I have seen the movie. Saw the book on a library's friends' 50 cent discount bookshelf. I thought, you know, what every book has over its movie, is detail. And the detail on this account could likely make an exceptional story amazing. I was correct. We all know the story. But in the detail accounts of the camps, and in the individual accounts of pain as well as fleeting pleasure, this story comes alive. I would have loved to meet Mr. Schindler. I relate to his hedonism. I relate to his initially latent, but exceptionally deep sense of human value and dignity. Unique in his time, and rare in history.
Even if you have seen the movie, I recommend this book. In fact, perhaps, the book and the movie work well together. Nothing in the book can describe the visual aspect of the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. And yet, what really makes this story are the people, the personalities, and the short stories of their lives, which could never be properly covered in movie-time.
A recommended read. Highly disturbing, and ultimately glorious. ( )

He who saves the life of one man saves the entire world.”
― Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List.
Oscar Schindler was a German industrialist and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories in occupied Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

I had to wonder on completing this book just how many lives Oscar Schindler has really saved when you multiply to the present day. What a wonderful legacy and how relevant this book was with what is happening in the world today even small actions in being accountable and doing the right thing may save so many lives.

I watched the movie many years ago and remember being so affected by it. And when this book came up as a book club online I really wanted to Join in as as I felt it was important to read this and discuss it.

The more orthodox of the ghetto had a slogan - 'An hour of life is still life'.”
― Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List

Thomas Keneally really brings history to life and you finish this book with restored faith in humanity.

A terrific read and a book that if on your TBR list then now is the time to bump it up as this one deserves to be read. ( )

I found this book heavy going for the first 100 or so pages but was determined to persist. It reads more like a non-fiction account of Schindler's war life and deeds, as it recounts from eye witnesses. As the story progresses I became engrossed in the events. I admit to shedding a tear on the closing page. ( )

(16) Every year around this time, I do a re-read. This year, I read a book after I had seen the movie. In this case I saw the movie many, many years ago when it first came out in the theater and was incredibly moved. I see this book is classified as fiction, but it reads as if it were non-fiction, memoir and per the author's note, - it is very much based on a true story though does not claim to have all the details just right and parts of conversations are simply guessed at. I think calling it fiction is unfair. Schindler was a German war profiteer and businessman who employed Polish Jews in his enamelware factory that ultimately became a concentration camp. This story of this unlikely character giving up all his possessions and risking his life and livelihood to go against the monstrous grain and save as many people as he could is truly amazing. I still don't understand how such barbarous and inhuman things happened. Happened in a civilized country in very modern times. I haven't really dwelled on the Holocaust in a long time given the 24 hour news cycles and the everyday ostensible horrors that actually all pale in comparison to what happened.

You know it has to be a true story because Oskar Schindler was so far from perfect. His post-War life was a hot mess and his fidelity and habits are very much NOT Hollywood. Kennedy writes the book with simple prose and fairly declaratively. No melodrama, no poetry - but the facts really spoke for themselves and much of the artistic license he did take insightful. It was not overly graphic but there were some haunting images - the Musselmaen concept, the girl in the red cap, the teeth the jeweler had to appraise.

I can remember being speechless in the movie and I will watch again soon. One wonders if you would have the courage to truly stand up to evil. What do you tolerate to save your own skin and to hold on to your own well-being and family? The most powerful part about this book is the gradual acceptance of what was being done to Jewish people - first just restrictions, then loss of property, then forced to dwell elsewhere, then forced labor, then extermination of the weak, then just extermination. Even the people to whom it was happening were like the proverbial frogs in slowly heated up water. Excellent important story well written. A must read. ( )

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. ( )