Powerful and moving, Schindler’s Ark* details Oskar Schindler’s almost mythic rescue of over a thousand Polish Jews during the holocaust. An entrepreneur and war-profiteer, Schindler’s ‘befriending’ of Plaszów's commandant Amon Goeth allowed him to first build his business, and then manoeuvre it into a haven for Jews against the Nazi death machine. Schindler maintained a business-crippling system of bribes, wining and dining Goeth and his ilk, with the help of only a few sympathetic supporters, took in Jews both skilled and unskilled, feeding them through the black market and promising to see them through the war and ‘five minutes after’… and accomplished this literally death-defying coup under the nose of the SS, despite a number of arrests.

Keneally’s biography is of Schindler and Goeth, and the people whose stories most closely intersected with theirs. He lends it no melodrama or sentimentality, letting the story, the humanity, and the background information of German military history build for the reader a sense of astonishment, horror, gratitude and triumph.

*Filmed and published outside the UK as Schindler’s List ( )

Excellent novel. Much better than the film. Incredible to think that Shindler was little known before Spielberg brough him to the world's notice. Someone should make a biopic of Raoul Wallenberg now.

Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist who saved thousands of Jewish people from death in World War II Poland. His story is well known, thanks to the film adaptation of this book. The book is a realistic, factual, stark portrayal of real human drama. Keneally portrays Oskar as a compassionate savior, but not a saint. He was a womanizer and a heavy drinker. After witnessing violence in a Polish ghetto, he was moved to establish a camp on the premises of his factory, with better conditions for his workers. Still, his workers were not immune to the random acts of violence and murder. During the last year or so of the war, through deft negotiation and subterfuge, he managed to transport thousands of Jews to safety, ensuring their liberation when the war came to an end.

Even though I've read several books about the holocaust, I've been able to distance myself from the reality -- not denying these events occurred, but not facing the brutality, either. This book was different. I'm sure my mind was not as graphic as the film, and I unconsciously protected myself from the worst of it, but I still had to take frequent breaks. There were so many individual, heartbreaking stories; I found myself wondering how it could be classified as fiction. The author's note reads, "To use the texture and devices of a novel to tell a true story is a course which has frequently been followed in modern writing. It is the one I have chosen to follow here; both because the craft of the novelist is the only craft to which I can lay claim, and because the novel's techniques seem suited for a character of such ambiguity and magnitude as Oskar. I have attempted to avoid all fiction, though, since fiction would debase the record, and to distinguish between the reality and myths which are likely to attach themselves to a man of Oskar's stature. Sometimes it has been necessary to attempt to reconstruct conversations of which Oskar and others have left only the briefest record. But most exchanges and conversations, and all events, are based on the detailed recollections of the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews), of Schindler himself, and of other witnesses to Oskar's acts of outrageous rescue. " Seems like nonfiction to me ...

I suspect this book won the Booker Prize more on the basis of Schindler's story; the writing itself was not as fine as I'd hoped. And Keneally was rather repetitive regarding Schindler's appetite for women and alcohol. Was he portraying him as "merely human," or admiring him? I found it tiresome, so a book I would normally have rated 4 stars ended up with only 3. ( )

I read this simply because I’d seen the movie and was impressed by the story and wanted to find out more. The book while written as a novel, was constructed from recollections and records of real events…only private conversations were reconstructed by the author. In saying this though, it was presented in a factual and largely chronological way, and not really dramatised. The story was dramatic in itself, but there wasn’t anything to make you sympathise particularly with Oskar Schindler, the hero of this tale. So I found it a little more challenging to read than I’d expected. Also there were a lot of German military and SS rank names written in German throughout the book which were a virtual mouthful, and along with Polish place names and so on, it took a bit of concentration.

The story itself though….amazing. I don’t think I will ever understand how these events really happened, and how such beliefs (towards the Jews) were ever able to take hold, and at a time not so very long ago.
Recommended. ( )

Having seen the movie many times, I couldn't wait to get the book and read it. To my pleasant suprise, the book was phenomenal. While the movie does not hold perfectly true to the book (what do you want, it is a "based on the book" movie), the book explains deeper things that were eluded to in the movie. For example, Circumstance A occurs in the movie. As a movie watcher, you just take Circumstance A at face value as simply being part of the story. Well, the book expains completely what Circumstance A actually is. This made reading the book that much more pleasurable as it served as more of a companion to the movie than a carbon copy of the movie. The book also explains Schindler's emotional feelings better than what is portrayed in the movie. Recommended reading for anyone who has seen this movie and appreciated it. ( )

aka Schindler's Ark ( )

A remarkable tale of how one man, who was by no means leading a virtuous lifestyle, became a hero to the thousand he saved from death. The story is indeed wonderful, all the more so because it's true, but at times I found it a little dry to read. Harsh, I know. ( )

Another memorable addition to the WWII Holocaust literature. Books have been written trying to categorize those who rescued Jews at great risk to their own lives, but this was not an easy task. People from very diverse walks of life and philosophical and religious persuasions participated in acts of courage. Schlindler was as much an enigma as many of the other rescuers. A wealthy industrialist who employed Jews in his factory, Schlindler fought to the end to save them from the Nazi death camps. And yet his own life betrayed no moral standard or compelling faith that would give a clue as to the reasons for his actions. Did it begin as a dangerous, thrilling game he played and then turn into something finer as he connected with his Jews? We may never know, but are grateful to him and the many others who gave light during that very dark time. ( )

A haunting account of the true story of the Jews rescued by Oskar Schindler during the Second World War. Moments of extreme heroism and courage, coupled with demonstrations of the depths of cruelty to which humans can stoop, show the range of human experience and emotion.

