Equality and Emancipation

Abstract

One of the more notable film releases of the nineties has been Schindler’s List, Stephen Spielberg’s magisterial account of the emergence of hope from inhumanity in the Second World War. The film, based on Thomas Keneally’s Booker prize winning novel Schindler’s Ark, tells the story of German businessman Oskar Schindler ‘s attempt to save the lives of the Jewish workers in his forced-labour factory in Poland during the closing years of the war. We see the transformation of Schindler from a womanising, hedonistic, money-grabbing businessman and Nazi Party member into someone who risked his life to save those of his Jewish workers, many of whom he came to regard as his friends.