Previous
Chapter 23
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
Schindler’s enterprise begins to rack up some unusually high bills, particularly for all the food (since what Goeth provides is so meager). He doesn’t realize that the visible good health of his prisoners is a potential liability.
Even for someone as resourceful as Schindler, unexpected problems can arise and threaten to sink the whole enterprise. In this case, Schindler’s generosity toward his prisoners is, ironically, a liability to his overall goal of helping them survive.
Themes
Senior officers from the main camp visited every subcamp at some point, and Emalia is no exception. No one agrees which particular officers visited Schindler, but some former prisoners, as well as Schindler himself, claim that Goeth was among them. While visiting, a young SS officer named Grün (a bodyguard to Goeth) sees a prisoner named Lamus pushing a barrow too slowly and orders for him to be executed.
Schindler is always struggling to maintain autonomy over his factories. He knows that his cover will be blown if anyone gets too close of a look, which again emphasizes the fact that Schindler is helping his prisoners at great personal risk to himself.
Themes
Schindler is notified of Lamus’s arrest and comes rushing down, just as Grün is lining Lamus up against the wall. Schindler is indignant, saying he won’t be able to get his workers to work with a shooting and his factory has high-priority contracts. Grün knows Schindler could make trouble with his superior officers, but he also knows that it’s unlikely there’d be any investigation if Lamus is killed. He asks what’s in it for him, and Schindler offers vodka. He accepts.
Schindler finds success by being indignant and confident rather than trying to appease the Nazis. He knows that they will respect his will more if they see him as a powerful man, as they prize individualism and duty.
Themes
Schindler takes similar actions, such as one time when the Gestapo discover a forger who has made false documents for a family working at Schindler’s camp. Once again, Schindler plies them with alcohol (and perhaps some additional form of payoff). He knows his successes are only partial—in one case, an engineer who stayed in Schindler’s barracks but who worked just outside Emalia in a radiator factory is publicly hanged to set an example.
Schindler’s earlier theory that just about anyone can be paid off is turning out increasingly to be true. Once again, alcohol plays a key role in convincing others to agree with him. The public hanging, meanwhile, is another example of how the Nazis use violence and fear to intimidate Jewish prisoners into obedience.
Themes
Get the entire Schindler’s List LitChart as a printable PDF.
On Dr. Sedlacek’s second visit, he and Schindler come up with the unusual plan of buying nice liquor so that Goeth doesn’t have to drink bad liquor (which may be making him even more savage).
This plan is yet another testament to Schindler’s resourcefulness and creativity.
Themes
Schindler and Goeth meet at Goeth’s villa, where his girlfriend, Majola, is also present (though she soon leaves so that they can drink and get to business). While they’re drinking, Schindler pitches Goeth the idea of acting with more restraint. Surprisingly, the idea actually begins to appeal to Goeth—he likes being able to picture himself as a benevolent emperor. Though the conversation seems to lead to a temporary respite, for many prisoners, the difference isn’t clear.
Schindler knows how to flatter Goeth’s ego. He knows that even a man as cruel as Goeth likes to imagine that he is the hero—in some ways, this power fantasy is even more seductive than the idea of being a ruthless tyrant, because it would mean that he’s respected.
Themes
Sedlacek goes back to Hungary with news from Schindler. One day, he returns with a Jewish man (sporting a Swiss passport) who goes by Babar. Schindler introduces Sedlacek and Babar to Stern. Stern takes Schindler aside and asks if involving those two men isn’t a huge risk. Schindler gets angry, before composing himself and explaining that the men are trustworthy. Schindler takes Babar and Sedlacek around, partly so Babar can take photos and see an overview of the camp, so that they will have information to report back.
Schindler bristles at Stern questioning his judgment—Schindler himself has a proud streak, though not quite as prominent as Goeth’s. Particularly in the WWII era, collecting photographs was important because they were the best evidence available about what was really happening in the concentration camps.
Themes
