Schindler's List - history/literature buff help

[EmperorNero]

Schindler's List, directed by Spielberg, is the best movie, IMO - it's based on Thomas Keneally's book with the same title. I've been surfing to various sites about this movie and quite a few of them say it's "a true story about the life of Schindler." While in other places, people said the book is a novel (a FICTIONAL book) that was based on a true story and that would mean the movie would be fictional too. So my question to history and literature buffs is how accurate is the movie and the book?

BTW, if any of you haven't seen this movie, get your ass away from the computer and go to your nearest video store to rent it. This movie will bring the perkiest, most optimistic person to tears.

 

[EmperorNero]

nobody? at least give your opinion on the movie or something.

 

[Yeeny]

Actually Schindlers List is the best movie I have ever seen. I cried my eyes out through the whole thing, but especially the scene with the little girl in the red dress. That just really got to me. As for how true it is, I am almost positive that it is, with just some extra detail thrown in, ala Hollywood.

 

[EmperorNero]

GF, here's something interesting:

"Perhaps the most moving image in Steven Spielberg's epicfilm "Schindler's List" is the little girl in the red coat, the only color image in the three-hour black and white film. However, most people do not know that this image is based upon a true story, a story told at the trial of Adolf Eichmann."

quote found on this site.

 

[Yeeny]

Thanks EmperorNero, that was an interesting link. It breaks my heart to think that scene was based on fact. That movie opened my eyes like school never could to the hardships those poor people faced.

 

[Regine]

Schindler was a real person. Remember at the end of the movie, when all of "his" Jews went to Schindler's grave?
I did a paper on it once - whether he was a hero or not, I think (It was in high school some time). You should read the book - he is portrayed quite differently in it.
I can't seem to find the paper right now, but if you're interested I can find it over Thanksgiving break. I believe I basically said that he exploited the Jews while saving them. Because of them he made all his money. So on one hand he could be considered as bad as the other Nazis around him. At the end of the movie he shows a different side however. Then he realizes that what he did wasn't enough and that he could have done more.
I do believe that it is one of the best movies out there. While maybe not being entirely historically accurate, it does show the reality of the Holocaust. And most importantly to me, it shows that not all German people were "evil Nazis" back then. There is still a lot of stereotyping about it going on, and I find it important to show that there are people who actually attempted to help the victims.