I would suggest this is one of those books everyone should read, not only for its craftsmanship, but also for the events it witnesses. ( )

I found this book really hard to get into at first but once the story got going, it was a little easier. There were some really interesting pieces of information about Oskar and I learned a few things about the war that I hadn't known before. Still, I think this is one of the few cases where I believe the movie is just as rewarding as the book. ( )

'He who saves a single life saves the world entire.'

Schindler's List is the story of Oskar Schindler who saved more Jews during the Holocaust than any other one person. Winner of the Booker Prize in 1982, it is the only lightly fictionalized account of Oskar and the many Jews he saved. While billed as fiction, Schindler's List draws heavily from the remembrances of the people who were saved by or knew Schindler as well as from Schindler's own accounts of the period. As result, it reads more like history and its style is sometimes reminiscent of a television documentary in the way the various stories told by different survivors are assembled together.

Keneally charts Schindler's life from his youth until the beginning of World War II and speculates about what in Schindler's life could have predisposed him to be a person who would risk everything to save as many as he could from the Holocaust. Schindler was a man of loose morals, notorious for taking lovers and cheating on his wife and later even cheating on his lover with yet another mistress, all with little regard to hiding his unfaithfulness. Schindler moved to Cracow in Poland to make his fortune at the start of World War II, soon acquired an Enamelware factory and landed contracts to produce mess kits for the war effort. In short, at the beginning of the war Schindler was a hard-drinking unethical sort with an eye for profit and an uncanny means of knowing the right people and the right way to wheel and deal to achieve monetary gain. At the end of war, he was still the same Schindler but had used his talents and connections to save the lives of over a thousand Jews.

"You'll be safe working here. If you work here, then you'll live through the war."

The new women of DEF took their job instruction in a pleasant daze. It was as if some mad old Gypsy with nothing to gain had told them they would marry a count. The promise had forever altered Edith Liebgold's expectation of life. If ever they did shoot her, she would probably stand there protesting, "But the Herr Direktor said this couldn't happen."

Keneally has done a fantastic job of uniting the many personal accounts and Oskar's records into a coherent and stunning narrative of Schindler's unlikely heroics. He covers the beginning stages of Schindler's friendships with Jews in Cracow, the moment in which it seems he was galvanized to act when during an Aktion in the ghetto he witnesses brutal killings taking place in front of a young girl in a bright red coat, and his eventual use of his connections and "friendships" with various and sundry SS officers to remove Jews from the brutal environment at concentration camp Plaszow for work and protection at his factory. Schindler's larger than life personality, his immense monetary resources, and his way of knowing and appropriately bribing just the right people to ensure the survival of "his" Jews are brought strikingly to life.

Schindler, however, is not the sole focus of the book. Keneally contrasts life in Schindler's camp with the many heart-wrenching stories of Jewish survivors who witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust. These stories accentuated with Keneally's gripping prose, which adds a strangely poetic edge to even the most dire situation, create a fuller picture of the Holocaust in Cracow than one can get from the many Holocaust memoirs written by single survivors.

There in the a pile at Wulkan's knees, the mouths of a thousand dead were represented, each one calling for him to join them by standing and flinging his grading stone across the room and declaring the tainted origin of all this precious stuff.

While at times physically painful to read, Keneally's narration lays bare the Holocaust for readers and leaves no doubt as to Schindler's heroism despite his moral failings. Schindler's List is a slow and difficult read, with countless heart-breaking stories and more names and titles to keep track of than one can reasonably retain. Nonetheless, it is an incredible work which memorializes the worst of times and the heroism of one man who foresaw what would happen and chose to do something about it. ( )

3678. Schindler's List, by Thomas Keneally (read 12 Jan 2003) This won the Booker Prize in 1981, and the author calls it fiction though it is factual and when it won the Booker Prize there was some feeling that it should not have since it was so slightly fiction. Though we all know the movie I found the story amazing and its depiction of intense evil exhibited by people running the concentration camps and the cheerful insouciance with which Schindler proceeded to save the people who worked for him of high interest. This is a searing and ultimately very rewarding book and I am glad I finally read it. ( )

Amazon.com essential video
Steven Spielberg had a banner year in 1993. He scored one of his biggest commercial hits that summer with the mega-hit Jurassic Park, but it was the artistic and critical triumph of Schindler's List that Spielberg called "the most satisfying experience of my career." Adapted from the best-selling book by Thomas Keneally and filmed in Poland with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, Spielberg's masterpiece ranks among the greatest films ever made about the Holocaust during World War II. It's a film about heroism with an unlikely hero at its center--Catholic war profiteer Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who risked his life and went bankrupt to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps.
By employing Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army, Schindler ensures their survival against terrifying odds. At the same time, he must remain solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant (Ben Kingsley) and negotiate business with a vicious, obstinate Nazi commandant (Ralph Fiennes) who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa overlooking a prison camp. Schindler's List gains much of its power not by trying to explain Schindler's motivations, but by dramatizing the delicate diplomacy and determination with which he carried out his generous deeds.

