The Message of Courage in Schindlers List by Thomas Keneally Essay

The Message of Courage in Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally Throughout the novel of Schindler’s List, by Thomas Keneally, the message of courage is portrayed greatly. Keneally was a gentile man who wrote about how bad the Holocaust was, even-though he was not Jewish. He tells a story of how one man successfully saved thousands of Jews by letting them work for him. Keneally wrote about how helping someone pays off and by letting someone have a second chance which gives them a sense of hope in times of hardship. When Schindler was helping out Jews, Germany was taken over by Hitler’s Nazis. In times of hardship, some people stand up for the people in need and protect and help them. Oskar Schindler, a rich factory owner, risks his life and spends his personal fortune to save Jews listed as his workers during World War 2. Oskar Schindler risks everything to help the Jews escape the Holocaust. He is a German man and he should be against the Jews, in an idealistic way in Nazi Germany, but he is against the Third Reich. His heroism is deeply appreciated by the Jews as a whole for his works. He put people to work for him and the Nazis let those select Jews live. In one scene Schindler puts a man with one arm to work, because he surely would have been killed by the S.S officers due to his disability. The Nazis confront the handicapped man, and he tells them that he works for Mr. Schindler, shoveling snow. The Nazis leave him alone and tell Schindler that â€Å"there is a defected Jew working†(123) for him. Schindler tells them that he wants the man working for him. A few days later the Nazis come back to the man and ask how is job is going. They then detai n him and take him behind a building and shoot him. Schindler was a good man and he demonstrates this by giving people a helping hand. He tries to also bribe the Nazis in not killing any of his workers. â€Å"The S.S are corruptible as any police force.†(227) He wants to bribe them because he wants to keep all of his employees healthy and not dead. He stands up in a time of oppression and he shows how one person can have a major impact on a society. The style of Thomas Keneally is very descriptive and it’s in a point of view, where he is overlooking Oskar Schindler’s illustrious life. He tells each important event in step by step detail. He tells exactly what people look like and he tells how the army is com... ...dler’s List is to show how one man can stand up in a time of oppression and prevail. During the book Oskar comes to terms with reality and he figures out that he must help all of the Jews. He has to help Jews because his accountant is Jewish and he did not want to see him die because of his religion. He feels that nobody should be killed because of religion. So he decides to take as many Jews under his wing as possible. He puts them to work for him doing various things. He pays them and protects them from the Nazis. â€Å"I feel I need to help out in some way.†(193) He feels that since he helps out that he is doing good for a people. He has to be able to help out his workers. He feels that all people should be equal. He is absolutely right. What he had done was a beautiful thing. Basically, what I have seen is that Schindler was an amazing person. Nobody helped the Jews in World War 2, but Schindler did. It was a highly revered and heroic thing to do. I believe that the equality Schindler felt was truthfully amazing and he should go down in history as a savior. Schindler was a man who cared greatly about people. He was one of those men that felt that all men were created equal.