Schindler’s List

Nazi Germany was run through the rule of fear, as many atrocities were committed as the lure of power appears to become to overpowering in certain situations. The use of Jew as scapegoat’s for Germany’s shortcomings after WWI lead them to slave like conditions where shooting one would be used as incentive to make the others work faster.

Obedience and compliance are recurring themes throughout this time period as many German soldiers would exploit their power in cruel ways. Amon Goeth is the perfect example as he expects obedience, he expects the Jews to act upon his direct orders and the expectations he requires otherwise he will make an example out of the individual. This begs to question how an individual became so sinister and when did this take place. Phillip Zimbardo’s prison experiment helps explain how certain roles people are placed in make them express behaviours they normally would not express. In his experiment the participants who had the role of prison guards expressed means of violence and punishment when their sense of power was threated. This can directly apply to the case of Amon Goeth through the countless aimless murders throughout the film.

Amon Goeth was only one of many German soldiers who expressed the same displaced hatred towards the Jews and peformed countless acts of cruelty. However some soldiers were just carrying out orders. Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment that shows that the patients will electrocute others under the direct command of an authority figure. In the experiment the electric shocks increased gradually until they eventually became lethal. This too can be related to the time as the persecution of Jew happened on incremental levels, starting with banning from owning a business and ending with their death.

We can see that not all Germans felt the same way about the Jews as Oskar Schindler was one of the few who saw an opportunity to create a business through the use of the new work force to fulfil his selfish desires. However as the story proceeds we can see that Oskar starts to witness what happens to the Jews first hand, as the use of colour was first used when the SS started to brutally round up the Jews and force them into labour camps. The thought that he was providing some sort of a refuge against the atrocities also helped him realize he was doing a little bit of good.