I have just returned
from a 9:30 pm showing of a theatrical rerelease of Steven Spielberg's multi-award-winning film, “Schindler's List.” This
week marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of
Spielberg's film and I wanted to see the film in theaters after
being indirectly informed through a friend's post on facebook. When I
read the post, I was determined to go and see the film. I arrived at
9:15 pm at my local AMC Theater, bought a regular size cup, poured a
fruit-flavored drink with ice, and had the entire screening to myself. I had
expected more people to be there since film is well-renowned, even
after winning Winner of seven Academy Awards¨ including Best Picture
and Best Director. I stayed until the very end of the credits, which
I marked on my cellphone at fifty-six minutes after midnight. I came
to my apartment and decided to post this journal entry. I should
mention that this is not a film review (as there are reviewers who
far more eloquent than myself who can do much better), but rather how
the much film has meant to me, means to me now, and lessons I took
from my recent viewing.
At the time of the
film's original release in 1993, I was seven years old. By that time, I
had only been exposed to Disney films and to entertainment that was suitable to a child of my age. The first time I had become aware of
the film was when I was in middle school in 1998 at the age of twelve. During that time, Mrs. Rowan
made us read a book called “Number the Stars,” which was
about “the story of a ten-year-old Danish girl and her
family's courageous efforts to smuggle Jews out of their
Nazi-occupied homeland to safety in Sweden,” by Lois Lowry.
This was my first exposure to understanding the events of the Holocaust. One particular day, there was a general assembly in
the auditorium and all the students attended. There was a woman
(whose name I sadly cannot recall) who had been a survivor of the
holocaust thanks to efforts of Oskar Schindler, “a German industrialist and a
member of the Nazi Party who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the
Holocaust” (Thanks, Wikipedia). Seriously though, I was struck by
her story, she mentioned the film, and I remember one teacher asking
if the survivor “was there at the end.” Since I had not even
been aware of the film's existence beforehand, I didn't know what
that teacher was asking. I remember one thing the survivor had said
that I never forgot. She mentioned that if she ever saw someone get
bullied then she would intervene and tell the bully to stop. In
middle school, I was bullied frequently and I wish that I had gotten
to meet her and then got to know her and perhaps she could have been
my mentor. I would have liked her and would have wanted to learn more
deep and meaningful lessons from her.
That same year, I had also been exposed to the Star Wars Trilogy
Special Edition on VHS, which my father bought for me and my sister
to watch. I became a huge fan. The next year, “Star Wars:
Episode I - The Phantom Menace” was released and while I had
missed its original theatrical run, I watched it when it was released
on video cassette. At around the same, Schindler's List was going to
be broadcast some evening on PBS. I immediately knew the lead actor's
name, Liam Neeson, who I recognized for his performance as the jedi
master Qui-Gon Jinn from the first instalment of the Star Wars
prequel trilogy. Seeing that he was playing the lead role of Oskar
Schindler and remembering the testimony of the holocaust survivor, I
felt I needed to see it. On the evening it was broadcasted, it was shown
uncut. My parents were not aware that I watched the film and since it was
not on a school night, I was not made to go to bed early. In the
den of a renovated basement at home, I watched the whole film. I was
initially shocked by what I had seen. I knew the movie was about
the Holocaust, but I didn't expect for it to feel almost too
realistic. I couldn't believe that human beings were made to
suffer because they were different, but I was also aware of the
importance of the film and it's message. At the film's end, it
touched my heart though I did not cry. It taught me how much I didn’t know about
Schindler’s life and it encouraged me to research it in detail.
Since then, I had the seen the film on rare occasions, even though I
owned a copy of it on DVD years later. To this day, I cannot recall
how many times I have seen the film, but I made point to watch it
only once a year.
As of 2018, I am
in my early thirties now and in the week leading up to this journal
entry, it seemed to be a prelude to this viewing. At my job, where I
work at a retirement facility, few of the residents had a brief
Hanukkah ceremony, in which they would light a “candle” (which
was a small flamed shaped light bulb) into an electric menorah. A
resident named “Buddy,” as he likes to be called, would volunteer
to read a brief prayer in Hebrew, “light the candle,” and the few
residents who attended would sing the dreidel song and that would be
all. Strangely enough, while I am not Jewish, during my break, I
attended each of those “candle lighting” ceremonies on my
scheduled workdays, and I was blessed in getting to know some of the
residents in attendance. I shared some of my knowledge of Jewish
history with them (my interest in it was rooted in meeting a former
prime minister of Israel two years before). They appreciated it and
they seemed to welcome me into their little gathering. As of this
posting, I am on vacation this week and during this time, I had been
doing research on the founding the state of Israel in 1948 and the
inspiring life of Israel's first prime-minister and main
founding father – David Ben-Guirion. He once said in an interview
on CBS on October 5, 1956 (to which I discovered just yesterday),
“In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in
miracles.” In my opinion that it would be hard not to believe in
miracles in reading and learning the history of the Jewish people.
