Spielberg's "Schindler's List"
I just watched this movie, for the second time. I first saw it 19 years ago, when it came out in 1993.
First of all, it is a great movie-- superbly done, with a great story.
Second though-- I was particularly interested in how they treated the holocaust, since I really couldn't remember much about that aspect of the film from when I first saw it.
Officially there were several aspects, or stages, to the holocaust, particularly in Poland (where the movie takes place)--
1) the relocation of Jews to the ghettos
2) relocation of Jews from the ghettos to small local labor camps/concentration camps
3) relocation of Jews from small camps to larger "extermination" camps, such as Auschwitz-- the so-called "final solution"-- where millions of Jews were gassed to death.
Of course, in reality, Auschwitz was at least partially a labor camp, and not just a death camp.
Each of these stages involved a fair amount of random killing and inhumane treatment. But from what I understand, Holocaust "deniers" tend not to deny parts 1 and 2, and disagree with part 3-- particularly the gassing part.
Oddly, "Schindler's List" only alludes to part 3 in the most indirect way possible. Auschwitz is shown, and there is a smokestack shooting out cinders, and at one point, prisoners are being led in the basement of a building, with a fiery smokestack going full blast above them.
I don't even think there was a mention of gassing in the movie, or even millions of Jews dying, until the very end-- with a one-line title saying "in remembrance of 6 million Jews who died in the holocaust"-- or something to that effect.
All in all, there is surprisingly little for a holocaust revisionist or denier to strongly object to.
In this way, the movie reminded me very much of Oliver Stone's 9/11 movie, "World Trade Center", which scrupulously avoided any conspiracy aspects to the point that it didn't even shown the planes or the destruction of the towers (at least from the outside) and just focused on lucky few policemen who survived the destruction.
Thematically, the two movies are similar-- take a horrible historical event and focus on a small, relatively uplifting aspect of the overall event. And also avoid obvious weaknesses of the official story.
The one part of "Schindler's List" that a holocaust revisionist might truly object to would be what is also the most horrific scene of the movie-- digging up corpses near the Płaszów concentration camp and burning them in a massive pyre. According to wikipedia, this was a real event, and the ashes were later carried away by 17 trucks. I imagine holocaust deniers would claim that it is virtually impossible to completely burn thousands of bodies completely in this way, and certainly it would be very impractical -- vast amounts of wood or fuel would be required for burning 8,000 bodies completely to ash. Plus, burning bodies in a open pit or pyre is just not very efficient. If this burning event did occur, one would expect huge amounts of bones to be left, that would not be so easily disposed of without a trace.
So, the movie is definitely worth a watch, if nothing else to see Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of Amon Goeth, the evil Commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów Labour Camp.
First of all, it is a great movie-- superbly done, with a great story.
Second though-- I was particularly interested in how they treated the holocaust, since I really couldn't remember much about that aspect of the film from when I first saw it.
Officially there were several aspects, or stages, to the holocaust, particularly in Poland (where the movie takes place)--
1) the relocation of Jews to the ghettos
2) relocation of Jews from the ghettos to small local labor camps/concentration camps
3) relocation of Jews from small camps to larger "extermination" camps, such as Auschwitz-- the so-called "final solution"-- where millions of Jews were gassed to death.
Of course, in reality, Auschwitz was at least partially a labor camp, and not just a death camp.
Each of these stages involved a fair amount of random killing and inhumane treatment. But from what I understand, Holocaust "deniers" tend not to deny parts 1 and 2, and disagree with part 3-- particularly the gassing part.
Oddly, "Schindler's List" only alludes to part 3 in the most indirect way possible. Auschwitz is shown, and there is a smokestack shooting out cinders, and at one point, prisoners are being led in the basement of a building, with a fiery smokestack going full blast above them.
I don't even think there was a mention of gassing in the movie, or even millions of Jews dying, until the very end-- with a one-line title saying "in remembrance of 6 million Jews who died in the holocaust"-- or something to that effect.
All in all, there is surprisingly little for a holocaust revisionist or denier to strongly object to.
In this way, the movie reminded me very much of Oliver Stone's 9/11 movie, "World Trade Center", which scrupulously avoided any conspiracy aspects to the point that it didn't even shown the planes or the destruction of the towers (at least from the outside) and just focused on lucky few policemen who survived the destruction.
Thematically, the two movies are similar-- take a horrible historical event and focus on a small, relatively uplifting aspect of the overall event. And also avoid obvious weaknesses of the official story.
The one part of "Schindler's List" that a holocaust revisionist might truly object to would be what is also the most horrific scene of the movie-- digging up corpses near the Płaszów concentration camp and burning them in a massive pyre. According to wikipedia, this was a real event, and the ashes were later carried away by 17 trucks. I imagine holocaust deniers would claim that it is virtually impossible to completely burn thousands of bodies completely in this way, and certainly it would be very impractical -- vast amounts of wood or fuel would be required for burning 8,000 bodies completely to ash. Plus, burning bodies in a open pit or pyre is just not very efficient. If this burning event did occur, one would expect huge amounts of bones to be left, that would not be so easily disposed of without a trace.
So, the movie is definitely worth a watch, if nothing else to see Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of Amon Goeth, the evil Commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów Labour Camp.
posted by spooked at 12:56 PM
2 Comments:
What evidence is there in support of the charge that large numbers of Jews
were systematically murdered/gassed by the Nazis at any of the Concentration camps?
It's hard to believe that there was such a policy in place and yet there's no documents which prove that such a stunningly massive undertaking took place. Was Hitler
so insecure that he made sure that
the largest action in German history should take place in total secrecy - so that future Nazi leaders and even Nazi historians would not know about it?
It does seem true that there are no written documents that explicitly give orders for massive extermination of Jews by the Nazis. The closest we have is the "final solution" memos, which are subject to interpretation.
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