Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Schindler’s List, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Virtue and Selflessness
Anti-Semitism and Dehumanization
Power
Duty
Bureaucracy
Summary
Analysis
A young girl arrives at the house of the Dresners, who live in the east part of the ghetto. The child is no longer safe in the countryside since the SS are offering rewards to people who betray their Jewish neighbors. Mrs. Dresner tells the girl that her real parents are hiding and will eventually come to Cracow. In fact, they have been rounded up by the SS but managed to escape before being put on a train, disappearing into a crowd of Polish people. The girl, Genia, is nicknamed “Redcap” because she likes to wear red. When one of the Dresner children questions her about her family, she begins to make up a fake story about how her relatives are Polish.
Genia represents the Nazis’ destruction of Jewish children’s innocence—although despite the desperate circumstances, she is still able to hold on to some of that innocence. Her love of the color red shows demonstrates the way that children can take joy in simple things. Yet even at her extremely young age, Genia grasps that she will have to use trickery in order to survive in the cutthroat world of occupied Poland.
Themes
On April 28, 1942, Schindler’s 34th birthday, he has a boisterous celebration, which starts at Emalia. He brings cakes and cigarettes into the factory for workers. He is so spirited that he kisses a girl named Kucharska and is then seen being friendly with Jewish women and Stern. Someone reports him, and he is arrested again on the morning of the 29th by two Gestapo men (more confident than the two Gestapo from the last time).
Schindler’s birthday will coincide with important events for several of the years chronicled in the story. This year is Schindler’s most boisterous celebration, which reflects that fact that his attitude at this stage of the war is still relatively upbeat and carefree. Yet the fact that he is punished for something as innocent as fraternizing with Jewish people shows that life under the Nazi regime is becoming stricter and harder to navigate—even for non-Jewish people like Schindler.
Themes
Schindler asks if the two men have a warrant and implies that they might regret taking him away without one. One of the men says they will just have to risk the regret. As he is driven away, he notices he is being taken toward Montelupich prison (where he knows a local medical institute gets its cadavers from). Schindler hopes Klonowska is making the necessary calls for him.
Schindler’s second arrest is more serious than the first, as it’s implied that the Montelupich prison often executes people. He plans to use the same strategy to get out as before, but he seems to be more nervous this time as the Gestapo men take him away. The arrest emphasizes that he often doesn’t know who around him he can trust.
Themes
A handsome SS officer is the only other man in the cell with Schindler, who suspects the man may be a plant. He gives his name as Philip. After more talking, where the man talks at great lengths, Schindler decides that after all he isn’t a plant and is maybe someone who suffered a breakdown. Philip is amused when he hears that Schindler is locked up for kissing a Jewish girl.
Even in a prison cell, Schindler knows to be careful, in case his cellmate is secretly a Nazi sympathizer. This makes it clear that it is becoming harder for people like Schindler to find allies, since people are quick to turn on one another to save themselves.
Themes
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Schindler tries to bribe a low-ranking SS officer guard to get five bottles of vodka. The guard is surprised, but Schindler assures him that three of the bottles are for the man and his colleagues. Schindler then tells him that he’d like the officer to call his secretary and gives him a list of phone numbers. The SS officer notes that the people on the list are influential and leaves.
Even after his arrest, Schindler holds on to a little of his daredevil spirit (which the novel hinted at earlier through his youthful love of motorcycles), taking an unnecessary risk just to get vodka. These seemingly unnecessary risks do, however, help establish him as a confident man, which is essential to maintaining his image, winning people over, and surviving tricky situations like this.
Themes
Philip worries that Schindler will get himself shot for attempted bribery, but when the SS officer comes back, he has two bottles for them, as well as various other amenities that Ingrid packed for Schindler. Schindler and Philip have a pleasant evening.
Schindler shows that even in prison he knows how to have a good time and make connections. In this way, his gregarious, personable nature is something of a survival tactic.
Themes
On the fifth morning, another low-ranking SS officer and two guards come for Schindler. They take him to an office where he meets Rolf Czurda again. Schindler explains to Czurda that he only kissed a Jewish girl because he was drunk on his birthday. Czurda says he has gotten some calls from big-timers about Schindler; Schindler is too essential to the war effort to keep locked up. Schindler asks if there’s anything he can do in return, and Czurda says he has an old aunt who had her apartment bombed out and could use some kitchenware.
Once again, Schindler finds himself in the debt of a man he doesn’t particularly like. Here, though, personal feelings aren’t important; what’s important is what Czurda can do for Schindler and vice versa. Schindler is generous with bribes because he knows they’re a strategy to protect himself and form alliances—even with people whose values don’t align with his, which echoes Stern’s comment that it’s sometimes necessary to work with crooks.
Themes
As Schindler leaves, Czurda gives him a warning: “You’d be a fool if you got a real taste for some little Jewish skirt. They don’t have a future, Schindler. That’s not just old-fashioned Jew-hate talking, I assure you. It’s policy.”
Czurda gives Schindler a strong hint of what’s to come: his comment that Jewish people “don’t have a future” implies that Jewish people won’t simply be rounded up into ghettos or shipped to work camps—rather, the Nazis’ ultimate plan is to get rid of them entirely. In addition, the idea that this reality is “policy” rather than “old-fashioned Jew-hate” highlights the extent to which the Nazis’ agenda is bound up with bureaucracy and duty. Men like Czurda write off the extermination of Jewish people as just a part of their job—a practical problem rather than a moral or existential one.
Themes
