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
Somehow Schindler is able to keep up his multiple affairs with seemingly few consequences. At Christmas, though he isn’t devout, he goes to church in memory of Schindler’s late mother. Business is still good, and Schindler’s factory begins to start a munitions department. Schindler doesn’t like shells as much as pots and pans, but he can tell it is good politics—it will help him be useful in the future, or at least appear useful.
Schindler is very careful about how he cultivates his outward appearance. He knows that the safety of his Jewish prisoners—as well as his own safety—depends on maintaining the outward appearance of usefulness to other Germans in positions of power.
Themes
Soon, Schindler receives word that there’s going to be a new ghetto for Jews—the edict is posted on March 3. The edict claims that it’s for Jewish people’s own good, to protect them from Germans. Even before the arrival of the Germans, there was conflict between the Poles and Jews. Soon afterward, many Poles were eager to point out Jewish families, so the edict does at least sound credible to some. Some Cracow Jews are even used to the idea of a ghetto, which has historical roots since their grandparents may often had to live in one. They hope that it might lead to less oppression. The new ghetto becomes a minor inconvenience to Schindler, since it blocks his usual route to work.
Communications from Germans to Poland’s Jewish population frequently use euphemisms and provide false information. This is not only to mislead Jewish people—it also helps those in the Nazi Party justify their actions to themselves. Sometimes the lies in these communications are well-constructed, but other times they serve as just the barest pretense.
Themes
Starting March 20, Schindler’s Jewish workers can no longer earn wages and have to sustain themselves entirely on rations. Instead, the factory owners will have to pay a daily fee to the SS economic office. Schindler and Madritsch are both uncomfortable about this because if Germany loses the war, they don’t want to be seen as slaveholders. For two weeks, Jews move their belongings into the ghetto, and by March 20, the movement is complete.
Schindler and Madritsch may be revered as heroic men today, but without the benefit of hindsight, it was very difficult for the Allies to tell which Germans were committed Nazis and which were secretly resisting the regime.
Themes
A 23-year-old Jewish woman named Edith Liebgold is assigned a first-floor room in the ghetto with her mother and her baby. Her husband wandered away several months ago after the fall of Cracow and never returned. She tries to find work and ends up finding out about Deutsche Email Fabrik. After being assured that the people running the factory are trustworthy, Edith ends up in a meeting with Schindler. He promises her she’ll be safe if she stays working with him throughout the war.
Liebgold’s experience is intended to be representative of what many of Schindler’s Jewish prisoners experience, including the ones who don’t appear in the book. His offers of hope seem far-fetched, but she can’t help being convinced by him.
Themes
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Edith thinks the offer is too good to be true, but she finds Schindler convincing. She starts working in the enamelware factory and finds herself actually believing Schindler’s promises.
The hope that Schindler offers is a powerful motivator, and it is one of the key ways that he gets people to buy into his cause.
Themes
