ANTI SEMITISM, GHETTOIZATION AND FORCED LABOUR THROUGH THE

LENSE OF SCHINDLRE’S LIST

HISTORY MINOR

Submitted By-

HARSHVARDHAN-SM0120022

SAKET SOURAV- SM0120046

SAMRIDDHI OJHA- SF0120048

2nd Year, 4th Semester

Faculty In Charge

Ms. NAMRATA GOGOI

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY AND JUDICIAL ACADEMY, ASSAM

19th May, 2022

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER-1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 3

1.1. OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................... 3

1.2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 4

1.3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE............................................................................................... 7

1.4. RESEARCH QUESTION ............................................................................................... 7

1.5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.................................................................................... 7

CHAPTER 2- WHY THE JEWS: HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM ...................................... 8

1. BYZANTINE PERIOD (324 — 638 BCE) .................................................................... 8

2. INVASION AND DESTRUCTION BY ROMANS (76 AD) ........................................ 9

3. RACIAL ANTISEMITISM THAT AROSE IN THE 19TH CENTURY AND

CULMINATED IN NAZISM................................................................................................ 9

4. NAZI GERMANY AND THE HOLOCAUST (1933 - 1945). .................................... 11

5. ANTISEMITISM AS PORTRAYED IN THE SCHINDLER’S LIST ........................ 12

CHAPTER 3- SEPARATED FROM THE WORLD: GHETTOIZATION OF JEWS ........... 13

CHAPTER 4- SLAVE LABOURERS DURING THE THIRD REICH ................................. 16

FORCED LABOUR AS PICTURISED IN SCHINDLER’S LIST .................................... 18

CHAPTER 5- CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 20

CHAPTER 6- BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................ 22

 CHAPTER-1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. OVERVIEW
The movie Schindler’s List was directed by Steven Spielberg and was released in 1993.” Oskar
Schindler was the protagonist of the film Schindler’s List, was a German businessman and
opportunist who strived to receive the benefit from the German invasion of Poland. In the end
he saved over a thousand Jews from dying during the Holocaust.

The film followed Schindler's progression from a selfish businessman who wished to use the
Jews as cheap labor in his factory to a sympathetic activist who risks his ranking and spent all
of his money to save his Jewish workers from the Nazi concentration-camps.
Oskar Schindler was a war crook, womanizer, and a member of the Nazi Party. Schindler’s
List was a list of Schindler’s Jew workers in which he had saved. Schindler became the hero
for the Jews. Throughout the movie Oskar saved around 1,100 Jews during World War II or
also called the Holocaust. He was a con artist against the Nazi’s and a reasonable businessman
who recognized he could save Jews while trying to make a profit.

The movie is very touching and moving. There are some interesting aesthetics choices made
as well, the movie is black and white during some scenes. It’s also great to document this kind
of story because it’s a side we don’t often hear about. Pretty much everyone knows about the
Holocaust, WW2, but not about the people who tried to help the jews.

The paper deals with the themes of antisemitism, ghettoization and forced labour during the
Nazi period- all three themes being prominently evident in the movie. Antisemitism, as
discussed in the paper, talks about the historical suppression of the Jews and what led Hitler
change his perspective from a tolerant yet conservative person to a person who killed 6 million
Jews in the Holocaust in the name of racial superiority.1

The paper also talks about the inhumane conditions of living of the Jewish and other
communities in the Ghettos and has elaborately discussed the administrative hold by the Nazis
on these Ghettos.

Lastly the authors have focused on the aspect of forced labour during the third Reich and the
inhumane conditions in which they were compelled to live in. Forced labour is also the
principal part of the movie Schindler’s List and that portrays how the conditions of the

1
Shirer, William-L. (1960) 2011. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich : A History of Nazi Germany. New York:
Simon & Schuster, pg. 23.
labourers owned by Oskar Schindler were different from that of the labourers working in the
labour camps.

1.2. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. MEIN KAMPF, ADOLF HITLER: Mein Kampf is an autobiography by the supreme
leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler. The text is the first-hand source through which a
reader can understand the mindset and the mentality of Hitler. The work depicts and
describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and describes his political
ambitions and future vision for the German nation. Hitler also used the main thesis of
“the Jewish peril” which posits a Jewish conspiracy to gain world leadership. Mein
Kampf gives one a peep into one of the foremost evil geniuses of the world- his
thinking, his beliefs, his motivation and of the world- his thinking, his beliefs, his
motivation and his struggle to consolidate Germany into one great nation of the “pure”,
blue-eyed, white-skinned Aryan race. The book was published in 1925.

