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
Later, many of the Jews who survived due to Schindler will be united by a common thought: “I don’t know why he did it.” By fall of 1944, Schindler is making plans to protect his Emalia prisoners with a sense of dogged determination.
The mystery behind Schindler’s motivations arguably makes his actions all the more incredible and profound. His efforts show that seemingly ordinary, flawed people can also be capable of immense generosity and self-sacrifice.
Themes
Schindler approaches Madritsch about trying to get his 3,000 workers out to Moravia too. Though Madritsch is humane to his prisoners in a way that puts his own life in danger, he is also much more cautious than Schindler, having never been arrested. He says he needs time to think Schindler’s offer over.
Based on this scene, Madritsch may seem less sympathetic to the Jewish prisoners than Schindler, but his caution isn’t necessarily misplaced. Schindler himself has a number of close calls, and it is easy to imagine a simple mistake dooming his whole rescue operation.
Themes
Schindler goes ahead without Madritsch, going to Berlin for dinner with Colonel Erich Lange. He tells Lange that if he goes to Moravia, he can transfer his entire business to manufacturing shells. Lange, who remains disillusioned with the system he’s part of, says it should be possible but that it’ll require money (not for himself, for others). He begins the process of bribing the necessary officials. As he’s negotiating, Goeth is arrested.
A colonel is a high rank, so it’s perhaps surprising that Lange would be so sympathetic to Schindler’s cause. On the other hand, Lange has little to lose by allowing Schindler to go ahead with the factory. Goeth’s arrest helps explain why Goeth’s behavior was so erratic, even by his standards, in the months leading up to it.
Themes
Senior SS investigator Eckert looks through Goeth’s financial dealings, looking for black market deals and embezzlement, as well as investigating claims that Goeth mistreated inferior SS men. At the time of his arrest, Goeth is in Vienna, visiting his father. Other camp Commandants have also been investigated, so there is no guarantee Goeth will get off easy.
It might not be a coincidence that Goeth’s investigation comes near the end of the war. As a German loss becomes more likely, many look to point fingers, and an embezzler like Goeth makes a good target.
Themes
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The investigators question Hirsch several times, believing at first that she must have some involvement with Goeth’s black market deals before finally accepting that she doesn’t. The also question Pemper, who is smart enough not to say much. But the investigators arrest him anyway, because they know Pemper has seen some secret documents for his work. After two weeks in jail, where it seems like he might be shot any day, he is ultimately released. Goeth’s junior officers are careful and make no special effort to defend him.
Though Goeth has seemed more powerful than Schindler up until this point, the fact that everyone abandons him when he goes to jail shows just how fragile his supposed power was. By contrast, Schindler gets out of prison multiple times because the connections he builds are far more durable.
Themes
Schindler goes down to the city of Troppau to speak with the engineer Sussmuth (a man Lange recommended to him) about the new camp in Moravia. Sussmuth needs no bribes—he has already tried to make small camps similar to what Schindler is suggesting but without luck. With the support of Schindler and Lange, however, his odds of approval look much better.
Finding allies is difficult for Schindler, since trusting the wrong person could get him sent back to prison or worse. Fortunately, finding one trustworthy person, like Lange, often puts him in contact with a whole network of others.
Themes
Sussmuth has a list of possible camp sites, and one is a textile plant in Brinnlitz (near Schindler’s hometown of Zwittau). Schindler knows he’ll meet resistance from the locals but goes down to inspect the area. He’s pleased with what he sees and heads back to Cracow, hoping to speak to Madritsch again to help him find a space too.
Schindler chooses an area near his hometown because he knows the area—even though he knows there will be resistance, it’s better to work somewhere where he’s familiar with the terrain.
Themes
When Schindler gets back, he sees the wreckage of an Allied bomber in the camp. He knows the end is coming soon in Cracow, so he goes at once to look into cars to transport his prisoners.
The Allied bomber is a literal sign of how the Allies are beginning to become a presence in Cracow and in German territory in general, signaling the imminent end of World War II.
Themes
A week after Schindler talks with Sussmuth, the Berlin Armaments Board gives approval for Schindler’s armaments company to be located in Brinnlitz. Local government officials are unhappy, but they can do little to resist. At one point, Schindler finds out that his opponents are accusing him of being involved with the black market, so he preemptively introduces himself to the Moravian police chief, Otto Rasch, who he also bribes with a diamond. Altogether, Schindler pays an enormous sum to get his new camp set up.
