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Schindler’s Ark. by Australian author Thomas Keneally Published in 1982 after extensive research. Winner of the 1982 Booker Prize for Fiction
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Schindler’s Ark by Australian author Thomas Keneally Published in 1982 after extensive research. Winner of the 1982 Booker Prize for Fiction Steven Spielberg read Keneally's fact-based novel during the filming of ET, but it was ten years before he made his vision of a film about the Holocaust a reality.
Background for Schindler’s Ark In October 1980, author Thomas Keneally was on his way back to Australia after a book signing when he stopped en route to the airport to buy a new briefcase in a Beverly Hills luggage shop owned by Leopold - who had been one of the 1200 saved by Schindler. In the 50 minutes Keneally spent waiting for his credit card payment to clear, Pfefferberg persuaded him to go to the back room where the shopkeeper kept two cabinets filled with documents he had collected. Pfefferberg - who had told his story to every writer and producer who ever came into his store - eventually wore down Keneally's reluctance, and the writer chose to make the story into his next book.
BEVERLY HILLS LEATHER GOODS SHOP:50 minutes • Page gave Keneally photocopies of documents related to Schindler, including speeches, firsthand accounts, testimonies, and the actual list of names of the people he saved. • It inspired Keneally to write the book Schindler’s Ark, on which the movie is based. • Page (whose real name was Poldek Pfefferberg) ended up becoming a consultant on the film.
KENEALLY WASN'T THE FIRST PERSON LEOPOLD PAGE TOLD ABOUT OSKAR SCHINDLER. • The film rights to Page’s story were actually first purchased by MGM for $50,000 in the 1960s after Page had similarly ambushed the wife of film producer Marvin Gosch at his leather shop. • Mrs. Gosch told the story to her husband, who agreed to produce a film version, even going so far as hiring Casablanca co-screenwriter Howard Koch to write the script. • Koch and Gosch began interviewing Schindler Jews in and around the Los Angeles area, and even Schindler himself, before the project stalled, leaving the story unknown to the public at large.
Schindler-Pfefferberg Connection Poldek Pfefferberg was born in 1913 in Krakow, Poland. He attended high school in Krakow and earned a master’s degree in philosophy and physical education from Krakow University. He taught high school in Krakow until 1939 when the Germans closed all Jewish schools. Pfefferberg fought in the Polish Army against the Nazis with the rank of lieutenant and was wounded and arrested. He escaped and went to his mother's house in Krakow. One day, in November 1939, a man knocked on the door, and Pfefferberg thought it was the Gestapo. It wasn't. It was Oscar Schindler, a Sudeten-German businessman who had purchased an enamelware factory that had been confiscated from Jews. Schindler had come to ask Pfefferberg`s mother, an interior designer, to redecorate his new apartment. "I was hiding in the next room", Pfefferberg later said, "but listening to Schindler, I knew he wasn't Gestapo. Even then I could tell he was a good man. I began to talk to him and we became friends."Poldek Pfefferberg was saved - the rest of his family was not as lucky - almost 100 perished including his parents, sister and brother-in-law.
Director Steven Spielberg • Born Dec. 18, 1947, in Cincinnati, Ohio. • Raised by Jewish parents in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. • Studied English at California State University. • His grades were not good enough to get him into film school, he landed a job at Universal Studios lot. He started out directing TV shows, and eventually moved to films. .
By age 30, Spielberg had directed the two highest grossing movies of all times: Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). • He is one of the most prolific directors in history, with films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. (1982), Jurassic Park (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). • Schindler's List expanded Spielberg's reputation from a king of high-budget action films into a director capable of creating moving human drama.
Important Characters Ben Kingsley as Liam Neeson Itzak Stern as Schindler Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goethe
Spielberg’s intentions for the film: 1. Educate people about the Holocaust. 2. Silence those who deny that the Holocaust ever happened. 3. Make sure the people never forget so history is not repeated.
Spielberg expected that the film’s main appeal would be to the school market, but Schindler’s List was a hit in theaters (50 million saw the film in theaters, another 65 million during a special airing on national television). - Best Picture - Best Director - Best Art Direction - Best Cinematography - Best Film Editing - Best Music (Original Score) - Best Writing ( Screenplay based on material previously produced or published)
Why black and white? • Appropriate to the WWII era. • Allows sparing use of color to emphasize certain scenes. • Film noir styles heightens violence, highlights theme of good vs. evil. • Schindler’s face is often hidden in shadow, and becomes more open as he leaves his selfish motives behind.
