Films with a Religious Theme

Schindler's List

The film we have seen is Schindler's List

Synopsis

The film is set in the Second World War.
Oskar Schindler is a German industrialist (and a member of the Nazi Party), living in Krakow in Poland during the German occupation of that country. Krakow is Poland's second city and has a large Jewish population.

The film opens with Oskar Schindler building up contacts with important German officials. He is shown to be a man who is not averse to using bribery in order to get what he wants. He is also not averse to buying goods on the black-market to use later in his bribing. He is also shown to be an inveterate womaniser.

A redundant metal-ware factory comes on the market and Schindler decides to buy it and start making enamelware to sell to the German Army. He contacts Isaac Stern, the former accountant of the factory and a Jew, to recruit him to help get workers and to run the factory for him.

In the meantime, the Jews in Krakow have been rounded up and herded into the Ghetto, a small area of the city. The film shows quite clearly the restrictions that were imposed on the Jews at the time, and also the deceit that was used by Schindler and Stern to recruit the workforce (forged documents etc.). One scene shows Schindler's workers being seconded to shovel snow off the roads. One of the workers has got only one arm and he is taken off by the Nazi soldiers and shot - he is regarded as worthless to the German war effort.

Isaac Stern, in one scene, is nearly taken off in the deportation of the Jews to the Concentration camps (he had forgotten to take his work permit with him), and he is only rescued by last minute intervention by Schindler. The film shows how the Nazis confiscate the luggage of those being deported and disposed of - anything of value being confiscated by the Germans - including gold teeth.

The scene then shifts to Plaszow forced labour camp just outside Krakow. This is under construction by Jewish forced labour. We are introduced to Amon Goeth, the camp commandant - a particularly evil and cruel man who is quite willing to shoot Jews for no reason. He is seen declaring that the six centuries of the presence of Jews in Krakow is about to end. We then see the rounding up of the Jews in the Ghetto ('Liquidation of the Ghetto') to be sent to the camp at Plaszow. In the round up we see many attempts to escape and many shot in the attempt, but many of them are just mindlessly killed. In one scene, patients in a hospital are shot. All sorts of ingenious hiding places are used - but are usually discovered. The killing and so on seems to have little impact on the soldiers. Many of them seem to be enjoying it. One is even shown playing Bach on the piano whilst the mindless slaughter is going on around him. The 'workers', including Schindler's employees are not shot, but taken to Plaszow.

Schindler watches all this from a hillside and we begin to see that Schindler is perhaps beginning to be troubled by what he sees. In one very poignant episode, we see a girl in a red coat (this stands out in a black and white film) wandering through the Ghetto during the round up - we later see her on a cart full of dead Jews.

Amon Goeth, the camp commandant, randomly shoots Jewish inmates - using them for target practice. He meets with Schindler who complains that his workers have been taken to the camp. It is agreed that Goeth will help Schindler in return for a number of bribes.

In return, Goeth takes Stern to work for him and orders him to siphon off some of Schindler's profits for Goeth's benefit. In reality, Stern acts as an informant to Schindler as well. Stern starts recommending to Oskar inmates of the camp who are being victimised, to be employed at the factory and, therefore, to receive a certain amount of security.

Goeth's Jewish maid has a long conversation with Oskar in which she reveals the truth of Goeth's sadistic nature. Following a discussion with Schindler on the meaning of power, in which Schindler says that letting someone off - not shooting them - shows real power, Goeth, for a time, shows clemency to 'erring' Jews - but it does not last long.

A young Jewish couple get married in the camp - the ceremony carried out by a woman, as there is no (male) rabbi available. Thus the theme of religion is first introduced into the film and raises the question about the relevance of religious observance in the midst of the horror of the camps.

Goeth almost seduces his Jewish servant, but then remembers that she is Jewish and so instead, he beats her up for having tempted him. At his birthday party, Schindler kisses a Jewish girl who has baked him a birthday cake.

