Schindler's List

Born on April 28, 1908, to a middle class Sudetenland German family in Zwittau, Austria-Hungary, Oskar Schindler died on October 9, 1974, at age 66. Schindler joined the Abwehr at age 28, in 1936, and joined the Nazi party in 1939, shortly after the Nazis invaded Poland. Thomas Keneally portrays Schindler as an extremely affable man, able to befriend anyone and convince anyone on matters of business. Keneally portrays Schindler as completely unashamed of his vices of excessive drinking and adultery, as “childlike” and incapable of understanding how his adultery affects others, and as a reckless gambler who survives on guts and audacity alone, carried through by his extreme likeability. Throughout the novel, he often takes literal or metaphorical gambles, such as when he tells bold lies to save his workers or gambles for Helen Hirsch’s fate with Goeth.

Keneally presents Schindler as an “apolitical” figure who chooses to do what’s right at the most simple, uncomplicated level. The author’s use of “apolitical” simplifies Schindler’s behavior to the actions of an everyman hero, which contrasts with the overtly political monstrosity of the Nazi regime and coincides with Emilie’s description of her husband as “unexceptional.” The rhetorical device of apoliticism allows Keneally to avoid glorifying Schindler as a larger-than-life figure.