2. THE RISE AND THE FALL OF THE THIRD REICH, WILLIAM L. SHIRER:
A masterclass and a work which everyone should read. William Shirer is one of the
very few historians to have the gained the access to the secret German archives which
the Allies captured intact. This book is based principally on the grounds on the captured
German documents, the interrogations and testimony of German military officers and
civilian officials, the diaries and memoirs which some of them have left, and on writer’s
own experience in the Third Reich. The author has brilliantly captured the entire span
of the third Reich; its roots and its fall but most importantly the author has elaborately
dedicated a full chapter which deals with the mind of Hitler which proved to be the
most important text to complete this assignment.

3. DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL, ANNE FRANK: An eye-opening account of the

destruction, pain and misery afflicted on thousands just on the whim of one person.
What else can be more accurate than a daily diary record of a thirteen-year-old Jewish
girl who spent two years in the ‘secret annex’ with his family, surviving one of the most
horrifying periods of the human history. Cut off from the outside world, they faced
hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-
present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid
impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and
 surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage
and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman
whose promise was tragically cut short by the Antisemitic ideologies of the Fuhrer.

4. ANTI-SEMITISM THROUGH THE AGES. ED., SHMUEL ALMOG: This book,

a translation of a series of lectures on anti-Semitism by notable Israeli scholars, contains
several important contributions to an understanding of anti-Jewish hostility. The editor
has included twenty-six articles about anti-Semitism from antiquity to the present in
Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and Latin America. There are some
excellent essays here: Kenneth Stow's article on papal policy toward the Jews in the
Middle Ages, Shalom Bar-Asher's study of anti Semitism in Morocco, and Yisrael
Gutman's piece on anti-Semitism in Germany during the Third Reich. Regrettably,
however, the book fails to present a coherent understanding of the problem as a whole.

5. CHRISTOPHER R. BROWNING, BEFORE THE “FINAL SOLUTION”: NAZI

GHETTOIZATION POLICY IN POLAND (Center For Advanced Hlocaust
Studies United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2005)

Christopher R. Browning’s Before The “Final Solution”: Nazi Ghettoization policy in

Poland gives us a brief idea as to what Ghettoization meant in that era. Christopher has
further explained Ghettoization as a laboratory made for testing the method desired for
the peaceful and slow death of the Jews for reaching the goal of new Germany”. Further
the author has also elaborated on the role that was played by the administrative body of
the ghettos. Christopher’s focus throughout his work is more or less restricted within
the parameters of History and Consequences coupled with the stages of Ghettoization.

This work has given insights about the issue of ghettoization, about the issues of
pathetic life conditions and the endless nights that the jews had to pass in the narrow
barracks of the jam-packed Ghetto.

6. WARSAW GHETTO: A SURVIVOR'S TALE2

2
Warsaw Ghetto: A survivor’s tale - BBC News. (2012, July 22). BBC News; www.bbc.com.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18924842
 Janina Dawidowicz, born in 1930, is one of the few people who lived in the ghetto and
survived. In her autobiography “A Square of Sky” Janina mentions about the sad state
of affairs and remembers the horror episode of holocaust when her entire family was
throwwn into the collection point of Jews, i.e. “THE GHETTOS”. Here in her work she
mentions about her cousin Rosa, who like thousands of jewish children slowly starved
to death. Further, she also mentions about the privacy issues that the women had in the
Ghettos which were generally open rooms to live.

In her work, she has also mentioned about the illegal schools which were being run by
the Jewish teachers and the scary condition in which they used to impart education.