In the camp, some of the women discuss the rumours that they have heard about what happens in some of the death camps - the gas chambers etc. Not all the women believe the rumours. When a new shipment of Hungarian Jews are brought in, the existing inmates are sorted and those not fit for work - including the children - are shipped out. Some children manage to hide - even in the latrines. Those to be shipped out are herded into cattle trucks - the temperature is very hot and Schindler, in the pretence of it amusing him, has the trucks hosed down so that they are cooled and those in the trucks get water to drink. Most of the soldiers seem to find the whole episode amusing. Goeth does not - he perhaps realises what Schindler's motive is.

Schindler finds himself in prison for kissing the Jewish girl at his party. He is eventually released with a warning.

Goeth receives orders to exhume and incinerate the bodies of 10,000 Jews who have been killed in Plazsow and the Krakow Ghetto. The ash falls on the city of Krakow like snow. Schindler watches the burning and sees the girl in the red coat (now dead) being brought to the funeral pyre. Goeth tells Schindler that the Plazsow camp is being closed down and the inmates shipped to Auschwitz.

In return for bribes, Goeth agrees to let Schindler keep his workers and ship them to a munitions factory in Schindler's hometown in Brinlitz in Czechoslovakia. So begins the creation of a list of those who will be kept back from Auschwitz - 'Schindler's List'. When drawing up the list, Stern is told by Oskar to leave a space at the bottom. That is for Goeth's Jewish maid. Goeth is unwilling to let her go, but he and Schindler gamble for her - she joins the list.

The male workers arrive at Brinlitz but the train carrying the women gets diverted to Auschwitz due to a clerical error. The women are stripped on arrival at Auschwitz and sent into a shower block - which many of the women take to be a gas chamber. It turns out to be a proper shower block.

After negotiation and the now customary bribes, the women are released into Schindler's care and sent to Brinlitz. Schindler informs the Nazi guards at the factory that they will not be allowed onto the factory floor and that unnecessary killings will not be tolerated. A worker in the factory who happens to be a rabbi is told by Schindler that as it is Friday evening, he should prepare to celebrate Sabbath.

The factory works for seven months to the end of the war - but produces nothing of value for the war effort. Schindler uses up all his money supporting the Jews in his care.

The end of the war is announced. Schindler informs the Jews and the guards that war is ending and the factory is to be liberated. He tells the guards that they now have the opportunity, if they wish, to kill the Jews as they are supposed to or to go home with a clear conscience. They all leave. A collection is made among the Jews of gold - even teeth. This is turned into an engraved ring which is given to Schindler.

Schindler makes some last minute provisions for the Jews before he leaves and tells them that he will now be a fugitive because he will be a wanted man as a Nazi party member and a crook. They present him with a letter explaining what Schindler has done for them in the hope that it might help if he is arrested. He takes his leave of them, regretting that he had not been able to save more than the 1100 Jews that he did rescue.

The camp is liberated by the Soviet Army. Goeth, the hated commandant of Plazsow is hanged.

In 1958, Schindler was declared a 'Righteous Gentile' - an honour given to those non-Jews who are seen to have helped Jews during the Holocaust.

The film ends with the actual survivors placing stones on Schindler's tomb in Jerusalem. The survivors are accompanied by the actors/actresses who played them in the film. The final act is the placing of a red rose on the tomb. The film was his personal tribute to the more than 6,000,000 fellow Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

Religious Issues

1. Is there any relevance in continuing religious rituals (such as the wedding ceremony and the Sabbath celebration) in the face of such horror?
2. How can people still maintain a religious belief in the face of such suffering?
3. Where is God? The Jews were the 'chosen race'. How could God allow such suffering?

Moral issues

1. How can one group of humans inflict such horror on another?
2. Does any race have any right to 'lord it' over another race as the Nazis did with the Jews?
3. Are bribery and corrupt practices, as employed by Schindler, ever justified if it helps others?
4. Should the Jews who acted as a 'police force' have agreed to work for the Nazis?

For some ideas on these questions, look at some thoughts sent in by Kim Furey from Canada!

Any other thoughts? Send them in! Let's hear from you!