1. THE POWER OF VISUAL HISTORY

2. View Schools Film Montage

3. From the montage: What could you work out from the film? Which clips stood out to you?

4. Why was Schindlers List made? Steven Spielberg, who directed Schindlers List, comes from a Jewish family. Some of his relatives died in the Holocaust. The film was made to tell the story of Oskar Schindler. When Oskar Schindler died in 1974 he was penniless and almost unknown. Schindlers List was made to make money. It made over $320 million worldwide. The main purpose of any film is to entertain its audience. Schindlers List won many awards, including seven Academy Awards and seven BAFTAs. Schindlers List was made to help people to understand what happened during the Holocaust. Steven Spielberg used the profits from Schindlers List to set up the Shoah Foundation. The Shoah Foundation has brought together over 52,000 interviews with people who survived the Holocaust. Schindlers List was based on a novel by Thomas Keneally called Schindlers Ark. A Holocaust survivor called Poldek Pfefferberg persuaded Keneally to write about Oskar Schindler and Spielberg to make a film based on the book. The novel is based on interviews with over fifty Jews who worked in Schindlers factories.

5. How reliable is Schindlers List as a historical source? ProsCons

6. Schindlers List tells us about the Holocaust through the story of one person Why do you think Steven Spielberg chose to focus on the story of Oskar Schindler? Is it helpful or unhelpful to us in understanding what happened during the Holocaust?

7. (the story of Oskar Schindler) … provides an avenue into a subject that is too horrendous for words, let alone for pictures Do you agree that learning about the Holocaust through the story of one person helps the viewer to understand? Steven Spielberg, 1993

8. Was Oskar Schindler a hero? Because of the actions that he took, over 1,100 people survived the Holocaust He moved hundreds of his workers to Czechoslovakia where they were safer He put himself in danger by taking action to protect his workers He treated his workers with respect, providing food, healthcare and allowing people to practice their religion Many of his former workers consider him to be a hero

9. Was Oskar Schindler a hero? Schindler joined the Nazi party in 1939 He was a womanizer and a playboy One biographer claims that he helped the Nazi party to plan the invasion of Poland He worked as a Nazi spy Several of the lists were not written by Schindler, but by Marcel Goldberg, a corrupt Jewish member of the security police

10. How can we make sense of this? Does it mean that Schindler was not really a hero?

11. The power of visual history The childrenThe children The children wave goodbyeThe children wave goodbye

12. Which of these clips is most helpful to an historian?

13. The voices of survivors Steven Spielberg used the money made from Schindlers list to set up the Shoah Foundation, which works to educate people about the Holocaust and atrocities that have happened in other countries. They have collected over 52,000 films of survivors speaking about their experiences. You can see the clips here http://sfi.usc.edu/clipviewer/http://sfi.usc.edu/clipviewer/

14. Why are these films important?