This paper analyzes Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List, focusing on how the film depicts Jewish cultural and religious practices as a form of resilience against Nazi persecution during World War II. The paper examines Oskar Schindler's transformation from opportunistic war profiteer to unlikely savior of approximately 1,200 Jewish lives, while exploring how Spielberg uses Jewish traditions — including Shabbat, Hanukkah, and marriage rituals — to frame the film's narrative. The analysis also addresses the film's quasi-documentary visual style and evaluates how effectively Spielberg captures the human cost of the Holocaust without exploiting its victims.
Schindler's List is a 1993 film by Steven Spielberg that focuses on the contributions Oskar Schindler made to the war effort during World War II and the Jewish people he saved through his business endeavors. While Schindler allies himself with the Nazi Party and several high-ranking Nazi officials, he uses these connections to hire Jews to work in his various businesses — first an enamelware factory and later a munitions factory. Throughout the film, Spielberg dramatically captures the plight that Jews underwent in Poland during World War II, specifically how they were dehumanized by the Nazis and forced first to give up their possessions and live in the ghettos, and then forced from the ghettos to labor, concentration, or death camps. Despite the fact that nearly all material possessions were forcefully stripped from Jews, the one thing the Nazis could not take away was their culture and traditions, which play a prominent role in the film.
In the film, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) is initially depicted as an opportunist who will do anything in his power to gain favor with higher-ranking Nazi officials, who will eventually enable him to profit from the war and the cheap labor — Jews — available to him. In order to profit from a war, one must have a business that is in demand. Schindler therefore moves to open an enamelware factory that will not only benefit him financially but also provide supplies to Nazi soldiers. To open this business, Schindler enlists the help of an extremely competent accountant, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), who happens to have connections with formerly successful Jewish business leaders.
With Stern's help, Schindler acquires the investors necessary to bankroll his enamelware endeavor and subsequently hires Jews to work for him because they represent the workforce requiring the lowest payment — wages they will never actually receive. Schindler compensates them instead by paying in pots and pans, which he contends they can trade in the ghetto for goods they need (Schindler's List). Eventually, the ghettos are condensed into a single ghetto and then evacuated altogether. It is during this time that SS Hauptsturmführer Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) is brought in to oversee the evacuation of the ghettos and the construction of the Płaszów concentration camp, which he will command once completed. With his labor force relocated to a concentration camp, Schindler is forced to shut down his enamelware factory; however, he is not out of business long before he opens a munitions factory employing the same Jews who had worked for him previously. Ultimately, through his efforts and the near-exclusive employment of Jews, Schindler managed to save approximately 1,200 people from certain death (The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise).
One of the most tragic aspects of the events depicted in the film is that Jews were persecuted because of their beliefs and traditions, which had been practiced for countless generations. Jews were persecuted and executed not because of their nationality, but because the Nazis believed that the ultimate Jewish goal was world domination — a claim that directly conflicted with the Nazi quest for Aryan dominance (The Simon Wiesenthal Center). Despite the fact that it is their religion that made them targets, and despite the atrocities they witness and experience, the Jewish people in Schindler's List hold on to their beliefs, a reality that Spielberg spectacularly highlights in both the editing of the film and in its narrative.
"Religious rituals bookend the film's narrative"
"Marriage rites and Shabbat observed under persecution"
"Schindler honors Rabbi Lewartow's Shabbat observance"
Schindler's List is not only masterfully shot, but it also allows viewers to see that not all Germans or Nazis hated Jews or wanted to see them exterminated. It brings attention to the horrors that Jews endured in an almost documentarian cinematic style, which further underscores the gross reality of the Holocaust. While the film does an excellent job of dramatically depicting the events of this period, the ending — during which surviving "Schindler Jews" are shown visiting Schindler's grave — feels somewhat forced upon both the audience and the survivors themselves.
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