Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
"Schindler’s Ark" by Thomas Keneally is a historical novel that tells the poignant story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who becomes an unlikely hero during the Holocaust. Set during World War II, the narrative begins with the Nazi invasion of Poland, leading to the systematic persecution of the Jewish population. Schindler, initially motivated by profit, owns an enamelware factory that employs Jewish forced laborers under dire conditions. Witnessing the horrific treatment of Jews, Schindler's perspective shifts, prompting him to take extraordinary risks to protect and save as many lives as possible from genocide.
The novel presents a range of characters, including fellow factory owners and Jewish prisoners, illustrating the complex relationships formed in this period of desperation. Schindler employs bribery, manipulation, and compassion to safeguard his workers, ultimately relocating them to a safer site in Brünnlitz, where he defies the war effort by not producing ammunition. After the war, Schindler's life takes a downturn, yet he is remembered as a symbol of moral courage. His story, marked by contradictions of wealth and altruism, ultimately culminates in his burial in Jerusalem, where he is honored for his remarkable humanitarian efforts.
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Subject Terms
Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
- Born: October 7, 1935
- Birthplace: Wauchope, New South Wales, Australia
First published: 1982
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Historical fiction
Time of plot: 1939–45 (World War II)
Locale: Cracow, Poland; Plaszów concentration camp; Brünnlitz, Moravia
Principal Characters
Oskar Schindler,owner of an enamelware factory in occupied Poland
Julius Madritsch,owner of a Cracow military uniform factory
Raimund Titsch,manager at Madritsch’s factory
Amon Goeth,German SS officer and commandant of Plaszów concentration camp
Julian Scherner, leader of the German SS in Cracow
Poldek Pfefferberg,Jewish prisoner at Plaszów concentration camp
Helen Hirsch, called Lena, Goeth’s Jewish maid
The Rosner brothers, Henry and Leo, Jewish musicians and prisoners
Abraham Bankier, former office manager of Schindler’s factory
Viktoria Klonowska,Schindler’s secretary and mistress
Ingrid,another of Schindler’s mistresses
Emilie Schindler,Schindler’s wife
The Story
In fall 1939 World War II begins in Europe with Germany overrunning Poland. Shortly afterward, Poland is invaded again. This time, the invaders are Nazi bureaucrats who set up military and governmental infrastructures to manage and control the captive people. Singled out from the conquered are Jews who are either made to work for the Germans or are placed in concentration camps and marked for extermination.
Among the second wave of invaders are German entrepreneurs who hope to profit from the conquest of Poland. These include Oskar Schindler, who purchases a bankrupt enamelware factory, and Julius Madritsch, who buys a military uniform mill. Schindler’s business, retooled to produce mess kits for the German army, is staffed with forced laborers who are fed, clothed, and housed but receive no wages. For each worker, Schindler pays German authorities a token fee. The business proves highly profitable for Schindler during the first several years of the war, and the factory is expanded in order to manufacture munitions. Schindler grows rich and acquires a cache of diamonds. He wears tailored clothing, rides in chauffeured luxury automobiles, consumes fine liquor and cigars, and maintains two mistresses who regularly receive expensive gifts from him.
Schindler’s attitude toward war profiteering changes radically in 1943, when he personally witnesses and is disgusted by the brutal Nazi elimination of the Cracow ghetto. Like the equally outraged Madritsch, Schindler devotes himself to improving the lot of his workers, intending to save as many as possible from the Holocaust. Numerous individuals, such as Poldek Pfefferberg, Helen Hirsch, and the Rosner brothers, among many others, are cleverly extricated from the cruel clutches of the Nazis and delivered into Schindler’s hands.
The glib, outgoing Schindler, experienced in dealing with functionaries like SS officers Amon Goeth and Julian Scherner, uses his unique talents to manipulate the authorities and game the system. He makes well-placed bribes, presents flashy gifts, calls in favors, and takes advantage of the bureaucracy’s documentation to draw groups of Jewish prisoners into his sphere of influence where they can be protected. Schindler buys truckloads of bread on the black market to better feed the factory employees. At his own expense, he erects housing units to separate Jewish workers from the concentration camp and to provide better, more sanitary living quarters. He expands his plant to incorporate more prisoners and writes impassioned letters to various agencies claiming they are essential to the war effort. Schindler even risks his own safety by enduring imprisonment and interrogation to achieve his purposes.
Ultimately, in response to German plans to dismantle Polish factories and confine forced laborers in concentration camps, Schindler and Madritsch devise a scheme to unite their enterprises, combine their enlarged contingents of Jewish employees, and relocate elsewhere. The new site chosen is 250 miles south and east of Cracow in Brünnlitz, Moravia (now Svitavy in modern-day Czech Republic), near Schindler’s birthplace of Zwittau. Brünnlitz will be safer than Cracow because it is off the route rampaging Soviet armies would likely use when marching west through Poland to engage the reeling Germany military. Schindler’s plot is further helped when an impediment, Amon Goeth is removed: the cruel commandant is arrested for embezzlement and corruption and confined for a time in prison.
Though Madritsch decides not to participate in the move—he has his own plans and methods for saving Jewish workers—Schindler spends huge amounts of money to transfer his business to Brünnlitz. More than 1,100 Jews, some spirited away from concentration camps, are included on an approved list of essential workers and transported to the new factory site. The facility is supposed to produce ammunition for the German war effort, but it never does. Schindler’s wife Emilie joins her husband at the new location and works tirelessly to care for the workers. Schindler buys weapons so the Jews can defend themselves if necessary. After Germany surrenders May 7, 1945, Schindler and his wife turn themselves in to the Americans in Austria.
After the war, Schindler is penniless, but he fares better than Goeth, who is hanged for war crimes. Schindler lives in Germany and Argentina, and he and his wife separate. He attempts unsuccessfully to start businesses, and he lives mainly on the generosity of those he helped save. After dying in poverty in 1974, he is buried with honor in Jerusalem, Israel, where his life is praised and his death is greatly mourned.
Bibliography
Carruthers, Bob. SS Terror in the East, Einsatzgruppen: The Depths of Evil. Bamsley: Pen, 2014. Print.
Crowe, David. Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List. New York: Basic, 2007. Print.
Friedlander, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945: The Years of Extermination. New York: Harper, 2008. Print.
Keneally, Thomas. Searching for Schindler: A Memoir. New York: Talese, 2008. Print.
Matthäus, Jürgen, Jochen Böhler, and Klaus-Michael Mallmann. War, Pacification, and Mass Murder, 1939: The Einsatzgruppen in Poland. Lanham: Roman, 2014. Print.
Spielberg, Steven, and the Shoah Foundation. Testimony: The Legacy of Schindler’s List and the USC Shoah Foundation. New York: Newmarket, 2014. Print.