7. CHRISTOPH THONFELD'S RESEARCH ARTICLE "MEMORIES OF

FORMER WORLD WAR TWO FORCED LABORERS - an international
comparison" examines the specifics of forced labour undertaken during the "Nazi
Germany Era" and its international influence.
Former forced labourers have frequently had to undergo social campaigns to repress or
instrumentalize their memories, or to perceive them related to overreaching political or
ethical imperatives, as most European communities tried to establish a consensus for
working up their World War Two history.
This article attempts to pinpoint the location of these memories from both a society and
individual standpoint. For starters, forced labor in Nazi Germany may be viewed as a
form of forced migration. Second, recollections of Nazi forced labour have frequently
been used to reflect the different nations' experiences of cooperation and defeat during
World War Two. Third, the societal standing of former forced laborers' recollections
has been moulded by national political and moral economies. Most of the separate
national pasts have struggled to accommodate these recollections. The word "foreign
labourers" (Fremdarbeiter) was used in place of the term "forced labour" in the study
report.
Eighty-five biographical interviews with persons who were forced labourers in Nazi
Germany were used in this study. The interviews, which took place in England, France,
Germany, Israel, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine during 2005 and 2006, are either in
the original language (German, French, or English) or are translations. Between 2004
and 2007, the Institute for History and Biography at Hägen University conducted a
research study that encompassed thirty-three interview teams. The teams, which
 included researchers from universities and civil society organizations from around the
world, conducted almost 600 interviews in 24 European nations, Israel, South Africa,
and the United States. The German Foundation 'Remembrance, Responsibility, and
Future' supported the initiative (Stiftung Erinnerung , Verant- wortung und Zukunft).
Individual biographical stories are linked to communal representations of the
experiences of forced labourers from these six nations in this study, whether through
social recollections, commemorative rituals, or scientific research. Each of the nations
mentioned has a unique relationship with Nazi forced labour.

1.3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE

1. To evaluate the theme of antisemitism in the movie as well as during the Nazi regime.
2. To evaluate the condition of Jews who were imprisoned in the Ghettos.
3. To understand the situation and the living condition of the forced labourers in the Nazi
era.

1.4. RESEARCH QUESTION

1. How has antisemitism changed throughout history?
2. What was the condition of the Jews who were imprisoned in the Ghettos?
3. What was the condition of slave/ forced labourers during the Third Reich?

1.5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

➢ Approach to Research: In this project doctrinal research was involved. Doctrinal Research
is research in which secondary sources are used and materials are collected from libraries,
archives, etc. Books, journals, articles were used while making this project.

➢ Types of Research: Explanatory type of research was used in this project, because the project
topic was not relatively new and unheard of and also because various concepts were needed to
be explained.

➢ Sources of Data collection: Secondary source of data collection was used which involves in
collection of data from books, articles, websites, etc. No surveys or case studies were
conducted.
 CHAPTER 2- WHY THE JEWS: HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM
Anti-Semitism refers to all anti-Jewish statements, tendencies, resentments, attitudes, and
actions, regardless of whether they are religiously, racially, socially, or otherwise motivated.
Ever since the experience of National Socialist ideology and dictatorship, anti-Semitism has
been understood as a social phenomenon which serves as a paradigm for the formation of
prejudices and the political exploitation of the hostilities that ensue from them.

Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis killed about six million Jews and millions of other civilians
throughout Europe. These are some who were slaughtered in the Holocaust—a generation lost
forever. Jews were always prone to persecution let it be in the middle East or in Europe. The
Jews were persecuted for 2000 years and antisemitism was rampant in Europe in 19th and 20th
Century. The Nazis were a specimen of the rampant antisemitism which was there since ages.

But was the idea of antisemitism new? Was Hitler the first one to introduce this idea? The
history says that no, the idea was not new. The concept of antisemitism was deeply embedded
in the history of Europe and Central Asia. It was the culmination of the ideas which were
prevalent since the time of Byzantime period that ultimately led Jews to meet their fate in the
Holocaust.

1. BYZANTINE PERIOD (324 — 638 BCE)

After the Roman Empire was split, the Byzantine Period came into force. Christianity was
declared official religion of Byzantine Empire and as a result it created difficulty for Jews.
Although many Jews adopted Christianity , the ones who didn't faced though times . The Jews
didn't have much power and the Byzantine Empire saw the Jews as a threat.3 The Jews faced
problems and they are mentioned as follows:—

1. The Jews were prohibited from having slaves.

2. Inter Marriage between Jews and Non-Jews were prohibited. Sounds quite similar
doesn't it !!. It was basically the medieval Nuremberg Laws.

3. Synagogues were destroyed.

3
Our common inhumanity: anti-semitism and history by Richard Webster (a review of Antisemitism: The
Longest Hatred by Robert S. Wistrich, Thames Methuen, 1991).
2. INVASION AND DESTRUCTION BY ROMANS (76 AD)

Jesus was put to death at the hands of Roman authorities under Pontius Pilate in Judea, but the
gospel accounts were interpreted as blaming all Jews for the crucifixion. To his followers, Jesus
was the Christ, the Messiah. His death, sacrificial atonement. Most Jews believed the Messiah
had not yet come. Redemption was not at hand.4

Soon after the crucifixion, Roman armies destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Jews were exiled
and scattered—to live as a dispersed minority. By the 5th century, Christianity had become the
dominant religion in the Roman Empire.

