Schindler's List

My middle son (18 yrs old) was watching Schindler's List last night as I was preparing dinner.  I've seen it twice before, but found myself running into the family room every chance I could get to watch bits and pieces.  I'd forgotten how compelling it was. 

It was the end of the movie, the scene where Schindler is presented with a gold ring by the people he saved and he cries because he felt guilty that he didn't save more. Following that scene, the film shifts to Jewish survivors arriving in Israel after the Holocaust. Then another shift to  modern times, and the real life people who Schindler saved, elderly now and accompanied by their children and grandchildren, pay hommage to Schindler through the Jewish custom of placing a rock on the headstone of his grave as the hauntingly beautiful tune, "Jerusalem of Gold" plays in the background.  I found it, once again, to be incredibly moving.

My son, who is and always has been the epitome of masculine self-contained cool, and who pretends he doesn't care a whit about Judaism (but who, I notice, keeps a well-thumbed Siddur (prayerbook) on his bedside table), turned to me and said, "They ought to make that movie required viewing in high school."  And surprised, I turned to him and asked, "They don't show it?  How do they teach the Holocaust anyway?"  And he replied that they don't do much. (Getting a lot of words out of him can be like pulling teeth.  He's similar to his mother, who is unusually - for her - chatty on her blog.) No wonder Holocaust denial continues to rear its ugly head...

Whatever else Steven Spielberg does or has done in his life, Schindler's List is a great movie and a tremendously influential accomplishment.  It captured the essence of the Holocaust from the irrational hatred, to the casual cruelty, to the all too rare kindness of an ordinary man like Schindler.  It graphically illustrated the Talmudic saying "Saving one life is like saving the world," through its emotional portrayal of the Schindler survivors and their descendents. It clearly demonstrated why Jews treasure, need and deserve a land of their own.

But maybe its greatest gift is what it does for young Jews like my son, reminding him of the great lengths his people went through to maintain their Jewishness.  I don't believe anyone can watch that movie and take their Jewish identity for granted. 

Comments

[Donna]

The movie was used as a teaching aid in my World History class on the subject of the Holocaust. My cousin, who is a senior this year, had to prepare an extensive report on the Holocaust using various research materials. Schindler's List was one of her sources.

(By the way, love the redesign, very fresh, very Spring.

Hope you and yours are doing well.)

[Gail]

That's good to hear, Donna. The story involves Jews personally, and we tend to see it as a very personal issue, but it has universal themes and it teaches so much from a variety of different viewpoints.

Glad you like the new design - and yes, you are on target, it was spring I was thinking about when I applied it. Me and mine are GREAT and ready to emerge into the sunshine after an extremly long, hard two-year winter. : ) Best wishes to you and yours as well.

[Whitney]

I haven't seen Schindler's List, but many that I know have. I was surprised that many of my friends mentioned to me that their schools' coverage of the Holocaust was a slight breezing over the subject. I had several rounds in different years of school of indepth study. Including in one of my english classes, where we read Holocaust Literature, fiction and nonfiction. I know there's SO MUCH to cover in history classes, but I am dismayed that the Holocaust isn't covered very frequently or in great depth.