I've wanted to read this book since coming back from Poland, where we spent most of our time in Cracow. My abiding memories of our visit centre on our stay in the former Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, and of visiting the former ghetto in Podgórze, and of course Auschwitz-Birkenau. This background informed my reading and my appreciation of this book.

This illuminating account has at its heart the extraordinary character of Schindler, womaniser, bon-viveur, heavy drinker, businessman ..... and saviour of the Jews. He's an unlikely hero: audacious, willing to resort to bribery, and entirely unrelenting once he had got the bit between his teeth. Set alongside his story is that of the Jews of Krakow, their personal histories, degradations and gradual loss of autonomy. And the stories of his wife and lovers, and the German high command whom he had to keep on side to achieve his objective of saving the Jews whom he was able to employ.

This is an uncomfortable, painful book to read. But for an understanding of the humiliations and suffering of the Jewish people under Nazi occupation and beyond, and for a glimpse at the lives of those heroes (and Schindler wasn't alone) who made a difference to the fates of some of them, this is unbeatable. ( )

Anche se tutti avranno già visto il capolavoro di Spielberg e quindi lo sapranno già, il libro racconta la vita dell'industriale tedesco Oskar Schindler dal 1939 nella Polonia occupata dai nazisti.
Più lento di quanto mi aspettassi nella prima parte, il libro prende giri col passare delle pagine e ricostruisce la azioni di Schindler che, inizialmente nazista convinto anche lui, vede aumentare col tempo gli orrori operati dalle SS e matura parallelamente una repulsione verso il regime e le atrocità dei campi di concentramento.
Man mano che si rafforzano le sue convinzioni, anche le sue scelte diventano sempre più azzardate e pericolose, volte a ingannare il sistema dall'interno nel tentativo di aiutare il popolo ebraico ed alleviarne le sofferenze per quanto possibile.
Innumerevoli gli episodi in cui Schindler riesce a sottrarre prigionieri ebrei dalle grinfie delle SS e dai campi di concentramento tramite vari sotterfugi, inganni e "regali" ai funzionari giusti.
Tutto il libro è stato scritto grazie ai ricordi dei sopravvissuti, agli scritti di Schindler e ai documenti custoditi allo Yad Vashem, il memoriale della Shoah di Gerusalemme.
È certamente un po' crudo in alcune descrizioni, ma non poteva essere diversamente.
Emozionante e commovente, lo metto sul podio dei migliori libri dedicati all'Olocausto insieme a "Se questo è un uomo" di Primo Levi e "La banalità del bene" di Enrico Deaglio (altro libro incredibile che ricostruisce la storia di Giorgio Perlasca, lo Schindler italiano).
Non ho dubbi, oggi più che mai, che sia un libro necessario... per non dimenticare. ( )

Most people have at least heard of this book, or the movie that was made from it, about the war profiteer turned savior of over a thousand Jews during WWII. I watched the movie in high school and then tried to read the book, but gave up due to how long and dry it was. That's probably the biggest mark against the book for most people--it's slow and plodding for at least the first several chapters. And throughout the entire book, the narrative is bogged down by so many names of locations and people, all of which are foreign to at least some of us (mostly Polish names, some German) and difficult to pronounce. However, I'm not sure Keneally should have done it differently, and if that is the only downside to the whole book, I would say there's a lot of reason to push through it and keep going. It does pick up a little after some of the early chapters, and in the end, I'm really glad I read it.

One thing that's always struck me about Schindler, and did even more so while reading this, is that he's not necessarily the type of person you would picture as a "savior." He was gruff, prone to fits of anger, and frankly had absolutely no respect for women at all. And yet, when he saw injustice and brutality happening, he was spurred into action. And while his motives for helping are examined multiple times in the book, it's clear that it's not just a matter of profit that he fights to keep his workers, considering the lengths he goes to at times to not just keep them but also to keep the SS from brutalizing them in his factory.

Though Schindler's actions are the focal point, the book also takes an up-close look at some of the people eventually saved by him. The book reads like a series of vignettes about Schindler himself and various of the different Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews). Keneally states that he did his best to include only facts, while filling in conversation here and there, but because he couldn't possibly have every single detail, the story at times reads more like looking down on a scene, rather than being right there in it while it happens, as we've come to expect from novels. He makes it clear, though, when he couldn't corroborate a story, that it might be more legend than fact, and even this only happens a few times. Overall, the book is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and clear picture of one man who was completely unextraordinary most of his life, yet did an incredibly extraordinary thing during a dark and terrifying time in human history. Whether you've seen the movie or not, I recommend reading this book to pretty much everyone who's remotely interested in the subject matter, even if it does take you some time to get through it. It's worth it. ( )

I had expected this to be a novel but it turns out to be a hybrid - non-fiction cum fiction. It wasn't very satisfactory for me; I would have preferred it to be more clearly defined. Keneally declared that he meant it to be a novel but there are frequent references like testimonies, reminding you it is not. For these references, I would have liked a proper reference listing, citing the source of the info. Nevertheless, without Keneally, many of us wouldn't know of this remarkable man, Oskar Schindler. Besides Schindler, Keneally brought to light other German industrialists and soldiers who showed kindness. ( )

Good novel about the German industrialist, a playboy, who managed to save a lot of his Jewish factory workers from death in the Holocaust. It was originally called "Schindler's Ark". ( )