The early Christian church portrayed Jews as unwilling to accept the word of God;
illuminations showed Satan binding the eyes of the Jews. Some church leaders intensified the
charge—condemning Jews as agents of the devil and murderers of God. The accusation was
not renounced until the 1960s when the Second Vatican Council officially repudiated the
ancient charge that Jews had murdered Christ.

3. RACIAL ANTISEMITISM THAT AROSE IN THE 19TH CENTURY AND

CULMINATED IN NAZISM
In many European countries the 18th century "Age of Enlightenment" saw the dismantling of
archaic corporate, hierarchical forms of society in favour of individual equality of citizens
before the law. How this new state of affairs would affect previously autonomous, though
subordinated, Jewish communities became known as the Jewish question. In many countries,
enhanced civil rights were gradually extended to the Jews, though often only in a partial form
and on condition that the Jews abandon many aspects of their previous identity in favour of
integration and assimilation with the dominant society.

With the 18th century Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason, the domination of the Church
diminished. Some Enlightenment thinkers called for full rights for Jews, but only on the
condition that they discard their religious customs. Others blamed Judaism as the source of
irrational religious faith. Even though many Jews assimilated socially and culturally, prejudice
did not disappear.

4
Flannery, Edward H. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism. Paulist Press, first
published in 1985; this edition 2004, pp. 11–12.
In France in 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jewish member of the French Army’s
general staff, was convicted of passing military secrets to Germany. 5 Later, proof of forgery
confirmed his innocence, but Dreyfus remained the victim of a cover up to divert attention
from army corruption. A century after the French Revolution proclaimed Liberty, Equality, and
Fraternity, giving Jews their freedom, frenzied mobs in the streets of Paris chanted Death to
the Jews.

Then, around 1900, a new lie was promoted: that Jews conspired to dominate the world using
their money and intelligence to manipulate trusting Christians. Russian secret police forged a
document to support the story of a take-over plot supposedly authored by a conference of
Jewish leaders. A proven forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion6 was nevertheless
translated into every major language and distributed worldwide. It is circulated even today
despite indisputable proof that it is a fake.

To divert popular discontent at appalling living conditions and autocratic control, Russian
authorities encouraged antisemitic violence. Jews were blamed for the assassination of Czar
Alexander II in 1881. Pogroms, murderous rampages against Jews, erupted in Russia many
times during the next three decades.

The second half of the 19th century saw the emergence of yet another kind of antisemitism. At
its core was the theory that Jews were not merely a religious group but a separate “race”—
Semites—set apart because of genetically inherited characteristics.

Antisemites believed racial characteristics could not be overcome by assimilation or even

conversion. Jews were said to be dangerous and threatening because of their “Jewish blood.”
Antisemitic racism united pseudoscientific theories with centuries old anti-Jewish stereotypes.
These ideas gained wide acceptance.

The devastation of World War I, the demeaning peace of Versailles, the hyperinflation of the
1920s, and the depression of 1929 fueled mass discontent. The presence of Jews in German
cultural, economic, and political life made them convenient scapegoats for Germany’s
misfortunes.

After this comes the role of Hitler, the Fuhrer!

5
Paul Webster (2001) Petain's Crime. London, Pan Books: pp. 23–27.
6
Steven Beller (2007) Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction: p. 32.
4. NAZI GERMANY AND THE HOLOCAUST (1933 - 1945).

Hitler viewed world history as a racial struggle for survival of the fittest.7 He saw Jews as the
source of all evil: disease, social injustice, cultural decline, capitalism and all forms of
Marxism, especially Communism. Antisemitism would become the predominant ideology of
the Third Reich. Nazi racism victimized many groups of people, but it was against the Jews
that the Nazi state mobilized all its resources for terror.8

After the Nazi takeover of power, anti-Jewish measures were put into effect one after another:
Jewish businesses were boycotted, then seized. Jews were defined, separated from non-Jews.
Jews were excluded from professions and studies. Jewish children were barred from schools.
Jews were subjected to public humiliation.

The changes—whether gradual or sudden—were incomprehensible. Few could imagine what

would happen. Even Jews. The Nazis took antisemitism to an unprecedented level of violence.
Genocide: the systematic murder of millions of people deemed inferior. Six million Jews.

