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
On April 28, 1944, Schindler notices on his birthday that he’s putting on weight. His celebration is more subdued than in previous years, and he doesn’t get arrested this time. At the celebration, Henry Rosner the musician tells Schindler about how they brought their eight-year-old son Olek (who had been hiding with friends in Cracow) into the camp.
Since Płaszów is classified as a concentration camp, Goeth no longer has leeway to execute anyone whenever he feels like it. If he breaks the rule, killing an essential worker, he might be liable to provide compensation. Still, it is a desperate time, and the Germans are burning bodies at Płaszów, in preparation for a Russian offensive. Though estimates vary of how many died, one source claims that 150,000 prisoners went through Płaszów, and of those, 80,000 died there. Part of the reason why a true count is difficult is because the bodies were not well kept track of—some are still found today when digging for foundations in the suburbs of Cracow.
It may seem like a paradox that the Nazi ideology is to eliminate Jewish people, but that new orders from high command say that Goeth can’t murder prisoners indiscriminately. In fact, however, the leaders in the Nazi Party realize that a more bureaucratic approach will be more effective in the long run. They deliberately burn bodies and want to keep track of new deaths because the camps are in danger of being taken over by Russians. If the Russians were to discover all of the Jewish bodies at the camps, it would provide the clearest evidence yet of what the Nazis are really doing.
Themes
Among the burning bodies are the Spiras—all ghetto police were executed after the dismantling of the ghetto. Schindler was surprised and took their execution as a sign that no amount of loyalty from a Jew would ever been enough for some Germans.
The death of the Spiras is yet another reminder that no amount of loyalty is enough to appease the Nazis. For Jewish people, any semblance of safety is always precarious.
Themes
A letter from Oranienburg to Amon Goeth states that he must be careful about where to keep bodies so that they can be properly disposed of. Schindler is depressed by all he sees, but he makes a promise to Stern: “I’m going to get you all out.” Stern questions the word “all,” to which Schindler replies that at the very least, he will get Stern out.
Schindler’s promise to Stern is a direct echo of the Talmudic verse Stern quoted to him earlier: “he who saves the life of one man saves the world entire.” Schindler concedes that he may not be able to save everyone, but he knows that even saving Stern is nonetheless worthwhile.
Themes
Get the entire Schindler’s List LitChart as a printable PDF.
