget.

Epilogue:

There has been a significant increase in anti-semtism recently. From Charlottesville to basketball star Kyrie Irving posting a link to a film that denies the Holocaust from even happening, it's truly a terrifying time to be Jewish. Holocaust films are necessary because there are people who legitimately believe it never even happened. We need more people to be aware, and Hollywood is very good at getting people to the theater. Even if there have already been so many films made about the Holocaust, it is a topic that needs to be explored more in films that are empathetic, nuanced, and informative because there are still so many unheard stories to tell. My family's journey is an untold story that I am still yearning to hear, especially since Rae won’t be alive much longer to tell her oldest memories. We all need to hear Rae’s life experience, so we can help prevent future anti-semtism.