Schindler’s List
During the 1940’s the Holocaust stood in full effect, taking millions of Jews and placing them in concentration camps. By the end of the Holocaust the Nazi’s had killed over 6 million Jews. Resulting in only a small population of four thousand Jews left in Poland today, but to this day a generation of six thousand Jews lives because of one man. This man took into his safety 1,100 Jews, keeping them alive past the Holocaust, allowing them to grow and start new lives. In the movie Schindler’s List directed by Steven Spielberg, Oskar Schindler risks his life to save the Jews not only for his own egotistical needs, but to also help the Jews he has come to know. For Oskar Schindler, saving the Jews comes as an act of egotism, saving them for his own personal gain. In the beginning, Oskar solely operates on popularity, gaining his power and prosperity in this manner. The movie introduces Oskar as a “victimizer” (Ebert), gaining his popularity by conning and bribing the Nazi’s. By giving the Nazi officers lavishing gifts such as champagne and cigars, Oskar works his way up the social ladder, making himself quite known in the Nazi community. In addition, with this respect, Schindler starts to use his power and popularity to his own advantage. As commented in Ebert’s review, because of Oskar’s popularity the “authorities are happy to help him open a factory to build enameled cooking utensils that army kitchens can use.” This allows Oskar to set up his factory and begin looking for workers. Furthermore, to keep up his popularity, Schindler begins to look for an easy way to gain money. In his attempt to gain money, Schindler searches for cheap labor. Through this business Schindler employs many of the Jews from the concentration camps as his workers and uses them for slave labor. Additionally, through the employment of the factory, many of the Jews can stay safely away from the concentration camps, making it seem as though Schindler has created a haven for the Jews. However, some contend that, “he just opens the factory to gain money” (“Schindler’s List”). Although Oskar’s actions in the beginning of the movie help the Jews, his purpose is clear: his help only comes from his need to gain money and to boost his own ego.
As the movie progresses, Schindler’s idea of the Jews change, he begins to put forth his efforts towards saving them. Schindler begins saving the Jews of which he has grown the closest to. For example, he grows the closest to his Jewish accountant, Stern. In one movie review, Maslin points out how Stern “at one point has been rounded up by Nazi officers before Oskar saves him.” This exhibits how Oskar puts his life in danger just to save one Jews life. Similarly, in the movie people begin to recall the Jews working for Schindler as, “Schindler’s Jews”, as agreed by Ebert in his review. This suggests the compassion and claim Schindler has begun to form for these Jews, and people have begun recognizing this. In addition, Oskar risks almost everything to save these Jews he has come to claim as “his” (Schindler’s List), he writes a list of 1,100 Jews that he knows and works with, buying them with the money he earns, from the Nazi officer, Amon Goeth. With this list Schindler orders the transportation of all of the Jew to arrive at his new factory. However, as Ebert reports, “when a trainload of his employees is mistakenly routed to Auschwitz, he walks into the death camp himself and brazenly talks the authorities out of their victims, snatching them from death and putting them back on the train to his factory.” Ebert’s review illustrates the heroism that Oskar uses, risking his own life by stepping into Auschwitz to save the Jews he has come to know. Through these examples from the movie, it becomes apparent that Schindler has changed his view point of the Jews and now works towards saving “his” Jews.
As the Holocaust went on Schindler warmed up to the Jews changing his perspective on them as his time with them grew longer. Taking charge and working to keep the Jews safe took a lot of effort and power to assure no harm would come to them, but Schindler managed to accomplish this. Oskar Schindler’s efforts, whether for bad or good intentions, led to the salvation of 1,100 Jews, this will forever make him a hero, for “whoever saves one life, saves the world entire" (Schindler’s List).

Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. “Schindler’s List.” Roger Ebert. 15 December 1993. Web. 14 September 2013
Maslin, Janet. “Schindler’s List; Imagining the Holocaust to Remember It.” The New York Times. 15 December 1993. Web. 13 September 2013. “Schindler’s List.” News and Entertainment. n.d. News and Enertainment Network. Web. 14 September 2013
Schindler’s List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Liam Neeson. Universal Pictures, 1993. DVD