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Abwehr
An Aktion (literally “action” in German) was a euphemism for events in Poland where thousands of Jewish people and other Polish citizens were killed or rounded up to be sent to concentration camps.
Aktion Quotes in Schindler’s List
The Schindler’s List quotes below are all either spoken by Aktion or refer to Aktion. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6
Quotes
By November 1, 1940, Frank had managed to move 23,000 Jewish volunteers out of Cracow. Some of them went to the new ghettos in Warsaw and Łódź. The gaps at table, the grieving at railway stations can be imagined, but people took it meekly, thinking, We’ll do this, and that will be the brunt of what they ask. Oskar knew it was happening, but, like the Jews themselves, hoped it was a temporary excess.
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Chapter 15
Quotes
His eyes slewed up Krakusa to the scarlet child. They were doing it within half a block of her; they hadn’t waited for her column to turn out of sight into Józefińska. Schindler could not have explained at first how that compounded the murders on the sidewalk. Yet somehow it proved, in a way no one could ignore, their serious intent. While the scarlet child stopped in her column and turned to watch, they shot the woman in the neck, and one of them, when the boy slid down the wall whimpering, jammed a boot down on his head as if to hold it still and put the barrel against the back of the neck—the recommended SS stance—and fired.
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Get the entire Schindler’s List LitChart as a printable PDF.
Aktion Term Timeline in Schindler’s List
The timeline below shows where the term Aktion appears in Schindler’s List. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
When the Einsatzgruppe starts an Aktion on December 4th, Stern realizes that Schindler was trying to warn him, and that he...
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Chapter 13
...son, Olek, to stay with his girlfriend. Henry asks if he’s heard about an upcoming Aktion. Richard answers by asking if Henry and his wife, Manci, have their Blauschein, a permit...
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Chapter 16
...factory, Schindler feels certain that the girl in red he saw (Genia) didn’t survive the Aktion. He begins paying attention to who the perpetrators of these atrocities are, in hopes that...
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...neighbor’s elderly parents are already hiding in the false wall because rumor has it an Aktion is coming, and they are vulnerable too. When Mrs. Dresner and Danka arrive, the neighbor...
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Chapter 28
...he gets rid of as many people as Schindler will eventually save, saying that his Aktion is for “health” purposes. Many children, like Olek Rosner, will either be rounded up or...
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