Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Schindler's List

Finished watching the movie Schindler's List in my Third Reich course, and I have to say it is one of the most powerful endings I've ever seen. All I've ever heard of this movie were praises, and I agree in every way. Here are my thoughts about the ending, spoiler alert if you haven't seen it yet.

Oskar Schindler announces to his Jewish workers at the end that the war in Germany has ended, and since he is a member of the Nazi Party, he has to run. When he later goes out to his car, the Jews that he saved present him with a gold ring from their teeth fillings and a letter that they all signed, 1,100 in total.

Schindler starts breaking down, looking at his car and his gold Nazi pin, guilty that he could've saved more, even if just a handful more people. His accountant tries to console him that he already did so much, and some of the Jewish women come up to embrace him.

The final scene is in the present day. Some of the descendants of the Schindler Jews pay respects at his grave. The descendants of these Jews are over 6,000. After he died, Schindler was buried outside the walls of Jerusalem.

These words will never replace the power that this last scene had. When the movie ended, I was moved to pray, not only for those who lost their lives, but for those who survived, and their children live on. I guess to me it showed that God still claims the Jews as his people, and he will always be with them.

It may be a lot to ask, but I would like to ask that if you read this, that you take a moment of silence to yourself, or if you wish, to say a quick prayer. I know for most of us this may be ancient history, but this is truly one of the chapters of history that should never be forgotten. So pray that we never forget, and that a tragedy like this never happens again.

1 comment:

  1. The problem with that theory is that it is occurring right now in another country, but we push it down since it hasn't reached such an extreme. It will get there one day though and when that time comes we'll realize we don't learn from history. My great grandfather was a Nazi and not by choice, we have letters he wrote and my mother is typing them up (since I can't really read the old German) and the history in those letters (and the places we have traveled due to those letters) is immense and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

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