By now, Schindler is a professional at securing important contacts, and he knows that police chiefs will always be important allies. He knows that he has to be proactive because he just witnessed how similar accusations of black-market dealings brought down the once-mighty Goeth.
Themes
Schindler draws up and delivers his initial list, which has over a thousand names, including Helen Hirsch. Schindler talks to Titsch, hoping Titsch will be able to convince Madritsch to do something similar.
With so few people he knows he can trust, Schindler continues to try to persuade Madritsch to join him, since Madritsch is a proven ally.
Themes
Some former camp residents remember a “Płaszów graduation party,” although accounts differ as to where in the camp it took place. Titsch says it was at this event that Madritsch finally told Schindler he wouldn’t be going with him to Moravia. Later, Madritsch would still be honored as a just man—his opposition to Moravia was simply because he believed it wouldn’t work.
Though the Jewish prisoners of Płaszów have little to celebrate (given that many will be shipped to worse places, and that there’s still no guarantee Schindler’s new plan for a factory at Brinnlitz will work), it is still important to keep up morale. The fact that Madritsch refuses to go along with Schindler but is still honored after the war suggests that there are multiple paths to resistance—even something as simple as treating his prisoners humanely is a vitally important act of kindness.
Themes
Legend has it that the final draft of Schindler’s list was due the very same night as the party. To the list, Titsch added the names of almost 70 Madritsch prisoners. At last, Schindler reluctantly stopped him, saying they were already at the limit of what they could do.
While it’s hard to verify which legends about Schindler’s life are true, it is certainly plausible that Schindler’s famous list was turned in at the last minute, given how much was at stake. The fact that Schindler’s list is limited to a relatively small number of prisoners emphasizes the precariousness and randomness of people’s fates during the Holocaust. Oftentimes, something as trivial as a personal connection or sheer luck would determine whether or not a person made a particular list (either a list like Schindler’s or one of the Nazis’ lists of people to send to concentration camps).
Themes
A Jewish personnel clerk named Marcel Goldberg puts himself in a position where he has great control over who does and doesn’t make the list. Goeth’s replacement Commandant, Büscher, doesn’t care, but Goldberg uses it as an opportunity to take bribes, including one from Juda Dresner, the uncle of “red Genia” and husband of Mrs. Dresner (who hadn’t been allowed to hide in the wall).
Though the book continually emphasizes Schindler’s selflessness, it also shows that there was a dark side to who made and who didn’t make the list. Goldberg is a complicated figure: as a prisoner, he’s in a very precarious position, but as keeper of the list, he also holds tremendous power, which he sometimes exploits.
Themes
Pfefferberg hears about the list from an SS officer named Hans Schreiber, who has a nasty reputation but who takes a liking to Pfefferberg. At one point, Schreiber seems intent to execute Pfefferberg, but when Pfefferberg asks him to just go ahead and shoot already, Schreiber is amused. Later, Schreiber turns up drunk and regretful of what he’s done at Płaszów, saying he hopes to help expiate Pfefferberg, telling him of Schindler’s list. Pfefferberg cannot make the list just then, however, because Goldberg is requiring diamonds to be added to it.
Pfefferberg once again uses confidence to impress and amuse a Nazi who is threatening his life. He is so surprisingly effective that Schreiber even volunteers to help get Pfefferberg out. Perhaps with the end of the war looming, some SS officers are reconsidering their commitment to Nazi ideology. Schreiber seems to have knowledge of Schindler’s list and can perhaps tell its true purpose, but he apparently doesn’t report it or do anything to shut it down.
Themes
Many others make it onto the list, often through deals with Goldberg, including the musician Rosner brothers. Goldberg naturally finds a place for himself on the list. Bau, the recently married man, is added to the list without knowing it, although he doesn’t realize that his wife and the rest of his family are not on it. Stern has been on the list from the beginning.
Finalizing the list is difficult for both sentimental and practical reasons. Especially in an era before computers, it’s easy for a name to simply be overlooked, and with over a thousand names, it’s difficult for any one person to keep track of them all.
Themes
