I watched the movie and thought it was done very well (it would be tasteless to say that I enjoyed it). It was very accurate IMO of what it must have been like. There were 2 things that always bugged me about the movie though. 1. It never showed any non-jews. I didn’t think that was accurate (and I didn’t know for sure) because out of the 1300 he saved I figured he probably saved some gypsies, or others who were also victems. 2. At the end of the movie it said he died broke. That upset me because I felt if you were one of “schindler’s jews” (which is how they refer to themselves, don’t get crazy on me) you would feel an overwhelming need to help this man in any way.
I watched something on the History Channel today, in fact “Schindler’s Jews” did take care of him. He was a womanizing party animal who practicaly was burning $ as he got it, but they did take care of him. I was glad to see that the movie was not accurate as far as that goes, it would have reflected poorly on the Jews he saved if they didn’t (reguardless of him being bad with $). They had a few of the “Schindler’s Jews” on who’s only regret is that they could not do more. One in paticular was on the verge of tears, hoping he did everything he could have, but felt he may have come up short. I am not sure why at the end of the movie the director (who is jewish) chose not to tell the truth about what actualy happened, but rather said he died pennyless.
My question is, did he ONLY save jews? I didn’t get from what I watched that he only embraced Judaism, he just saw the horror that was going on and eventualy did all he could to stop it. Were there non-jews that were on his list? If so, it should have been mentioned. If not that the movie (and the documentry) are just being historicaly accurate.
Something I thought was in good taste, was that Oscar wanted to be buried in Isreal. He was, and there was a cross on his tombstone. The symbolism I think is great. This man started the whole thing just to make $, to that end he even became a Nazi. When he saw the horrors going on around him, he acted to protect people he did not share a common culture with. He saw the evil for what it was, and that the victems were not “rats”, but people. Him being buried in Isreal, with a cross on his tombstone, with Jews respecting him as a great person says a lot. Kind of gives you hope.