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Chapter 1
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
In late October 1939, two low-ranking German soldiers enter a shop called J. C. Buchheister & Company in Cracow and try to buy some expensive cloth from the Jewish clerk. They pay with a Bavarian banknote from 1858 and a piece of German Army Occupation scrip from 1914, which the shopkeeper must accept.
The German soldiers are mocking the Jewish clerk by gloating about how they’ve conquered his country. Because they are the ones in control, they can do whatever they want without having to face any consequences.
Themes
Later that day, German officials come to take over the business, as they’re doing to all Jewish businesses in Poland. One of them is Sepp Aue, a middle-aged supervisor, and with him is an ambitious-looking younger man. The young man looks through the books and asks about the strange currency that the Germans left earlier. The Jewish bookkeeper tells the story, but the young man will report to Sepp Aue that they should call the Schutzpolizei, suspecting fraud.
One of the recurring motifs in the book is the young go-getter versus the more complacent middle-aged functionary. Though Keneally celebrates Schindler’s own comparative youth and vigor, many of the most vicious Nazis are also youthful. While the older Nazis are generally more likely to let people do as they please, their complacency is also arguably what allows many of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust to occur.
Themes
Aue is concerned because he knows reporting the bookkeeper to the Schutzpolizei will get him sent to the SS jail. Aue is himself vulnerable because his grandmother was Jewish. He sends a message to the company accountant, a Polish Jew named Itzhak Stern, asking him to come in and help resolve the issue. Just after sending the message, Aue’s secretary tells him that a man named Oskar Schindler is outside and has an appointment with him.
Many Nazis like Aue were insecure about their own position in the party—and often for good reason. The fact that Aue is both part-Jewish and a Nazi shows how arbitrary these categories are, yet how thoroughly they’re weaponized against people and how deadly they can be. Though Aue is a minor character, he plays a crucial role by introducing Schindler to Stern.
Themes
Schindler (along with his German mistress Ingrid) met Aue at a party the previous night. At the party, Schindler told Aue he was looking for a career in Cracow, and Aue said he was welcome to look over the textile business Buchheister’s. Schindler takes this offer seriously, and this is why he shows up for an appointment the next day. Aue gives Schindler a tour of the warehouse.
Aue is one of many men throughout the book who will make Schindler a promise in the middle of a drunken night of carousing. While Schindler’s own love for alcohol seems to be genuine, then, his drinking is also deceptively strategic.
Themes
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On the way back from the warehouse, Schindler and Aue meet Itzhak Stern. When Stern informs Schindler that he is Jewish, Schindler doesn’t seem phased and replies that he is German. Aue leaves so Schindler can interview Stern. Stern explains, with a dry sense of humor, that he writes off exchanges like the one with the two German soldiers that morning as “free samples,” and that there have been a lot of free samples lately. Schindler can tell Stern is a local who really knows how things work in the city. (By November 8, the registration of all Jews in Cracow will have begun. Stern knows this is just the first of many edicts to come and isn’t optimistic.)
Stern and Schindler hit it off at once because they are both pragmatic and blunt. Though each recognizes the need for caution, Schindler helps break the tension by implying that he doesn’t really care that Stern is Jewish. Because Schindler is an outsider, he will rely heavily on locals like Stern in order to get his operations—both official and secret—running in Cracow.
Themes
Aue tells Schindler that Stern has good business connections in Cracow. After Aue leaves the room. Schindler tells Stern he’d like to learn more about local businesses. He asks questions, eventually asking about a company called Rekord that used to make enamelware but recently went bankrupt. Schindler shows him a balance sheet to look over. Stern sees a potential ally in Schindler and tells him that the business seems solid and that it has a possibility for military contracts.
Particularly at this point in his life, Schindler is still a businessman. He isn’t just asking about Rekord as a pretense—he is still genuinely interested in trying to make money. Stern recognizes this, but he also recognizes that open-minded men like Schindler can be convinced to do good, even as they are looking out for themselves and their own financial interests.
Themes
Schindler figures that with a little credit, he can turn the Rekord enamelware factory into a very profitable enterprise. Stern tells him that he should remember he’ll be restricted in who he can employ—the Germans are trying to get rid of Jews in skilled or management positions.
Stern’s warning to Schindler about how Germans are trying to get rid of skilled Jewish workers is intended as a hint, to try to get Schindler to employ Jewish workers. Stern doesn’t say so directly, however, because he still has to be cautious around a German like Schindler.
Themes
As Schindler and Stern finish their discussion, they talk about the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, a topic that has always interested Schindler. Schindler says it must be hard, in such a violent time, for priests to earnestly tell congregations about how God cares about the death of even a single sparrow. In response, Stern brings up a Talmudic verse about how “he who saves the life of one man saves the world entire.”
The Talmudic verse about the importance of saving one life is one of the most important concepts in the book. Although it’s impossible to know how this conversation actually affected Schindler, what Stern says here becomes Schindler’s guiding principle during the Holocaust (whether consciously or unconsciously).
Themes
