Schindler's List

Okay before any of you say anything I knew what this movie was rated when I saw it but I felt that it needed to be seen. It opens your eyes to so many things.

This man, Oskar Schindler who I now consider a saint, is a German munitions industrialist and he uses Jews in his factory. Yet at this time he is completely indifferent to what happens to these people. In the film it is not until he sees the liquidation of the Jews in the ghetto where he comes to a realization of what is really happening. The movie is completely in black and white until him and his wife were riding and stop to watch the liquidation on top of a hill. Up there, he watches a little girl in a bright red coat run around the ghetto and she becomes a sort of symbol for his workers.

It is there at Krakow where he becomes close "friends" with Amon Goeth, the Reich officer in command of the camp. After the massacre at Karkow, more than 10000 Jews are burned and buried. It is here where Schindler again sees the little girl in red, this time on a cart being moved to the burning pile of corpses.

He then is able to over the six years save 1100 Jews, even the women who instead of being sent to his factory were moved to Auschwitz. Then at the end of the war he addresses the entire factory including the Nazis stationed there. He tells them that he will stay until 5 minutes after midnight but then must flee since they'll be looking for him.

Next they are outside, Stern (his accountant) hands Schindler a finished gold ring made out of gold teeth, with an inscription of a Talmudic adage:
It's Hebrew from the Talmud. It says, 'Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.'
He drops the ring, then slips it on his finger, thanks Stern and shakes hands with him as an equal for the first time in the film. Then, with self-loathing in a melodramatic, histrionic parting speech, Schindler berates himself for not having saved more lives as tears flow down his cheeks: He looks at the eyes of the workers, seeking their apology for not doing more:

"Schindler: I could've got more...I could've got more, if I'd just...I could've got more...

Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.

Schindler: If I'd made more money...I threw away so much money, you have no idea. If I'd just...

Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.

Schindler: I didn't do enough.

Stern: You did so much.

Schindler: This car. Goeth would've bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people, right there. Ten people, ten more people...(He rips the swastika pin from his lapel) This pin, two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would've given me two for it. At least one. He would've given me one. One more. One more person. A person, Stern. For this. I could've gotten one more person and I didn't.
He breaks down in Stern's arms, convulsing in remorse and guilt - some of the workers step forward and comfort him in their arms. Mrs. Dresner picks up one of the striped uniforms from the ground. Emilie, Schindler, and their driver wear the easily-identifiable uniforms of prisoners as they are driven out of the compound - Schindler's tortured, yet heroic face is reflected on the car window as they slowly pull out, superimposed over the faces of the workers passing by.

The film then ends with over 100 of the surviving Jews coming up to Schindler's grave who died in 1974. It is tradition in the Jewish custom to lay a stone down on the grave out of respect. So all of the Schindler survivors and their acting counterparts go up to his grave and lay stones down on them. Finally at the end it pulls out and the viewer sees the profile of Liam Neeson, the actor who played Oskar Schindler.

I feel that this man is a saint and that we have much to learn from him even today. We need to treat all people with respect, including those immigrants now that are being oppressed (not as hard as the Jews) by their governments. We need to figure out a way where we can assist those immigrants to a better life.