Nuremberg Laws were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on
15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the
annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party.

The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour,
which forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and the
employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households; and the Reich Citizenship
Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich
citizens. The remainder were classed as state subjects without any citizenship rights. A
supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on 14 November,
and the Reich Citizenship Law officially came into force on that date. The laws were expanded
on 26 November 1935 to include Romani and Black people. This supplementary decree
defined Romanis as "enemies of the race-based state", the same category as Jews.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, some Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic and
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have re-examined their teachings on the Jews and

7
Shirer, William-L. (1960) 2011. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich : A History of Nazi Germany. New York:
Simon & Schuster, pg. 21-22.
8
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945. Mein Kampf. Boston :Houghton Mifflin, 1999, pg 78.
Judaism. Many denominations are continuing to address the role played by centuries of
Christian antisemitism in contributing to circumstances that made the Holocaust possible.

5. ANTISEMITISM AS PORTRAYED IN THE SCHINDLER’S LIST

The docudrama Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg effectively explores how propaganda,
greed and anti-Semitism influenced the characters Amon Goeth and Oskar Schindler to
dehumanise. This is shown when Amon Goeth brutally beats Helen Hirsch, his beautiful Jewish
maid, in his basement because he has conflicting feelings of attraction for Helen which
challenge his pure hatred and anti-Semitism. Amon expresses these feelings through his use of
speech-

“Is this the face of a rat? Are these the eyes of a rat? ‘Hath not a Jew eyes?’ I feel for you,
Helen. No, I don’t think so…. You nearly talked me into it, didn’t you?”

This is an example of how propaganda and anti-Semitism can put people in difficult situations,
for Amon Goeth constantly denies his connection to an individual as he cannot overcome his
hatred, just like most German civilians and Nazi party members could not overcome their
indiscriminate hatred of Jews.

Are you listening? The Jewish worker’s salary, you pay it directly to the SS, not the worker.
He gets nothing.” Schindler: “But it’s less. It’s less than what I would pay a Pole…Poles cost
more. Why should I hire Poles?”

Stern’s explanation of how the Jewish salaries get paid to the Reich Economic Office, instead
of the Jewish workers shows us how the Nazis were using the Jewish people as an economic
work force. This made them incredibly rich, and Oskar Schindler as a Nazi party leader is
drawn into their greed. At the beginning if the film this shows Schindler shows no sympathy
or compassion for the Jews., he only can see the potential to line his pockets with more profit.
This made me consider how many good people, under the bad influence of propaganda and
racism can do inhumane and selfish acts and then can somehow manage to justify it to
themselves. Schindler’s List is a very powerful film that presents ideas of propaganda, greed
and anti-Semitism influenced upon Amon Goeth and Oskar Schindler to dehumanise the Jews.
 CHAPTER 3- SEPARATED FROM THE WORLD: GHETTOIZATION OF JEWS
“The hunger in the ghetto was so great, was so bad, that people were laying on the streets and
dying, little children went around begging, and, uh, every day you walked out in the morning,
you see somebody is lying dead, covered with newspapers or with any kind of blanket they
found, and you found... And every day thousands and thousands died just from malnutrition
because the Germans didn't give anything for the people in the ghetto to eat. There was no such
thing. You can't walk in and buy anything, or getting any rations. It's your hard luck. If you
don't have it, you die, and that's what it was.”

It was apparent to all that the Nazis' principal goal was to build a "New Order" based mostly
on racial supremacy doctrine, i.e., the superiority of Nazis over Jews. The Nazis aspired to
solve what they saw as the "Jewish Problem" and limit Jewish influence in all areas because
Jews, according to them, were there just to pollute the pure blood environment, and they
believed that physical and geographical separation would help to solve this issue and build their
"New Order."

As a result, the Nazis began to separate Jews from society, and for that purpose, they built
"GHETTOS." Which was a section of a city where Jews were forced to reside behind closed
walls, fences, or barbed wire for isolating Jews from the rest of the world. These ghettos were
very inhumanely built over and had a very bad environment for living. Life in the ghettos was
usually unbearable. Overcrowding was common and hundreds of Jews were thrown in one
apartment which might have several families living in it. The plumbing broke down, and human
waste was thrown in the streets along with the garbage due to which contagious diseases spread
quickly in such crowded, filthy conditions. Germans purposefully starved locals by allowing
them to buy only a tiny amount of bread, potatoes, and meat. Some people had money or
possessions to barter for food smuggled into the ghetto; others had to beg or steal to survive.9

