Second World War is still a popular subject, especially in entertaiment: YLE present every Independence Day 'The Unknown Soldier', the movie, which based on Väinö Linna's famous novel, everybody have heard about 'Saving Private Ryan' and in this year get its premier finnish scifimovie 'Iron Sky', where Nazis have colonized the moon. Into this same subject draw also Thomas Keneally's 'Schindler's list'.
The book based on true story about Oskar Schindler, ethnic German industrialist and member of Naziparty and 1100 Jewishs he bail out. Like author hiself states, he have used aids that are typical for novels, partly because he thinks that he doesn't posses others. He have anyhow wanted to stay into facts as far as possible, so book contains lots of numbers and reference to his repositorys, especially to the Jewishs Oskar saved. All happens in the book are true and most of the conversations ( part of them had to reconstruct ) based on accurate memorys by Schindlerjuden ( Schindler's Jewishs ), witnesses and Schindler hiself. This create a confusing mess of cold facts and literature's emotionality.
Reader can immediatelly identify to holocaust's Jewishs victims. She or he can almost see when Rosners brothers, Jew musicians, play literally for dear life in Podgóre's concentration camp's commendant Amon Goeth's villa. Reader can also conceive Goeth standing his villa's terrace in shirtsleeves just after breakfast targeting lazy prisoners with rifle.
The book contains many shuddering stories about mistreatment of Jewishs: little girl has to see during action when SS-men beat people who was hiding in ghetto's houses. When group of men who belong to Schindlerjuden end up into Auswitch, they have to sleep in one another's lap so that they fit into their small building.
Althought book gush out shuddering happens, there is also little glimpses of hope: it feels almost miraculous that same little girl, who have to see cruelty of action, contrives to slide from middle of SS-men's boots back to freedom. It's touching how young lovebirds want to date traditionally middle of Podgóre's camp's misery and horrors.
In Oskar's and Jewish's he saved battle against revelation almost every means are allowed; they get officers to turn a blind eye with generous bribes or drinks, Oskar keeps SS-men away by threatening them with consequences, which would follow if somebody would disturd his Jewish workers, who are 'important to war' and saves many of his employees by pleading their so called 'proficiency' and they fake without a second thought official documents.
Characters of 'The Schindler's list' are like direct to traditional fairytale: there is incomprehensible evil
( Nazis, at the head Podgóre's concentration camp's commendant Amon Goeth ), innocent people, who need help ( Jewish ) and a guide, who directs our hero to the right way ( Itzhak Stern ). Only Oskar hiself doesn't fit into this pattern. Although he managed to save 1100 Jewish, he was still a hard drinker with an iron liver and little bit flighty and he had many lovers, who his wife got at least suspicions. Despite that in his Jewish workers' memories he appears in mystic and almost supernatural guardian angel.
Oskar Schindler and his acts are so complex that their are actually impossible to explain exhaustively in 412 pages, if at all. If I would know that all this is true, I would have hard to believe so.
Mark: 8-