SCHINDLER'S LIST IS TECHNICALLY A STUDENT FILM. • Thirty-three years after dropping out of college, Spielberg finally received a BA in Film and Video Production from his newly minted alma mater, Cal State Long Beach, in 2002. • The director re-enrolled in secret, and gained his remaining credits by writing essays and submitting projects under a pseudonym. In order to pass a film course, he submitted Schindler’s List as his student project. • Spielberg describes the time gap between leaving school and earning his degree as his “longest post-production schedule.”
Parallel editing, or crosscutting, is a cinematic convention in which two or more concurrent scenes are interwoven with each other. • Illustrates the contrast between the easy life of the Nazis and the desperation of the Jews. Also, we see the bitter irony in how one group is gaining (“It couldn’t possibly be better.”) as the other loses (“How could it possibly be worse?”).
Two examples: • Schindler moves into the Nussbaums’ apt. as they move into the ghetto. • Schindler’s birthday party, a wedding in the camp and Amon Goethe’s brutal beating of Helen Hirsch.
Interesting Facts • Director Steven Speilberg was unable originally to get permission to film inside Auschwitz, so the scenes of the death camp were actually filmed outside the gates on a set constructed in a mirror image of the real location on the other side. • Co-producer Branko Lustig plays the nightclub maître d' in Schindler's first scene. Lustig is an Auschwitz survivor and has produced other movies about the Holocaust • The producer Branko Lustig was a real life holocaust survivor of Auschwitz, having been imprisoned there as a boy. Accepting his Oscar, he recited his serial number A3317. • To gather costumes for 20,000 extras, the costume designer took out advertisements seeking clothes. As economic conditions were poor in Poland, many people were eager to sell clothing they still owned from the 1930s and '40s. • The original missing list of Schindler's Jews was found in a suitcase together with his written legacy hidden in the attic of Schindler's flat in Hildesheim in 1999. Schindler stayed there during the last few months before his death in 1974.
The Krakow ghetto "liquidation" scene was only a page of action in the script, but Steven Spielberg turned it into 20 pages and 20 minutes of screen action "based on living witness testimony". For example, the scene in which the young man escapes capture by German soldiers by telling them he was ordered to clear the luggage from the street was taken directly from a survivor's story. • For the epilogue scene, all actors are required to accompany the original Schindlerjuden they portrayed in the movie in pairs (actor and the Jew they portrayed carrying and placing a pebble on the grave). This actually explains why Liam Neeson was the one placing the flowers on the stone before the end credits roll in. • There is a Jewish tradition that when one visits a grave, one leaves a small stone on the marker as a sign of respect. This is why the cast and the Schindlerjuden cover Schindler's grave with stones at the end of the movie. • The girl in the red dress was a real girl named Roma Ligocka. Unlike her film counterpart, she survived the war, and wrote a memoir titled "The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir". • Helen Hirsch is based on Helen Jonas (nee Sternlicht), whose story is shown in the documentary Inheritance
Interesting Facts • Ralph Fiennes put on 13kg by drinking Guinness for his role of Amon Goeth. Steven Spielberg cast him because of his “evil sexuality.” • Steven Spielberg was not paid for this film. He refused to accept a salary, citing that it would be “blood money.” Instead, he gave the money to the Shoah Foundation. • When survivor Mila Pfefferberg was introduced to Ralph Fiennes on the set, she began shaking uncontrollably, as he reminded her too much of the real Amon Goeth. • Steven Spielberg offered the job of director to Roman Polanski. Polanski turned it down because the subject was too personal. He had lived in the Krakow ghetto until the age of 8, when he escaped on the day of the liquidation. His mother later died at the Auschwitz concentration camp. After learning this, Spielberg immediately and repeatedly apologized for bringing up such a traumatic memory. Polanski would later direct his own film about the Holocaust, The Pianist (2002).
More • When the film was to be shown in the Philippines, the censors decided to cut out certain scenes of nudity and violence. When Steven Spielberg learned of this he wanted to pull the film out unless it was shown as it is. So Philippine President Fidel Ramos intervened and overruled the censors and the film was shown without any cuts. • It is said that, during the filming, the atmosphere was so grim and depressing that Steven Spielberg asked his friend Robin Williams if he could film some comedy sketches. • The most expensive black & white film to date. The previous record was held for over 30 years by another film set during World War II, The Longest Day (1962).
More • The first published account of Oskar Schindler’s story was an article by Kurt R. Grossman, “The Humanitarian Who Cheated Adolf Hitler,” which appeared in the September 1959 issue of Coronet magazine. • As Schindler is given a tour of the camp, he passes a boy in prisoner’s clothing with his hands raised over his head and a sign hanging over him. It reads “jestem zlodziejem ziemniaków”, “I am a potato thief.”