Heating fuel was rare throughout the lengthy winters, and many residents lacked proper
clothing. People who were debilitated by hunger and cold became easy prey for disease; tens
of thousands died in the ghettos from illness, famine, or cold. Some people committed suicide
in order to escape their horrible existence.10 These inhumane conditions were known to all yet
the top officials of the Nazi party assumed that the Jews would themselves die due to the terrible
living conditions but then also the conditions of the place were not made good because they

9
Holocaust Encyclopedia (2014). "Ghettos. Key Facts". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
10
Philip Friedman, "The Jewish Ghettos of the Nazi Era," Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust (New
York and Philadelphia, 1980), pg. 61, 69.
knew that the ghettos were serving as gathering points which apart from segregating Jews from
the rest was also making it easier for them to exterminate and transport them to other
workplaces.

“In the movie Schindler’s List, where the KRAKOW Ghetto has been shown, it reflects the
inhumane conditions under which the Jew Women were kept. The scene depicts a picture of a
group of women lying in a narrow passage sharing about the hardships that they have to face
every day.”

(Figure-1, Scene from movie; Schindler’s List)

Jews were only permitted to live in certain parts of Jews were compelled to migrate more
frequently, with many families frequently sharing a single flat and they were barred from
attending a growing number of public areas, including parks and public baths. They were
prohibited from using public transportation, and without authorization, Jews were not
permitted to leave the communities in which they were registered. They were not permitted to
subscribe to or purchase non-Jewish periodicals, and they were required to surrender their radio
sets, depriving them of current information and the ability to respond to it.11 With these
deplorable conditions in which they were living which further coupled with many other
restrictions, the Jewish people found itself in an increasingly precarious position. Jews were

11
Hughes, Langston. [1945] 2007. "The Heart of Harlem." Pg. 89–90 in I Speak of the City: Poems of New
York, edited by S. Wolf. New York: Columbia University Press.
effectively isolated from the rest of society long before mass transports began. Isaiah Trunk, in
his major work on the Jewish councils, has also concluded that Nazi ghettoization policy had
the conscious goal or "set task" of decimating the Jewish population.12

While the ghettos were effectively under the control of the Nazis and their administration, yet
each ghetto had its own administrative body consisting of senior and influential members of
the Jewish community, it was called as “The Judenrat”. These bodies were responsible for
executing the orders of the Nazis within the ghettos and also for the administration and policing
in the ghettos but these bodies remained under the scrutiny because on one hand they were jews
and on another acted in a juxtaposition to it by upholding the orders and directions of the Nazis
party.

From all the hardships that the Jews have faced in the ghettos, what essentially should be noted
is that the Jewish ghetto made genocide a lot easier for the Nazis. Ghettos were being emptied
by the trainload as the Holocaust progressed, for example the residents of the massive Warsaw
ghetto, which once housed 4,00,000 Jews, notoriously defied deportation to death camps. They
were outnumbered and undersupplied, but some decided to die on their own terms; thousands
of Jews were killed behind the ghetto walls rather than in the camps and according to some
estimates, at least 6,00,000 people were killed in the ghettos over all due to overcrowding which
resulted in lack of food, resulting in starvation, ultimately leading to death and the death of
these specimens of society was not merely a death but planned genocide.

12
Abraham Lewent describes conditions in the Warsaw ghetto. (n.d.). Abraham Lewent Describes Hunger and
Death in the Warsaw Ghetto | Holocaust Encyclopedia; encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/oral-history/abraham-lewent-describes-hunger-and-death-in-the-
warsaw-ghetto
 CHAPTER 4- SLAVE LABOURERS DURING THE THIRD REICH

"I had such yearning, I still feel it in my bones, I had such yearning to live, to run, to just
run away"

~A Jewish survivor of Auschwitz and Salzwedel

When Germany and Austria debated paying former forced workers in the German economy
during World War II, it became evident that there was no accurate estimate of how many were
still living. When Nazi figures are combined with post-war demographic data for twenty
nations, it is discovered that the overall number of foreigners employed in the German economy
was roughly 13.5 million, with about 11 million surviving the war. Around 2.7 million people
were still living 55 years later. As experts accumulate more and better data, this computation
of forced workers within Germany may become more exact, and it may ultimately be
augmented by figures on forced laborers beyond Germany's borders as well. Regardless, the
data shows that Nazi Germany's forced labor program was the largest and one of the most
traumatic event that goes down the history of Europe.13

