Schindler's List

Schindler's List is the movie adaptation of the novel Schindler's Ark, revolving around the life of Oskar Schindler and the events in his life leading to his saving of over a thousand Polish-Jews by employing them in his factories.

One of the things that was intriguing to see in the film was the cognitive dissonance between Amon Goth's attraction for his maid Helen Hirsch and his prejudice against the Jews. While he believes that Jews are vermin and beneath him, he struggles with generalizing these beliefs onto Helen, hence why she has remained alive for so long. He tells her he wishes to reach out and touch her, but tells her she is not exactly a person in the same breath. His dilemma peaks when accuses her of seducing him, but berates himself and turns aggressive on her.

After the war ended and the Jews were liberated, many of them ended up experiencing survivor's guilt, whereby they struggled to find meaning with their continued existence while others were killed. In some instances this has been coupled with major depressive disorder, although this was not highlighted in the movie. Of course, some Jews were depicted as as saddened and down, but in my opinion this should have been something the filmmakers addressed, as it was indicative of the experience of the Jewish during the war.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and insomnia which continues for four or more weeks. Many of the survivors were diagnosed with PTSD due to their symptoms in broad categories such as Death Imprint, the image of death is constantly in their mind since they were confronted with death in such a vivid way. Many of the Jews dealt with these symptoms for forty to fifty years but felt too vulnerable to ask for help. The movie indirectly shows PTSD with many Jews not being able to sleep and remembering what happened to their friends who were killed before them. However, it does not show them having any social withdrawal, in fact when they are freed, they stay together and go to a nearby town for food.

One of the things I enjoyed about the movie was the rare instances that something would be show in colour in order to draw attention to it in a film that otherwise plays out in black and white. For instance, the little girl in the red coat was shown first during the liquidation of the ghetto and again alongside other corpses. It is interesting to consider the girl as symbolism for the innocence of the Jews, who were made scapegoats during the tenuous political climate in the war.

Furthermore, Schindler's motives are of interest for analysis because after the setup of his enamelware factory, he was successful enough that he would never want for anything again. However, he chose to help save the Jews from persecution, even at the cost of his wealth. Therefore, one would argue that his motives go beyond prosocial behaviour and are more akin to acts of altruism.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” -Edmund Burke