Schindler's Learning Guide

RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS "The universe exists on the merit of the righteous among the nations of the world, and they are privileged to see the Divine Presence." -- The Talmud THE GOOD SAMARITAN And who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinking thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. --St. Luke 10: 30 “He [Schindler] was fortunate to have people in that short fierce era who summoned forth his deeper talents.” --Emilie Schindler Introduction There have been many attempts to tell the story of the Holocaust to the general public in a comprehensible, yet historically accurate manner. Few of these efforts match the penetrating and moving contribution made by Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Spielberg’s film demonstrates the power of cinema to convey both the barbarism and heroism of humanity. The Schindler’s List Teaching Guide grew out of the Southern Institute’s experiences in organizing viewings of Schindler’s List for secondary schools in Louisiana. It became evident that only with adequate preparation did students comprehend the film’s moral lessons. The key to preparing students is providing teachers with appropriate instructional resources and training. We hope this study guide contributes to this end. The Schindler’s List Teaching Guide provides the historical background and psychological theories necessary to explore the ethical dilemmas-- and their contemporary relevance—posed in Schindler’s List. It focuses on a simple question: “Why did Oskar Schindler do it?” Schindler was a man of complex contradictions. On the one hand, he was a dissolute profiteer and a Nazi. On the other hand, he risked his life to rescue hundreds of Jews. Oskar Schindler’s wife, Emilie—who knew of his defects all too well—was once asked if Oskar was a saint or a devil. She replied tersely, “A saint of the devil.” Who is good and who is evil? Perhaps the answer is, we all are. We all have the capacity of good and evil. Every nation has the potential to commit genocide; and every human, despite their frailties, is capable of summoning the courage to defend human dignity. The theme of rescuer behavior complements Deathly Silence, the Southern Institute’s first teaching guide on the Holocaust. Deathly Silence examined how ordinary people became passive accomplices to genocide. “Teaching Schindler” illuminates the other side of the story: how ordinary people acted heroically to resist genocide. The study guide offers several resources to assist teachers in leading discussions and designing projects related to Schindler’s List. These include historical background on the Holocaust; an explanation of the “righteous gentiles” honor; a history of Oskar Schindler—contrasting the historical Schindler with the cinematic character; and a summary of psychological theories of altruistic behavior that may explain Schindler’s motives. Though written for teachers, many of the sections are also useful for student readings and reference. The discussion question section offers several questions to stimulate post-viewing discussion and projects. Each question is accompanied by an analysis section to assist the teachers in guiding the discussion. We recommend that the guide be used in conjunction with the “Teaching Schindler” workshop offered by the Southern Institute. In addition to attending the workshop, we encourage teachers to use the manual readings for a series of follow-up discussions in interdisciplinary teams. The Southern Institute’s Holocaust education project is a component of a larger anti- bias education program. The program uses the Holocaust, the Civil Rights movement, and other historical events as case studies in the politics and psychology of prejudice. Our objective is to help students in learning to apply the moral lessons of these events to the world today. I want to acknowledge Plater Robinson’s excellent work on this study guide. His commitment to teaching about the Holocaust is both intellectual and deeply personal. Plater journeyed to Poland in 1989 where he lived for one year while studying the Holocaust and the role of righteous gentiles. This study guide bears the imprint of his careful scholarship and personal commitment to preserving the memory of those who perished. Lance Hill Executive Director Southern Institute Foreword In 1989, I left for Poland to prepare stories for public radio on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War. I stayed one year, which happened to be the year of the great revolutions that overthrew the communists in Central and Eastern Europe. In that year I often traveled the Polish countryside in search of remnants of the Jewish world that the Nazis had engulfed, uprooted, and destroyed, all before the eyes of the local population. An elderly Polish woman in the small town of Oleszyce told me that it had been a “common life” among Jews and Poles before the war, although the Jews had been “better off” and indeed “rich.” Do they still wear their “black hats and coats?” she asked. I interviewed an old Polish peasant in the town of Sobienie Jejoiry who had betrayed Jews to the Nazis for a meager bounty of vodka, some money, and a bag of sugar. He spent four years in prison after the war charged as a Nazi collaborator. He still claimed innocence. “I helped them,” he said. “Who?” I asked. “The Jews. I helped the Jews.” I also interviewed Poles who rescued Jews from Nazi annihilation. In the memorable phrase of the survivor (and sociologist) Nechama Tec, these Poles were “the light that pierced the darkness.” Few people gave a thought to rescuing Jews. “I’m not saying she was so mean,” a Jewish woman told me, describing the Polish woman who gave her shelter for the night and then asked her to leave. “She was afraid that the Nazis will kill her family.” Death, collectively applied, was the Nazi penalty for those helping Jews. Terror was only one part of the equation. Culture was another. The Jews had been defined as the “chief villain” in Polish eyes long before the Germans arrived in 1939. For centuries the Jews had been the peg on which to hang all life’s woe. When the Nazis removed civilization’s thin veneer, the Polish attitude remained: ‘What happens to the Jew, it does not concern me.’ Yet a handful of Poles defied both the Nazi terror and their own culture to rescue a relative handful of Jews. Why? One Righteous Gentile in Warsaw, Henryk Grabowski, told me that he helped the Jews because “they were my countrymen.” He said this with tears in his eyes. My Polish translator, a young woman named Hanna Szmalenberg, said, “You never hear that.” She also had tears in her eyes. Three years after I returned from Poland, the film Schindler’s List opened to wide acclaim. In 1939, Schindler, a Sudeten-German businessman and a member of the Nazi Party, came to Nazi occupied-Poland to turn a profit. He ended up rescuing 1,200 Jews. I researched the life of Oskar Schindler for this “Teaching Schindler” study guide. Invariably, I found myself comparing Schindler with the Righteous Gentiles that I had interviewed in Poland. They appeared to be complete opposites. While the Poles were modest and had to be prodded to talk about their wartime activities, Schindler was anything but modest. he talked about his wartime exploits all the time, and, in the end, became financially dependent on the Jewish people he had saved. He was different from the Polish Righteous Gentiles in every respect - except one: He, too, had broken with conformity; he, too, had saved Jews. What made him different? Plater Robinson Holocaust Education Specialist Southern Institute for Education and Research Acknowledgements I would like to thank Lance Hill and Lawrence N. Powell for their expert eyes and their endurance in proofreading and editing this manuscript. I would like also to express my appreciation to the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., for the use of the maps, a number of glossary terms, and the Holocaust summary and time-line. --Plater Robinson Contents 10 “Schindler’s List” A Study Guide The Righteous Gentiles .................................................................................................. 1 Background of Thomas Keneally's Shindler's List........................................................... 4 A Brief Chronology of Oskar Schindler............................................................................ 6 Oskar Schindler Before the Second World War .............................................................. 8 Schindler During the Second World War....................................................................... 13

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