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Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Schindler’s List, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Virtue and Selflessness
Anti-Semitism and Dehumanization
Power
Duty
Bureaucracy
Summary
Analysis
Pfefferberg and his wife, Mila, are in their home waiting to be caught by the SS and ordered into the street. They keep waiting, but nothing comes for them. Eventually the light is poor enough that Pfefferberg ventures out through the sewers to consult with Dr. H. When he gets there, he finds that the SS have already been by, and that Dr. H and his wife left through the sewers.
Schindler values Pfefferberg for his street smarts, and here he demonstrates his literal knowledge of the streets by navigating his way through the sewer system. The fact that he must resort to this another example of how the Nazis brutalize and dehumanize the Jewish population, as Pfefferberg is forced to navigate the city in the same way a rat might.
Themes
Pfefferberg returns to his home and finds that Mila is gone and the whole place is empty. He stumbles around in a daze, eventually running into some of his neighbors. He asks what happened to Mila, and they say she is on her way to Płaszów. He begins looking for a good, reliable hiding place. He finds one in a lumberyard, where he has a view out on the street. There, he witnesses atrocities, like the SS men with dogs who murder a two- or three-year-old child by throwing her against a wall. Pfefferberg realizes his own hiding place won’t protect him from dogs.
Pfefferberg and Mila’s missed connection is just one of the many tragic separations that occurred in the ghetto at this time. Breaking apart families was a deliberate tactic Nazis used to decrease moral and to dehumanize their victims.
Themes
Pfefferberg approaches some SS men confidently as if he’s a soldier, saying he received an order to clear the roads. He greets one as “Herr Commandant,” not knowing anything about SS ranks, but in fact he’s correct: the man is Commandant Amon Goeth. Goeth is so amused by this that he actually laughs. He tells Pfefferberg to get lost, and Pfefferberg wastes no time running away. Pfefferberg may have been the last one left alive in the ghetto.
Like Schindler, Pfefferberg knows that sometimes the best way to get out of a vulnerable position is to feign confidence. Goeth’s decision to spare Pfefferberg again highlights Goeth’s arbitrary style of leadership, and how the Nazis’ dehumanization of Jewish people was a complicated and inconsistent process.
Themes
Another possible candidate for last alive in the ghetto is Wulkan, the jeweler. He tries to bribe an OD officer with a diamond he’s been concealing, saying he’ll go anywhere, but he’d prefer if his wife and son can be protected, perhaps transferred safely to Płaszów. Their OD contact tells them that aside from some of Spira’s highest-ranking men, all OD have to be out of the ghetto by that evening and headed to Płaszów—perhaps Wulkan’s wife and son can be transported to Płaszów in an OD vehicle.
Wulkan is more concerned about his family’s safety than his own, and which is true for many of the other Jewish people in Cracow at this time. Unfortunately for them, it’s hard to guarantee anyone’s safety, since separating families and withholding information are key techniques the Nazis use to dehumanize their victims.
Themes
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Some OD men help the Wulkans hide under paperwork and bundles of clothing. From their hiding place, they can hear the violent sounds of Goeth, Hujar, Pilarzik, and others executing people on the streets.
That the Wulkans come across OD men who are willing to help them once again emphasizes that survival in Nazi-occupied Poland is largely a matter of luck. Indeed, outside of their hiding place they can hear people who aren’t so lucky.
Themes
