Previous
Prologue
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Schindler’s List, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Virtue and Selflessness
Anti-Semitism and Dehumanization
Power
Duty
Bureaucracy
Summary
Analysis
Back in September 1939, soon after Germany invaded Poland, Schindler comes to Cracow. Although within a month, he shows signs of being discontent with Nazism, he can see that Cracow is a good location and that he can make a lot of money there.
The story jumps back in time to show when Schindler first came to Poland. When he first arrives, he has some disillusionment with the Nazis, but he seems more interested in how he himself can profit off the current political situation than how he can undermine the regime.
Themes
Schindler’s family is from Moravia, once a part of Austria, which became part of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Young Hitler would eventually become obsessed with reuniting German-speaking people in areas like where Schindler grew up. Schindler’s mother was a devout Catholic, while his father was a heavy drinker and smoker and more dismissive of religion (as his son, too, would eventually be). Schindler had a couple Jewish school friends growing up, and his next-door neighbor was a rabbi.
The book focuses on Schindler’s parents because their lives follow a surprisingly similar pattern to Schindler’s own life, with Schindler mirroring his father and Schindler’s eventual wife, Emilie, being similar to Schindler’s mother. In addition, Schindler’s disinterest in religion and his personal relationships with Jewish people may partially explain why doesn’t fully buy into the Nazis’ worldview later in life.
Themes
Young Schindler didn’t care about race or nationality; he was most interested in motorcycles. In 1928, he competed in a series of races. He even came close to winning a major race against some of the best in Europe, but he failed after losing track of the laps and stopping too soon.
Schindler’s interest in motorcycles shows that he was a bit of a daredevil when he was younger. Though he matures, he will keep some of this daredevil spirit when he’s older.
Themes
The summer after all his motorcycle races, Schindler met his future wife, Emilie, and married her after just six weeks. She was a farmer’s daughter who was devout but looking to escape her quiet life. Neither set of parents approved of the marriage, and Emilie’s father refused to pay her full dowry.
The fact that Schindler still marries Emilie in spite of all the opposition shows that Schindler has no problem defying authority. Ironically, although marrying Emilie begins as a rebellious act, she ends up being a more conservative influence on him.
Themes
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Schindler and Emilie got an apartment in Zwittau. During the 1930s, Schindler began staying out late in cafes and talking to girls. His father’s business went bankrupt in 1935—the same year that his father left his mother. Though it was the Great Depression, Schindler had enough contacts and charm to get a job as a sales manager at a company called Moravian Electrotechnic.
Nothing in Schindler’s early married life is particularly noteworthy, which will make his amazing actions during the war (which Helen alluded to in the Prologue) all the more surprising.
Themes
The death of Schindler’s mother caused a rift between him and his father. By that point, Schindler was wearing the symbol of the German Party (something his late mother mildly disapproved of). Schindler wasn’t especially political, but because the people in Czechoslovakia who didn’t wear the emblem were usually Communists or Social Democrats, Schindler wore the emblem to distinguish himself from them (and because it was good for business with German companies).
Schindler’s disinterest in politics as a young man is interesting, given that the Prologue described him wearing a Nazi insignia and socializing with Nazi Party officials. One of the novel’s enduring questions is what, exactly, motivates him to help people during World War II. But the book avoids providing easy answers, and in fact, sometimes includes details like this that make it even harder to draw a clear conclusion.
Themes
When Moravia is invaded in 1939, however, Schindler finds himself less enthralled with the Nazis and begins to feel that the new regime is tyrannical. Schindler’s father and Emilie believe Hitler is destined to fail.
Schindler’s disillusionment with the Nazis begins more on a personal level than a moral level: he dislikes them because they interfere with his life.
Themes
Schindler meets a German named Eberhard Gebauer who is with a German intelligence agency called the Abwehr. He knows Schindler is an outgoing man who has contacts across the Polish border and asks Schindler if he’d be willing to provide military and industrial intelligence about Poland, as well as look for German Poles to recruit. Schindler agrees, perhaps because he knows being an Abwehr agent will make him exempt from army service, although Schindler doesn’t necessarily disapprove of Germany’s invasion of Poland. His real problem is with Himmler and the SS, and he seems to believe that Gebauer and his Abwehr colleagues are preferable.
Because the author, Keneally, doesn’t have access to Schindler’s thoughts, the best he can do is reconstruct events based on the testimony of people who were there. When there isn’t enough information to make a clear conclusion, he lays the facts out so that the reader can decide on their own. Here, Keneally leaves it ambiguous as to whether Schindler joined a Nazi intelligence force simply to play the system, or whether he may still have had some loyalty (or at least indifference) toward the Nazi Party at the beginning of World War II.
Themes
