Schindler’s List Essay

Some say that during the Holocaust, Jews “went like sheep to the slaughter.” Overall, does the movie confirm or contradict this statement. Consider large and small acts of resistance, which you saw in the movie Schindler’s List. Overall, does the movie confirm or contradict this statement? Please use specific examples to back up your analysis! Overall, the movie Schindler’s List contradicts this due to the fact of their minor and major resistances of what the Nazis were doing to their race. Small acts of resistance of the Jews such as literary evenings, gatherings to mark the anniversary of Jewish artists, and concerts did not affect the Nazi movement on as large of a scale as the large acts of resistance. The large acts of resistance such as armed struggles, hiding and evading Nazi officers, and attempting escapes from enclosed ghettos deeply impacted the Nazis plans. Overall, the movie contradicts this statement.

The movie Schindler’s List contradicts the statement, “Jews went like sheep to the slaughter.” In the movie, there were many acts of resistance toward the Nazis by the Jews. In the movie, most slaughter houses contained Jews that tried but couldn’t escape as they were either unable to or were quickly disposed of by the Nazis. In the movie, there were religious, spiritual, and physical forms of resistance. Through these many forms of differences, the movie completely contradicts the statement.

Minor attempts of resistance affected the outcome of the Holocaust very little but did somewhat gave the Jews some minor hope in the worst of times. Reading by the Jews of any writing was strictly prohibited by the Nazis, but that did not stop Jews in ghettos from defying the Nazis and creating secret underground libraries. Also, secret schools were created for Jews secretly by other rebel Jews. Jews helped each other to survive secretly, helping each other with work, exchanging food, teaching each other and even passing secrets to each other. Some Jew workers purposefully sabotaged Nazi goods and made defective products giving themselves personal satisfaction of the belief of stunting Nazi efforts. In the movie when the Nazis were clearing out some of the ghettos, Jews hid with no avail but created a small act of resistance. This small act of resistance among others contradicted the statement because the Jews are resisting instead of dying willingly.

Major attempts of resistance affected the outcome of the Holocaust a great deal and possibly even saved the lives of countless Jews while also turning the tides of the Nazi wars for power over other regions. In underground ghettos, secret organizations were formed. The purpose of such organizations was to wage armed struggle, that is, to stage an uprising in the ghetto or to break out of a closed ghetto by the use of brutal force. These secret groups in the ghettos faced very difficult problems, such as smuggling arms into the ghetto, training the fighters under the harsh conditions, and creating a method for putting Jew fighters on guard in case of any action of the Nazis. In the movie, Jew workers purposefully fought back at and tested some Nazis even though they knew it meant eminent death for them. This major act of resistance among others contradicted the statement because the Jews are resisting instead of dying willingly.

In the movie, a Nazi camp is shown, Auschwitz, where many Jews and other non-Nazis went to either die, or in the case of the movie Schindler’s List, to be sold off. In Auschwitz Jewish workers were forced to dispose of the bodies of gas chamber victims in most cases by cremating the bodies, but could do nothing to stop these killings. In the movie there is few uprising physically by the Jews, but those resistances that did occur completely contradicted the statement. The question asked was if the movie, Schindler’s List confirmed or contradicted this statement “Jews went like sheep to the slaughter.” Overall, the movie Schindler’s List contradicts this due to the fact of their minor and major resistances of what the Nazis were doing to their race. This is so because many Jews were desperate to stay alive till the end of the Holocaust to live the rest of their lives peacefully and happily.