Despite the fact that forced labor was widespread throughout WWII, the phrase was rarely
utilized at the time. The Germans simply referred to these conscripted workers as "foreign
laborers" (Fremdarbeiter) or, in the case of German nationals incarcerated in concentration
camps or prisons, forced labor was presented as a punitive or instructional tool. The term 'slave
labor' was often used by the Allies, most notably during the Nuremberg International Military
Tribunal in 1945/46.14 Today, historians widely agree that Nazi Germany's forced labor during
World War Two was characterized by the absence of a labor contract or the inability of
terminating one, and that forced laborers were treated differently from other German
employees. Shortly after gaining power, the Nazis began exploiting forced labor. They
established Ostarbeiter (eastern workers), Fremdarbeiter (foreign employees), and other forced
laborers who were forcefully picked up and brought in from the east. These were distinct from
the concentration camps maintained by the SS, where captives were also compelled to work.

13
Hertzstein, Robert Edwin. The War That Hitler Won: The Most Infamous Propaganda Campaign in History.
ISBN 9780399118456.
14
William I. Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II
Europe (2008), pp 250–56
As a result of labour shortages induced by rearmament, the use of forced labor increased
dramatically in 1937. Following the onset of World War II, the usage of labor grew
dramatically once more. The invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 increased the need for
labor and, as a result, the war economy. Thousands of prospective new laborers were also
brought under Nazi control during this invasion. Ostarbeiter and Fremdarbeiter were the names
given to these detainees (foreign workers). These individuals were deported by the Nazis to
forced labor camps, where they toiled to manufacture supplies for the war economy or in
building projects.

Forced labour camps, like most Nazi camps, had deplorable circumstances. Inmates were
always ever considered as transitory and could always be replaced by others, according to the
Nazis, who had little care for their health. Food, equipment, medication, and clothes were all
in short supply while they worked long hours. There was very little time for relaxation and
breaks. Death rates in labour camps were exceptionally high as a result of these
circumstances.15

In the network of hundreds of forced labour camps that spread across Nazi-occupied Europe
by 1945, more than fourteen million people had been exploited.

Even for many ailing inmates, hard labor was required in SS camps like Dachau from the
beginning. The SS benefited from forced labor since the convicts had to build and maintain

15
Shirer, William L. 1991. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. London, England: Arrow Books, pg. 595.
their own camps. Above all, the SS viewed forced labor as a means of punishing detainees.
There was often meaningless labor done solely to torture detainees. SS goals intensified in the
late 1930s. Prisoners were initially made to work in arduous conditions in brickworks and
quarries. As time went on, more and more captives were used in the war effort. During WWII,
the SS established hundreds of satellite camps with the help of German industry. Heinrich
Himmler, the SS chief, claimed that his slaves created crucial weapons. During the conflict,
thousands of Captives were worked to death. The sarcastic SS motto ("Arbeit macht frei") at
the gates of Dachau, Auschwitz, and other camps declared that work brought enormous
anguish, not freedom. Construction convicts had particularly grim prospects. The lower
number of inmates in manufacturing, on the other hand, had marginally better circumstances.
Overall, the major output of SS slave labor was not guns, bricks, or stones, but captives' agony
and death.16

Many former slave workers set out on their own to return home after their emancipation; others
remained in camps as displaced persons awaiting repatriation or passage to the West. 1945 was
not the end of many people's misery, notably Soviet forced workers.17 They were accused of
working with the Germans across the board at home, and many were imprisoned in Stalinist
camps. The majority of survivors, particularly those in their later years, are still suffering from
the psychological and physical effects of the "Totaleinsatz" (total appointment order); they
have been living in poverty in numerous Eastern European nations since the fall of communist
states. With rare exceptions, the German governments and enterprises that benefitted from the
slave labor system have rejected any responsibility for the victims.18

FORCED LABOUR AS PICTURISED IN SCHINDLER’S LIST

The omnious theme of the “Perilous Comfort of Denial” is an important theme in the movie
“schindlers list”, even when the jews are driven into the ghetto and eventually into the work
camp, the Jews on Schindler's List suffer from denial of their real circumstances. Many
European Jews who perished in the Holocaust suffered from this denial. They are forced to
leave their rural homes and relocate to Kraków, then to the ghetto, by the Nazis. They assume
that once they are in the ghetto, the hard times will pass. Even while they are being killed, they
continue to deny their status in the work camp. Mila Pfefferberg informs the other ladies in her

