Searching for Schindler: A memoir

I found this book deeply moving, not only because of the central story - the Holocaust and its survivors - but the deep friendship that developed between Poldek and Thomas Keneally. Keneally's acceptance of Poldek's invitation to publish Schindler's story and to have it made into a film leads to many new precious and enduring relationships . It takes a little reading between the lines to understand the personal cost to the author of all the travel, painful interviews, separation from his own family and sheer physical exhaustion but the reward is a deeper and more detailed understanding of the Shoah - especially for the generations born since that time.

This book is precious, something special to read. This is the story of a man, Poldek,a victim of the Nazis who was saved by Oskar Schindler and eventually, "California, Beverly Hills" had a very good business in handbags and briefcases. His life's mission was to have a book, then a film, made about his hero and a chance meeting with the Australian-Irish author Thomas Keneally who was looking for a replacement briefcase, brought it about.

Truly its a story of how Poldek introduced Keneally to the great humanitarian Schindler and induced him to write about it. How the two travelled through the US, Europe and Israel putting the book together and how, once it was written, getting it made into a film, a more than decade-long undertaking. As show more Poldek said right from the beginning, 'An Oscar for Oskar' (with the Booker Prize along the way).

The story of the writing of the book and making of the film is interlayered with Keneally's life in Australia and California and in Eritrea too. The passages where he is both a reporter and later election observer in war-torn Eritrea do have a certain resonance with the main story of the awful inhumanity that was the Holocaust. The book, personalising this period in recent history with names, pictures and the updated, often successful lives of the survivors, makes it more real and more horrific than the pictures of living skeletons and the piles of bodies of the documentaries.

In the book there is a small story of Ralph Fiennes, a fine actor and a man much greater-spirited than myself. Keneally had met him in the bar where the film people were gathered one evening and had signed a book for him. Not knowing that Ralph was pronounced Rafe, he had heard Ray and written the dedication accordingly. Ralph Fiennes said nothing and later, when Keneally found out he went and apologised for his gaucherie. Years ago I had worked briefly for Ralph Fiennes famous explorer cousin, Ralulph Fiennes and when I left he presented me with a book he had signed for me. My name was spelled wrong. I said something...... After all these years, reading the greater generosity of Ralph Fiennes has made me embarrassed all over again.

The book is golden, precious, the five stars I've rated it at need to be golden and twinkling, like beacons in a dark and overcast sky. show less

"Searching for Schindler: A memoir" is the story of author Stephen Keneally's research for his book "Schindler's List/Ark." It tells of the journey he made, both physically and emotionally, while visiting sights and interviewing survivors. It was like getting the inside scoop on people that I have come to know so well through both the book and the movie.

This book by the author of Schindler's List details the researching of the book and the process of making the book into the movie. The highlights are the details about Poldeck, the Holocaust survivor who introduced the author to the story of Schindler and helped him research the book. Poldeck is indiscouragable and seemingly endlessly optimistic about getting an "Oscar for Oskar", and sounds like a fascinating man. What is odd about the book though is that is seems to be more a recitation of the facts of researching the book with a few more detailed stories thrown in than an actual memoir. The author briefly mentions the nightmares that plagued him while writing the book and even more briefly mentions a breakdown after the deaths of show more people close to him, but these are some of the few personal details mentioned. Still, a good read for fans of the book or the movie. show less

I enjoyed the book. The way that Keneally discovered the Schindler story was amazing. A total coincidence, a synchronicity of events. He seems like a most likeable person. I have not read any of his other works, but i am interested in doing so now and hope to read something else, one of his novels probably, in the hear future. there are just too many books to read.