Categories: Movies

Schindler’s List: Historical Accuracy, the Girl in Red, and the Antihero

Schindler’s List is based on the true story of the Holocaust, and Oskar Schindler who saved over 1200 Jews during WWII (oskarschindler.com). It is true in essentials, but sacrifices some historical accuracy for the sake of artistic expression, and to make it a more interesting film.

It is true that Schindler’s List is a work of entertainment but it is also a great and responsible work of documentary history – or at least a documentary in style and purpose. That some of its events have been dramatized, perhaps distorted, even invented, is the way of all works of entertainment based essentially on truth. (Hart)

In November of 2004, the New York Times printed an article telling about several less-than-accurate aspects of the film. First of all, the idea of the list being “Schindler’s” is a false one. In reality, the list had almost nothing to do with Oskar Schindler. According to David M. Crowe – historian, and university professor – Schindler was not only in prison at the time, but his manager, to whom he supposedy gave the list, was no longer working for him. Schindler’s only involvement with the list was to suggest the names of Jews who he wanted to be safe.

At the end of the film, we are told that in 1958, the Jews named Schindler a “righteous gentile” for his heroic acts. In truth, Schindler was not named until 1993; 19 years after his death. (This was due to rumors that he stole from Jews, and ordered them beaten.)

In Schindler’s List, there are several scenes in which we see a street made from broken apart headstones. In class, we were told that this is probably not historically accurate.

It is also doubted wether Schindler could have watched the liquidation of the ghetto from the hill where he is shown horseback riding, and it is said that Schindler did not see the little girl in red (Smith).

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The little girl in the red coat made her appearance when Schindler was watching the ghetto being “cleaned up.”

Up to this point in the film, Schindler has been a hardened, incompassionate man, who’s chief concerns are proffit and personal gain: he blows off Jews who try to thank him for their jobs, he is angered by the thought of having a one-armed employee, but he is upset when he “loses” the worker.

But now, safe atop his horse and up on a hill, Schindler sees scores of Jews being brutally murdered. Mostly men and a few women, but then he sees a young girl wearing a red coat. She is walking through the streets where people are being shot left and right. Unphased by the violence on all sides, she seems to be completely oblivious to the carnage that surrounds her. She is like a painting of innocence in a corrupted world. A crucial turning point in the story, “the scene depicts Schindler’s moral awakening” (Smith).

Schindler watches the girl for a long time. Just as the red coat has caught the attention of the audience, the little girl has caught Schindler’s attention, more than any of the other Jews ever did. Oskarschindler.com puts it very well:

Schindler’s soul is touched by the child; he feels her pain, cries for her. The plight of the one little girl in red touches him in a way the shear numbers make unreal, it is easy to get lost in numbers. He transforms the faceless mass around him into one real palpable human being. This one child is a symbol of all the 6.000.000 victims, exposed to ruthless slaughter. Each was an individual, who had dreams, who had a life, who had a family.

This one little girl has awoken Oskar Schindler, and suddenly he understands; he sees what the Jews are going through. He feels compassion.

From this point on in the film, Schindler is doing what he can to protect the innocent from the Nazis; sometimes even against his own better judgment.

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The word “hero” is defined as: “any person, esp. a man, admired for courage, nobility, or exploits, esp. in war.” So an antihero is “the protagonist of a novel, play, etc. who lacks the virtues and estimable traits of a traditional hero” (Webster).

Flowerstorm.net says that

“The spice of a story, the element that makes it more than simple heroes and villains, lies within the character of the Antihero. The Antihero is someone with some of the qualities of a villain, up to and including brutality, cynicism, and ruthlessness, but with the soul or motivations of a more conventional Hero.”

The antihero makes a story not only more believable, but more interesting. He brings conflict other than the usual “good versus evil,” and can cause us to question what good and evil really are; a complex character, in a complex world.

“Broadly, the anti-hero is of two types: the bad good guy and the good bad guy” (hinduonnet.com). He can be a “good guy” with bad qualities, or he can be a “bad guy,” with good qualities.

In the first category we have characters like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Boromir from The Lord of the Rings, and, arguably, Oskar Schindler. These characters are all brave people who do good things, but they all have serious character flaws: Hatred, depression, jealousy, a craving for power, greed, and lust. None of these characters are perfect people.

In the second category we have Phillipe “the Mouse” Gaston, from Ladyhawke (1985), Randle McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, (1975), and Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather (1972). These people are criminals. Lawbreakers. They fight, steal, and have people killed. But each one of these characters has good aspects as well: kindness, compassion, the ability to make us laugh, and a desire for justice. An antihero is not all good, nor is he pure evil.

Oskar Schindler has some bad qualities: as mentioned above in part II, when we first meet Schindler his primary concern is his money. He also has constant affairs with other women throughout the film, even though he is married. Looking at him from this angle it would be easy tohim an antihero, but he changes as the movie goes on, and by the end of the film he has saved over a thousand Jews, and weeps for the one more that he might have been able to help. He has spent a huge bulk of his fortune on helping other people, and he has made up with his wife.

At the beginning of the movie, Schindler fits the above descriptions of an antihero. But by the end of the film he has become a courageous, noble person; a hero.

Bibliography

Friedman, Michael. “On Oskar Schindler.” Time International. (April 28,

2003): 80. InfoTrac OneFile. Thomson Gale. Chandler-Gilbert Community College. 9 Nov 2006.

Hart, David M. http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/

http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/WarFilms/OldGuides/SchindlersList.html

Accessed 8 Nov 2006.

http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/schindlerslist.txt

http://www.flowerstorm.net/disa/Gallery/anti-explain.html

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2006/04/28/stories/2006042800480100.htm

http://www.oskarschindler.com/

http://www.oskarschindler.com/13.htm

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