What a List Can Do (Schindler’s List Analysis)

The experience of watching Schindler list left me uncomfortable not necessarily due to acts of violence taken by individual people but because the violence was well planned. What impressed me was that the film demonstrates a system, in particular, a strict hierarchy that determines the life worth living. The Germans were at the top, safe beneath the law and position. Poles were in a drifting mid-range: worn, displaced, yet considered useful. Jews were on the ground, without rights and identity and personality. This was not just a social hierarchy but was through paper work, uniform, and daily routine, which made discrimination formal and beyond question.

This ranking is revealed in the film as an excuse to be cruel. Guards claim that they were acting under orders. Regulations act as shields to administrators. Violence is now a normal procedure. If jews are slightly out of line, consider them dead. The most surprising thing was that everything appeared normal. The system did not require the chaos or threats of hatred at all, but it required organization. The system performed the rest when people were sorted into categories. That made me wonder how simple it is to dehumanize groups of people by just having modern systems in place where there is no need to visualize the bad man since people do not even need to see themselves as the bad guys.

This brings serious questions of seeing and recording. This tension itself is represented by the list. First tools of control were lists- they were used to classify, relocate and kill individuals. However, it is possible that the same bureaucratic weapon can be a survival mechanism when applied to other purposes. It left me wondering whether documentation is ever neutral or if its value of morality is left to the control of whoever holds it. The film demonstrates the boundaries of witnessing too. What happens is seen by many people but there is little resistance that comes with seeing. Viewing turns into passive, even secure.

What I am left asking is, If I was a German and at the top of the hierarchy, what would I do? If I say I would save an abundant amount of jews like Schindler, it feels unrealistic. If I don’t do anything, however, it would certainly make me feel uncomfortable. The fact that we are in the future may give us a strong belief on the holocaust and how it is horrific, but how would our opinions form back then? Would we think just like the Villainous Nazis if we were in their position?

Work Cited

Hilberg, Raul. “The Destruction of the European Jews.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 2005. MDC Library Database.

Spielberg, Steven, director. Schindler’s List. Performances by Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes, Universal Pictures, 1993.