(deliberately colored) coat takes the hand of a Ger-
man soldier, and they walk up the street together.
Later, her body appears on a cart, just one more
corpse to be incinerated. Indeed, smoke is a theme
of the film: candle smoke from the Shabbat, ash and
soot from cremation, and candle smoke again at
the end.
Schindler’s Listwon seven Oscars, including Best
Picture and Best Director. It has been highly ranked
in virtually every list of outstanding films. When it
appeared on American television in 1997, Spielberg
insisted that it be shown unedited and uncensored.
Except for a minor sex scene that was edited, this oc-
curred, although a new rating category for the TV
Parental Guidelines, TV-MA, was created just for the
film.
Impact At the end of the film, the viewer learns
that survivors and descendants of theSchindlerjuden
then numbered over 6,000. Three million Polish
Jews (as well as a like number of Polish Gentiles)
died under Nazi occupation. Schindler stands as a
shining example of moral action; in that dark pe-
riod, so many people did nothing, which is at best an
act of complicity. The film is flawed, but its most posi-
tive accomplishment is the raising of overall aware-
ness of the tragedy. It surely bespeaks the importance
of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washing-
ton, D.C., dedicated the same yearSchindler’s List
opened. Spielberg himself founded and financed
the Shoah Foundation, an archive of videotaped or
oral histories of Holocaust survivors and witnesses.
Further Reading
Brecher, Elinor J.Schindler’s Legacy: True Stories of the
List Survivors. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1994.
Brecher presents the stories of over fortySchindler-
judenwho live in the United States. A significant
contribution to Holocaust literature, it relates
their stories before, during, and after the war.
Crowe, David M.Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of
His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Stor y Behind
the List. Cambridge, Mass.: Westview Press, 2004. A
scholarly biography of the notorious yet cele-
brated Oskar Schindler was long overdue. Crowe
scrutinizes the myths and realities of Schindler’s
life, especially during the postwar period when he
attempted to capitalize on his fame.
Fensch, Thomas, ed.Oskar Schindler and His List: The
Man, the Book, the Film, the Holocaust, and Its Survi-
vors. New York: P. S. Eriksson, 1995. Essentially a
popular audience work, it contains essays, inter-
views, magazine articles, and a bibliography.
Keneally, Thomas.Schindler’s Ark. New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1982. Keneally’s work reads like a
novel: The facts are accurate but the dialogue is
approximate. The real Schindler is far less per-
sonable than Neeson’s character, and Schindler’s
motives remain enigmatic, but his basic humanity
comes through clearly.
Loshitzky, Yosefa, ed.Spielberg’s Holocaust: Critical Per-
spectives on “Schindler’s List.”Bloomington: Indi-
ana University Press, 1997. The flaw of this work is
clear from the title: Many of the essays are hyper-
critical of the movie. Fortunately, some of the es-
says (such as Omer Bartov’s) focus on the real
strength of the film—the heightening of aware-
ness of the Holocaust.
Robinson, Plater.“Schindler’s List” Teaching Guide.
http://=www.southerninstitute.info/holocaust_
education/schind.html. New Orleans: The
Southern Institute for Education and Research at
Tulane University, 1997. The film provides a basis
for a study of anti-Semitic prejudice and of its con-
sequences.
William S. Brockington, Jr.See also Academy Awards; Film in the United
States; Holocaust Memorial Museum; Israel and the
United States; Jewish Americans; Literature in the
United States;Saving Private Ryan; TV Parental
Guidelines system. Schlessinger, Dr. Laura
Identification Conservative radio host and author
Born January 16, 1947; Brooklyn, New York
Schlessinger’s career took off in the 1990’s, as she provided
frank advice and support to her audience through her call-
in show and self-help books.
Laura Schlessinger was born to Monroe and Yolanda
Ceccovini Schlessinger. Her father was a nonpractic-
ing Jew, and her mother was a nonpracticing Italian
Roman Catholic. Schlessinger described her family
as dysfunctional and lacking love because of her ex-
tended family’s rejection of her parent’s mixed mar-
riage. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the
State University of New York at Stony Brook and her
Ph.D. in physiology from Columbia University. AfterThe Nineties in America Schlessinger, Dr. Laura 749