Nayeli Gonzalez

Solig/Hamilton

Global Studies

Block 2

February 28, 2017

Schindler’s List Essay

One person alone who becomes an upstander will help initiate and eliminate intolerance

and discrimination. During the circumstances during World War ii and The Holocaust Adolf Hitler

was a dictator that used the Jew’s as an excuse so they made it look like it was Germany’s

problem and they had to pay everything. He initiated the destruction over 11,000 people. In the

film Schindler’s List Oskar schindler changes from a perpetrator into a bystander and eventually

becomes an upstander due to the circumstances of World War ii and The Holocaust.

In the beginning of the film Oskar Schindler was getting ready, he put on a suit, and he

also had a Nazi pin on his suit and he had a lot of money in his drawers. He grabbed all his

money and took it with him. Schindler went to a restaurant and he saw a lot of Nazi’s soldiers

eating and coming in. Oskar called a waiter and told him to give the commander “Nazi Leader” a

drink and he’s paying for it. The commander stood up and went to schindler and, the

commander left his wife alone so Schindler got up and told the commander to never leave a

lady alone so he went and grabbed her by the hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then

after that Oskar got close to the Nazi’s and so they all started to party together and Schindler

bought everyone drinks and they took pictures with him too. I saw that Oskar tried to get close

to the Nazi’s on purpose. He also got close to them because he wanted to buy the Jews and if
he got close to them it wouldn’t cost that much. It shows perpetrator because when it was

schindler’s birthday two Jewish girls brought him a cake and Oskar kissed one of them infront of

everyone who was in the room ,but he didn’t care and he still kissed her even if he knew it was

illegal and that’s what made him a criminal.

The liquidation of the Ghetto was happening, the Nazi’s were shooting anyone and they

also threw away their clothes. Oskar started to change into a bystander because he was

watching the liquidation of the ghetto happen but he didn’t take action for anything he just

reacted scared like he was kinda mad of what they were doing to them. There was a little girl

wearing a red coat and Schindler was focusing on her. When the Nazi’s were burning all of the

bodies they killed Schindler was watching them burn the bodies and he saw the little girl there

and he hated himself for it because he could’ve saved her from dying ,but instead he just

stared.I saw that Oskar wasn’t that selfish because even a Jewish came up to him and told him

“everyone says you’re good” ,but Oskar didn’t like that because he was confused he had to

chose to be good or bad. So this shows oskar is a bystander at this point because he scared to

do something to help someone. This is is important because as you can see when someone is

bad they can always change themselves and oskar is in a situation where he doesn’t know what

he wants to be.

At the end of the film he became an upstander because Schindler bought the Jews and

so everyone had to go in his train to go with him and as they were going the Nazi’s soldiers

grabbed the little kids and tried to take them away from their mothers ,but good thing Schindler

came on time and told the Nazi’s “Hey what are you doing those are mine they are miners they

should be in my train their fingers polish the inside of a steel medal creasing” so they let them
go so they went back to their mother’s. An evidence I have is that he gave the jews water when

it was a hot day and they were all squished in the train because they were going to the death

camp because they were useless. Oskar also helped an old jew from getting killed because he

did something to the Nazi’s gun so they wouldn’t shoot him. This shows that Oskar is an

upstander because he’s helping the Jews. It’s also important because Oskar is showing love to

the Jews even if he is a German.

In conclusion, this shows how Oskar changes during the movie from bad to good during

World War ii and The Holocaust. At the end of the movie Oskar’s action was better than the

beginning because he started to care about the jews and if it wasn’t for him the 1,100 jews

wouldn’t survived. Being a perpetrator is someone that doesn’t care and a criminal, a bystander

is someone who watches but doesn’t take action and an upstander is someone who helps

others when they need it and that’s what Schindler is an upstander. It is the duty of all human

beings to contribute to fight against intolerance.