American History II students are completing their unit on the Holocaust in Europe. They have discussed the causes of the Holocaust, the rise of Hitler, and how Germans could commit heinous acts against innocent people. We also watched Schindler's List.
EXTRA CREDIT: Describe what you consider to be a major theme of Schindler's List and explain why you believe this to be true.
EXTRA CREDIT: Write a short essay on how good people can commit atrocious acts against other human beings.
That not every single person involved were "evil". Even if they were a Nazi. In shiners list the main character was heloping many jews by almost protecting them and trying to get them out if the camps to come work for him. In the end he became broke and was wanted. He sacrificed a lot for the few jews he did save.
ReplyDeleteThe major theme of shindlers list to me was that not everyone who is considered "evil",always have bad intentions. As an example, in the movie Mr.Shindler was trying to help but he was part of the Nazi party. He was trying to save as many jews as he could from the concentration camps, to come work for him. He treated them fair and gave them more than they could ask for.
ReplyDelete"Schindler's List" is a film that depicts what it was like in a concentration camp during the holocaust. This is not just any camp though, this is Mr. Schindler's camp. Mr. Schindler (although still not a hero per say)changed his mind set through out the film. He gradually realized that Jews were still people (yet he did not try to save them)by showing some scare while they were living. For this I would say theme for this film is oppression. Oppression of the Jews but also the workers. Mr. Schindler may have done more for them if he was not oppressed into his duties.
ReplyDeleteJack
The theme for Schindler's list is good vs evil, wrong against right, the dark trying to defeat the light. This is very well shown in the movie, you see a small change in the men but then they realize what they're doing (the good things) and then they turn around and take it all back. Killing thousands of people for doing little to nothing wrong. All the men but the one who didn't want them to die, Schindler, tried so hard to make that happen. The movie put things in a new light for me, the girl in the red coat was a symbol of the pain and the tremendous amount of pain and suffering that the Jewish community went through. Josey S
ReplyDeleteI do not understand how the German party could go and cause so much damage to a race of people. Just because they are of another religion, wear their hair differently, and are over all different, it doesn't make it ok to do all the things that they did. People nowadays are so naive on the things that happened there and what those people felt. How is it ok? It isn't ok and the only way they could see it fit in their heads that it was ok was to say that they are the cause of the downfalls and all the economical problems of Germany. Scapegoating is what it is called, that is exactly what the Germans did to this culture. They justified it inside their minds if they could get rid of the problem then a better life will take hold and be a "peaceful" nation. Hitler wanted control and he knew that he could get it from the people if he could get a majority to hate on the same culture and he achieved that goal and in doing so he killed thousands of Jewish men, women, and children. Josey S
ReplyDeleteThere are many cases throughout history of people treating each other honorably. It dose not take much to change a person. In the Stanford Prison it only took a few days for peers to turn on each other. You put a person in a role of power and they will fill that role. There is another experiment in witch individuals were told to deliver lethal shocks to patents when they failed a test. the patients were just actors yet the shockers were willing to deliver more than lethal shocks when told to do so. It experiments like these that enplane how the nazies were able to do what they did. The holocaust is an atrocious act that many can not comprehend. Yet it is not much different that the Stanford Prison experiment, if the experiment had more time.
ReplyDeleteJack
Loyalty is a good theme of this movie. The Jews have to work together and help each other out so they can survive. In the beginning of the movie a woman sacrifices her safety for her daughter by letting her have the last place in the hideout. A while after her daughter comes running after her. This is an example in the movie that shows loyalty. There is many other themes to the movie but this is the one that stood out to me most.
ReplyDeleteThe German Pope were not necessarily bad people at first. They were just doing what they were commanded to do because its what they knew. They because bad people by doing all they did to the Jews. The Jews did nothing wrong but were blamed for everything bad that happened. An example of good people committing atrocious acts against other human beings is when the Jews were so desperate for anything that they were willing to kill others to get what they needed. They were all good people but what they were put through and with the conditions, it made them to horrible things that they wouldn't usually do.
ReplyDeleteThe major theme of the Schindler's list is inhumanity. Throughout the movie the Jewish people were treated in the most inhumane way. Eben though Schindler was trying to help the Jewish people by having them work in his factory he did it in a inhumane way. He bought them like they were property, not people. However I believe the Jewish people were more grateful for that because then they weren't in concentration camps. The Jewish people were also treated inhumane in the concentration camps, and in the ghettos. They were taught inhumane in other factories as well, always tested weather or not they were able to work. -Asia
ReplyDeleteOne theme that stood out to me in Schindler's List was how power is blinding. Schindler, being the good guy, had much power throughout the movie. Hitler and his leaders also had much power. As Schindler worked his way into the dealings of the Nazi members, he began to use his power and money in order to have a positive effect on them, even when they may or may not have known what he was doing as he saved the lives of Jews. Schindler, in a way, began to change the thoughts of the Nazi's, and his power was the gate to doing so. Schindler used his power for good. Not only to save countless Jewish lives, but to change the way that the Nazi man thought. The Nazi man in the movie was, I'm sure, a relatively good man before the plans of Hitler came about. The only reason he became so wicked was because he was told by Hitler, along with many others, that what they were doing would benefit them and the rest of Germany.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Peterson
The theme of Schindler's list was a battle of good and evil. Schindler was trying to save Jews from the concentration camps by putting them to work, so he could save money. He saved many lives, while also using the Jews to his advantage, and this is the main point, that serves as evidence to the films theme.
ReplyDeleteWhen influenced by the right people, good people will do anything. For example, the Milford Experiment showed this, by using actual people influence by "doctors." The person was asked to conduct an electrical shock to someone behind a curtain, if they were asked a question and got it wrong. It got to the point that the electrical current was deadly, but because the "doctor" said it was okay, they did it anyway. This is a very good example of how good people can do such horrible things. It depends on the influence they are under, and who is telling them to do what.
-Haley Dorman
The theme of Schindler's list, is that there is always a good vs and evil. Schindler, was trying to save as many Jews as he could, but at the same time, he was using them for his own purposes. When he saved them from deathly concentration camps, he was taking them to his own camp, where they were well taken care of, but he was still making money off of their unpaid work. I feel this showed how there is always an evil to a good deed, and that is the theme of Schindler's List.
ReplyDeleteI think that the main reason good people do such horrible things, is because of influence they are under. For example, in the Milford Experiment, people were told to administer electrical shocks to people every time they were asked a question and got it wrong. The voltages got up to deathly measures, yet people kept administering the shock, because a "doctor" told them to. I feel that people do horrible things because they are under a greater influence, and they believe that this makes what they are doing okay.