16
Shirer, William L. 1991. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. London, England: Arrow Books, pg. 851.
17
Cord Pagenstecher, V.S., 2008. Forced labor – background. Forced Labor – Background • Forced Labor 1939
- 1945. Available at: https://www.zwangsarbeit-archiv.de/en/zwangsarbeit/zwangsarbeit/zwangsarbeit-
hintergrund/index.html [Accessed May 20, 2022].
18
Marc Buggeln (2014). Slave Labor in Nazi Concentration Camps. Index of Companies. OUP Oxford. p. 335.
barracks about the tales she heard about death camps like Auschwitz, which is a great example
of denial. She describes to the women how Jews are being gassed ‘en masse’ and their bodies
burned. The women answer with a dismissive tone, as though anything like that could never
happen. However, the performers are able to portray that the women are suspicious of the truth.
They've already experienced enough tragedy to know that mass extinction is a possibility.
 CHAPTER 5- CONCLUSION

Amongst all the gruesome and unfortunate events that took place during the holocaust,
Schindler’s List brings out the small light of hope, the light of survival, the light of kindness in
the time of complete and utter darkness. Ofcourse, it doesn't rule out all of the unfortunate
happenings but the movie provides for the perfect combination of joy and despair. The
character development of Oskar Schindler is a living proof of humanity in times of grave
adversity. Men like Oskar Schindler and Julius Madritsch know that one of the most important
things they can do for their Jewish detainees is to help them reclaim their humanity, as a sense
of identity may energize them and give them the fortitude to persevere. Despite the fact that
Schindler and Madritsch are officially concentration camp overseers, they are sympathetic to
their Jewish detainees and desire to assist them in surviving. One of the most important things
Schindler and Madritsch do for their captives is ensure that they are fed well, as this lets the
Jewish laborers to think about things other than their daily survival and therefore feel like
people rather than beasts.

Antisemitism did not end with the Holocaust and is a global problem today. Hatred of Jews
based on religious, political, or racial ideologies continues among ordinary citizens, people of
influence, and even under state sponsorship. This hatred often echoes the same falsehoods used
by the Nazis. Efforts to distort or deny the Holocaust are among the ways that antisemitism is
currently expressed.

The history of the Holocaust shows that targeting an entire group has far-reaching
consequences. It leads to an increase in xenophobia, racism, and extremism throughout society,
with potentially devastating consequences for individuals, communities, and nations.

Schindler also strives to empower his detainees. In order to prevent the SS from meddling with
his captives' everyday life, he asserts his own authority over his factories. He also achieves this
by assisting inmates in forming new communities and maintaining religious customs, such as
allowing Rabbi Menasha Levartov to celebrate Shabbat. So, while dehumanization is a great
technique for controlling and exterminating a group of people, the novel demonstrates that it
may also be effective in assisting individuals in enduring their pain and emerging with their
dignity intact.
Many Jews seek to flee the ghetto during the liquidation, whether in the sewers like Pfefferberg
or by hiding like the small girl in the red coat or the Dresners. All of my attempts have failed.
Those who concealed are discovered and shot at night. While in the sewers, Pfefferberg is
nearly shot and winds up in a queue bound for the Plaszow labor camp. These failed attempts
to flee demonstrate the Jewish position's hopelessness. They had no choice except to obey or
face death. Furthermore, the notion of loyalty is frequently used in the escape attempts. Chaja
and Danka Dresner demonstrate their love for one other by putting their lives on the line to
save each other.

Finally, one of Schindler's List's most recognizable emblems is the little girl in the red coat. As
she weaves her way through the crowd, Schindler spots her. He seemed to be particularly taken
aback by her; to him, she epitomizes the victims' innocence. Her jacket's hue represents life
and drive. Despite her youth, she aspires to go away and hide. In addition, the crimson of her
clothing represents the red flag that the Jews hoisted to ask for help from the Allies.

"There was no choice." In pondering on his moral decision to save over 1000 Jews from death
and work camps, Schindler stated these remarks. He was aware that there was a morally correct
and incorrect path to choose, and that he had no other choice. It wasn't as simple for other
businesspeople in Schindler's position. During the Third Reich, German businessmen had to
choose between cooperating with the Nazis and profiting from Jewish persecution or resisting
and risking their lives.

Schindlerjuden: Preparation of the list

 CHAPTER 6- BIBLIOGRAPHY
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