While I do not know if I have Jewish ancestry, they have been without
a doubt some of the most resilient people in our human history.
My last viewing of
Schindler's List seems to be a culmination of what I have been
learning about for the past two weeks, at least in terms of culture
and history. Yet I wonder as to the purpose of it. I feel that it has
led up this moment, but for what? I was certainly touched by the
story again. Tears welled up during my viewing of two scenes of
movie. The first time I saw the film, I didn't cry and almost never
cry in watching movies. One being a scene of an innocent,
unoffending, little girl wearing a red coat, walking down the street
and wandering around amidst the chaos and violence while people are
being slaughtered around her. My heart broke for that little girl and
even more knowing that see that she would soon die.
The second time my tears welled up was when Schindler broke down and cried, wishing he could have saved more.
I didn't understand why he cried at my very first viewing. As an adult, I now understand. Schindler was crying because he realized just how much one human life was worth. At the beginning of the story, all Schindler wanted to do was to make money and he needed workers so he would use the Jews to help his factory. There was nothing notable about him, no hint of character. But when the moment came, when he realized the horrors and suffering the Jews endure, it awakened his conscience and prompted him to sacrifice his money/everything to save them from any more pain. In so doing he saved the lives of 1,200 people who would have otherwise perished in the holocaust. He went beyond the realm of help and because of what he did for them, they were able to live and rebuild their lives.
Yes, I was certainly
moved by the story and it has affected to the point where I needed to
post an entry on my experience with it and yet I wonder why? What
purpose? I would never write (or this case type) this about any other
movie. This is movie is supposed to serve a purpose and the filming
of Schindler’s List inspired Mr. Spielberg to create the USC Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of Holocaust survivors. In seeing
this, I find my answer. In the same way that Oskar Schindler was
moved, albeit slowly, to save the lives of 1,200 people, in the same
way that Steven Spielberg was moved to create the USC Shoah
Foundation, we must be moved to strive to make the world a better
place. Most people who have watched this movie have been touched and
yet have moved on with their lives. They tell their friends how
powerful it was to them and recommend it, but that's all. We must do
more, especially at this time given the political climate in the
United States (and in many other countries around the world) right
now. The film can be a tool to be used in educating those on the horrors of
the Holocaust. To quote the line from the Talmud in the ring given to
Schindler by the Jews he saved: “Whoever saves one life saves
the world entire.” I am apt to believe if more people see this
movie, that more lives can be saved.
And yet there is still more that we must do. Abraham Lincoln said his Gettysburg Address, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work... It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...” In context, Lincoln was acknowledging that anything he or anyone else said at that ceremony on November 19, 1863 were just words, and those words were nothing in comparison to what the soldiers went through and gave during that battle of Gettysburg a few months before. He also gave to us, the living, a call to action, a resolve to complete “the unfinished work” being preserving the Union and its ideals of equality, liberty, and freedom. Today in 2018, our unfinished work is that these stories and testimonies of those who experienced the Holocaust are remembered and that the “dead shall not have died in vain.” Slowly the survivors and their times will become history and there will be those who will claim that their stories are false and have no merit. We must defend against such people by educating more young people about those events, instructing them to stand up against injustice, and help them understand that in doing so they can prevent another holocaust from occurring.
As for me personally, I am going to start reading books about the
holocaust, beginning with Schindler's List (the book adapted
for the film) by Thomas Keneally, donate some money to the USC
Shoah Foundation and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, D.C., reach out and
perhaps volunteer and/or raise money for those organizations, pay
a visit to USHMM and pay my respects in person at the grave of Oskar
Schindler, located at the Catholic cemetery on the southern
slope of Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, Israel. I want to
share what I have learned with others who want to learn. I want this
experience to make me a better person. I want to be what I want
to see in others. I need to embrace the change and seek out
opportunities, learn from my mistakes instead of making excuses,
listen and learn more with an open mind, do random acts of kindness
even if nobody sees me while not expecting anything in return, live
up to my full potential, and make wise decisions while reminding
myself that it is never too late to make a difference. If Oskar
Schindler could redeem himself then maybe I could as well.
In conclusion, I
hope that throughout the rest of my life, whether it long or short,
that I will perpetually honor the six million, who could not be here,
through my words and deeds. I dedicate this journal entry to the
memory of the countless victims among them and to the life, legacy,
and memory of Oskar Schindler.
