The Fake Truth About Oskar Sch essays

The Fake Truth About Oskar Sch essays It is easy to believe what you have not seen, and even easier to believe what lies before you eyes. Steven Spielbergs historic film Schindlers List has undoubtedly affected and persuaded millions of viewers into accepting Oskar Schindler as a hero. Through the memories of those who knew him, along with historic documents and facts, the film can be said to possess a factual recollection of this historic figure. Although there are minor discrepancies between the historical facts, the novel, and the film, Spielbergs version concerning Oskar Schindler is a reliable source for the truth behind this mysterious man. Even though the novel and the film are fiction, they present a reliable truth about Schindlers life and his actions during the Holocaust. The film is based on the novel written by Thomas Keneally. This strips the film of its credibility as a documentary because both film and novel present fictional dialogue. However, both Keneally and Spielberg interviewed witnesses in an effort to make Schindlers story as historically correct as possible. In the novel, Keneally states in his authors note: I have attempted ... to avoid all fiction, since fiction would debase the record, and to distinguish between the reality and the myths which are likely to attach themselves to a man of Oskar's stature. It has sometimes been necessary to make reasonable constructs of conversations of which Oskar and others have left only the briefest record. But most exchanges and conversations, and all events are based on the detailed recollections of the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews), of Schindler himself, and of other witnesses to Oskar's acts of outrageous rescue. (Qtd. in Fogel 315) These words assure the reader that the novels events are not fiction at all and that the book is a historically correct recollection of the type of man that Schindler was. In effect, Spielberg's Schindler's List con...