Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A true story of a life saver, 24 Sep 2002
This is Oskar Schindler' story. A story of determination, strength and courage in the face of adversity. Schindler was a German businessman and Nazi party member. Wealthy and successful, he decided to set up a factory in Poland producing supplies for the German army in Russia. He would employ Jews.Initially, you do not picture Schindler as a philanthropist. He is an entrepreneur, his passion is money and the full enjoyment of life in luxury. As the story progresses, and he witnesses atrocities and acts of inhumanity towards the Jews, he uses his own money to bribe the SS and Police and to buy Jews to work for him, thus saving them from a very uncertain future in the hands of the SS. As the rest of the world stood by and did little, we learn of one man's quest to do as much as he could for those in his care.
It is not fair to say that others did not help, but Schindler clearly went further than most. This is a moving and heartbreaking story. In the end, Schindler made an enormous personal sacrifice, and put himself in danger to save those his countrymen were murdering. He saved one thousand lives. The death of Oscar Schindler was mourned by Jewish communities worldwide. This story was the inspiration for the acclaimed film Schindler's List' starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. The film is as good as the book.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A fictionalised biography that doesn't quite work, 31 May 2008
I don't know how best to represent the Holocaust in popular culture. There is no doubt that the story of Oskar Schindler is a compelling one and Stephen Speilberg did very well with his sincere, though unmistakably Hollywood, take on the subject. I had been looking forward to reading the original `novel' by Thomas Keneally but this really wasn't what I expected. The author had set himself a mighty challenge by converting a true story into a fictional narrative, but I'm afraid it didn't quite work.
Oskar Schindler, a flamboyant, womanising, Sudeten-German businessman and enthusiastic member of the Nazi party, arrives in Cracow with a view to making himself a fortune using cheap Jewish labour. Disillusioned within a very short time by the behaviour of the occupying forces and utterly horrified by the treatment of the Jews he then sets about expanding and protecting his workforce from the excesses with a fidelity woefully lacking in his treatment of his wife. At great personal risk - he was arrested three times - he uses his undoubted charm and charisma, his considerable physical presence and courage, extraordinary, almost comical, bravado, palm-greasing, alcohol, endless gifts and bribes, and eventually his whole fortune to save those who became known as the Schindlerjuden - Schindler's Jews. His true motivation is never clear but there is little doubt that his natural rebellious streak, his love of hoodwinking the system and ridiculing the authorities played a considerable role. It is a story of horror, heartbreak and hope.
So why didn't the book work? With its endless testimonies, quotes and anecdotes, it read as a dispassionate populist biography on the one hand, but on the other - because it had been fictionalised - the characters lacked psychological depth and seemed fictional. So it wasn't quite up to scratch in either category. It seems that Thomas Keneally did not have the literary skills to pull this off, though it was an extraordinarily difficult task and he should be praised for the attempt. As a literary-minded person I feel my hands trembling as I write `the film is better than the book.' That said, I feel that is definitely worth reading.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An terrifying, moving novel, 21 Nov 2001
By A Customer
I watched Schindlers List, and decided to read the book that inspired the film. The attention to detail in extraordinary, and Keneally draws you into the terrifying, upside down world of Cracow during WW2. What really gets to you is how the corrupt Nazi machine, slowly ratchet the Jews towards their awful fate, and how evil seems to be accepted and tolerated almost without question. Schindler's complex character dominates the story, as his sheer force of charisma keeps the hopes of the Pfferbergs, Sterns, Bankiers and the workers in his plant alive. A great book that can't fail to affect the reader very deeply.
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