Schindler's List is the story of the Holocaust told through the events of one businessman and his use of cheap labor be the persecuted Jews. This man, Oskar Schindler (pictured left) ran, at first, a factory that produced pots and pans and other metal works. As the war went on he saw a greater opportunity to make money through the production of war-time goods such as artillery shells. On multiple occasions he looses his workers as they get sent to new concentration camps and even the death camp Auschwitz. Oskar does not simply replace his workers when they are "misplaced" but instead pays a lot of money to get them back into his factories. Through the story he encounters many Nazi officials, as he is a member of the Nazi party himself. He is rude but honest to these people giving the Jewish people a voice, something that was rare at this time. In the end Schindler must go on the run because the war had ended and anyone that persecuted the Jews, as he did by making them work without pay, was to be hunted down and punished. The workers of his factory throw him a ceremony to honor the good work he had done for their people. As he is about to leave all that he wishes as that he could have saved more people.
To paraphrase Oskar Schindler in the movie, power is the ability to pardon someone when they have every justification to be punished. Adolf Hitler, someone associated strongly with the word power, fails in both these aspects. Adolf Hitler gave no forgiveness and held nothing back. On top of this the group of people he was targeting had done nothing wrong. Another kind of power, though, is to have the capacity to control many people. This kind of power can be given to you but others need to have a talent in appealing to masses to take control. Either way this kind of power comes with great responsibility. As one becomes the voice of a group of people or an entire nation they must keep everybody's motives in mind. It becomes easy to target a minority because their say in the world will be smaller due to simple populous proportions. This does not mean, though, that their opinions do not matter or they are not a part of the country or group you are in. Hitler attempted to take minorities out of his World, and misused his powers immensely, on the other hand, Oskar Schindler, who had many leadership qualities, managed the people around him effectively and keeping morals in mind. Power has a positive connotation but in reality both of these individuals had it. It is instead motives and good will that set them apart.
This movie was effective in teaching a history and telling an individual story. By focusing on the life on Oskar Schindler, somebody that went from being a questionable protagonist to the hero of the story. His story revolved around the events of the holocaust so many facts about the event were entwined in the story. The reason this movie is effective is not because of facts and gruesome images, it is instead because the personal tale of one extrodiary case where good prevailed in a time of hatred really shows what this era was like. At first Schindler punished and used the Jews as anyone in his party would have, he then went through a transformation. As he was writing list to which workers he wanted to employ in his factory he made a realization. He name on the list, which he was paying for by the fortune he was making with his factories, got to survive. He was buying lives. He couldn't stop just rambling names, pages and pages. He is almost driven mad by the idea of choosing. In the end he does not want any of his material belongings, as they could just have been more lives he could have saved. The fact he was willing to stand up to evil and put his wealth and success behind him and strictly work on saving people that could not save themselves makes him a hero. This story of a changing character makes the movie effective because it is not just this sickening, bloody, statistic-filled film it is an account of a significant story that does not neglect or exaggerate the horrors of the Holocaust.