As a drinker and womanizer who thought nothing of associating with Nazis, Schindler was hardly a model of decency; the film is largely about his transformation in response to the horror around him. Spielberg doesn't flinch from that horror, and the result is a film that combines remarkable humanity with abhorrent inhumanity--a film that functions as a powerful history lesson and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the context of a living nightmare. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
The story of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a dashing and resourceful German Catholic businessman who saved more than a thousand Polish Jews from almost certain annihilation by the Nazis, is extraordinary even by the standards of Holocaust literature. Steven Spielberg's film, adapted by Steven Zaillian from the 1982 book by Thomas Keneally, runs better than three hours and doesn't seem a minute too long. Spielberg respects the essential mystery of the protagonist's heroism, and uses his prodigious skills with an intensity that he hasn't shown in a long time: he captures images of experiences that most of us thought we would never see represented adequately on the screen. This is by far the finest, fullest dramatic (i.e. nondocumentary) film ever made about the Holocaust. And few American movies since the silent era have had anything approaching this picture's narrative boldness, visual audacity, and emotional directness. Along with Neeson, who is brilliant, the standouts in the large cast are Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, and Embeth Davidtz. The wonderfully expressive black-and-white cinematography is by Janusz Kaminski. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Keneally writes in a very dispassionate style about the phenomenon of Schindler's factories yet still manages to convey the brutality and horror of the time through the various short stories he weaves the narrative with. A masterfully written and haunting book. ( )

Seriously what can I say about this book? IT IS AMAZING. If you haven't read it, have you been under a rock your whole life? The book is heavy but so interesting and the movie is great too. So if you're not much of a reader, watch the movie. ( )

Like everyone else who read this book I was moved. Keneally's other work is not as strong as SL, so I didn't know what to expect. I found it so powerful that I bought The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich after reading it, though, so it was one of those powerful, life-altering books that meant something more than a thrilling story. ( )

I've read Keneally's The Great Shame, and I thought I ought to pick up this, his most famous work. It is as chilling and well-written as expected, and, since its scope is more focused, easier to follow than The Great Shame. The story is fascinating, even if one already knows the broad strokes.

The reader on the Recorded Book audiobook is excellent, with what this French-speaker can only guess is authentic German and Polish pronunciation, and an aloof suavity that accords perfectly with the precision and detached judgment of the text. ( )

This book tackles a huge subject and keeps the reader involved thoughout a gripping read that is not spoiled by the fact that the film made of it is the reasson people know of it. ( )

I still can't read this, it disturbs me so.

Wonderful ( )

This was a hard book to read. This is the story of Oskar Schindler, a manufacturing industrialist in Germany during World War II, who, horrified at the cold brutality of the German's "final solution" regarding the Jews, became the clandestine savior of thousands of them. Schindler used his smooth manners, charm and schmoozing skills, along with generous bribes, to establish an armaments factory near one of the concentration camps. His workers were Jewish prisoners, and it was the only place in the German territories where Jews could hope to live with reasonable sustenance, dignity, and freedom from immediate harm. The story of how Schindler accomplished this is an astonishing one. Keneally has made many suppositions of dialogue and emotion, but the book seems to be based on immense research, and I think the suppositions are not far from the truth. It is gratifying to read at the end of the book that Schindler was eventually held in high honor and respect for his deeds, especially in the new country of Israel. The book also brings home forcefully the depravities of the mass of Germans toward the Jews, and how desperate their plight was in a world that had apparently turned its back on them during the Holocaust. That a single wealthy industrialist with a casual attitude toward marriage and fidelity, and nothing of particular nobility or courage in his past, should risk all to do what he could for "his" Jews, is nothing short of a miracle. It is certain that those he saved felt the same way. ( )

A true story that was astonishing, powerful and gripping and well told by the author. With a lot of the info being provided by survivors and the background knowledge of the war it is very believable and gives us a true insight into these harrowing times. ( )

Informative and harrowing. ( )

Great, although depressing, book about Schindler and his transformation from greedy businessman to risking his life for his Jewish workers. ( )

The movie was, of course, wonderful. But it differs from the book in that the character does indeed make a transformation. In the book, Schindler is more clearly a good guy from the beginning while, nevertheless, also being interested in making money and carrying on with other women. In the end, Schindler was a failure in business and marriage, but he was always welcome in the Israeli homes of those he saved. The book is docked a star in that in this book of semi-fiction, it is never quite clear what liberties Keneally is taking with the actual biographical facts. *** ( )