Who was Oskar Schindler • He was a German from Czechoslovakia • Born in 1908 • Raised a strict catholic • There were Jews in his class at school • He lived next door to a rabbi growing up • Before the war, he was a small time salesman and not very successful
What kind of man was Schindler • People called him: • A swindler • “Der grosse Lebemann” (Emilie Schindler, his wife), “a man who loves to live life to its fullest.” • Charming, vain, handsome, womanizer, alcoholic, flamboyant, gambler, risk taker • Loved living life on the edge, and to be the center of attention • Liked to play the playboy spy.
How did the Germans see him • For the Nazi party, he was a party member since 1939. • He was a loyal agent for military intelligence. • He was used as a spy. He provided for the war effort. • He provided Polish army uniforms to German provocateurs who attacked a German border radio station the night before the invasion of Poland. The station was said to have been overrun by “Polish” soldiers. Actually, it was Germans dressed as Poles. This provided an excuse to invade.
Schindler during the war • Was arrested repeatedly (3 times by the SS). • Usually arrested for black market fraud. • His connections always got him out. • He ended up being the only German to save more than 1,000 Jews from the death camps.
Quote from Interview with Spielberg about Schindler • “In the process of Schindler’s almost transparent transformation from a businessman to a savior, the novel did not give me those clues. It did not tell me why Schindler did it. And none of the witnesses could tell me why Schindler did it, even though I asked everybody I met.”
Schindler’s motivation • Point of some debate among the Schindler Jews. • Some said he was an opportunist who saved the Jews because it was self-serving, or because he loved to outwit the SS. • Others believed his motivation to be purely to save lives. • But for most of the Schindler Jews, they simply know that he saved them and that is all that matters.
The Change of Heart • One survivor claims he witnessed Schindler’s change of heart. • After seeing Goeth shoot two girls shortly before they died from hanging, Schindler got ill in front of everyone, turned to the survivor and stated that he would never work for the Germans again.
He did show “his Jews” kindness • He permitted them to observe holidays. • He went to great lengths to make them feel safe. • He slept in the factory himself, although a villa was available in Brinnlitz. • He provided extra food and medicine. • Some of this is portrayed in the film.
History vs. the Film • At the end of the war, Schindler had to flee because the Russians would have shot him without a trial. • Some of his Jewish workers smuggled him out as a camp survivor. • Unlike the film portrayal, however, he escaped in a Mercedes full of valuables. • These were later looted and stripped from him and he arrived with nothing in the American zone.
While with the Americans • He gave American investigators evidence against his former Nazi drinking buddies. • American Jews helped get him to Switzerland.
After the war • He lived in different parts of West Germany. • He lived for a time with Jews in Argentina. • His grand schemes never worked out. • He was at his best during war time. • He lived in Israel for a time and was celebrated, and bestowed the title of righteous gentile. A tree was planted for him in the avenue of the righteous. • When he returned to Germany, he lived in poverty and obscurity.
Schindler’s death • He died at age 66 of a failed heart and liver. • He was buried in Israel in 1974. • His grave is shown in the film at the end.
Krakow • The story takes place in Krakow. • 26% of the population was Jewish. • Shows the Krakow-Plaszow labor camp. • In Krakow during the Holocaust, the Jews built a wall around their ghetto to protect them from Polish citizens. • Krakow was a bastion of Jewish culture, but also of anti-Semitism. • The Jews thought of the walls as a fortress against anti-Semitism.
Krakow • When the Nazis came, the Jews almost willingly moved to the ghetto. • They expected to need their fortress, they knew that there was a great deal of hatred toward them in the Polish population.
The Accuracy of the Film • Everywhere the “Schindler Jews” got preferential treatment. Accurate. • Shows Brinnlitz, Czechoslovakia • Near Schindler’s home town. • The film shows this accurately, shows the stops on the way there, except that the men also stopped in Groess-Rosen for a week. • The women were in Auschwitz for 3 weeks. Schindler had to bribe their way out.
The List • The list had 297 women and 800 men on it. • The first list made was not very accurate and hastily made. • Schindler added 80 names from a “frozen transport,” a transport from an Auschwitz subcamp. They were left in the cold for 10 days with no food or water. • So he saved more people than just his workers.
The List • The list was actually made by Marcel Goldberg, the greedy Jewish policeman in the film. • This was the source of much bitterness. • Only those who bribed him got on the list. • Schindler said, he did not have the time to constantly check up on him. • Some survivors threatened Schindler because of this.
