Schindler’s List

Schindler’s List

by

Thomas Keneally

Schindler’s List: Chapter 33 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
As with Emalia, Schindler equips his Brinnlitz camp at his own expense. Among his expenses are all the facilities he has to provide for 100 SS personnel. Hassebroeck has also taken his own share of what he pleases from Schindler’s camp, including alcohol, tea, and porcelainware. Inspectors coming from Oranienburg come expecting their own tribute. Combined with everything Schindler must pay to keep his workers, he is making a terrible business decision, yet he still appears to be celebrating.
The profit-chasing Schindler of only a few years ago seems to be gone by this point. Though Schindler remains as cunning in his business deals as ever, he now uses the money he’s saved up not to invest in a new business, but to ensure that his Jewish prisoners will make it to the end of the war.
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Emilie comes over from Zwittau to live in Schindler’s apartment. Some prisoners fear what Emilie’s opinions are, but in fact, she will make her own hidden contributions to Schindler’s effort. Ingrid also comes with Schindler, although she won’t ever live with him again. Klonowska stays behind in Cracow, apparently with no hard feelings.
The book generally follows Schindler’s perspective, so it’s hard to know what the various women in his life really think of him. Still, based on the reported lack of hard feelings, it seems that the charm Schindler uses in his professional life also applies to his personal life.
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Schindler tells the men that he’s confident the women will be coming soon. The women are taking a different route, however. When the women get out, they realize they are at Auschwitz-Birkenau. SS men and women sort the Płaszów women into different groups. They are stripped and led to a delousing plant. Though they fear the showers will contain poison gas, they are relieved to find it’s just water.
Auschwitz was the deadliest Nazi concentration camp. The atrocities there have been recounted by many camp survivors, but it was infamous even during the war. This incident once again shows how Jewish prisoners’ survival was largely a matter of random chance—given how many people died in gas chambers throughout the Holocaust, the showers could just as easily have contained gas rather than water.
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At Birkenau, the Nazis tattoo Jewish people whom they intend to use but don’t tattoo those they intend to get rid of immediately. Bau’s wife and Bau’s mother (who aren’t on Schindler’s list) are comparatively lucky enough to be tattooed, which helps them survive. The Płaszów women on Schindler’s list are told to get dressed after their shower without getting tattooed, however. They go back to uncomfortable lodgings in the camp. Even with the rumors, they cannot imagine how many people are gassed daily on a day when things are running at full capacity. The Commandant Rudolf Höss will put the number at 9,000.
Though the tattoos are dehumanizing—they reduce people to a number, and tattoos are forbidden in Judaism—they could actually be a positive sign for prisoners who got them late in the war. The scale and efficiency of the deaths at concentration camps was unprecedented in world history.
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The former Płaszów women also don’t know about negotiations between Himmler and the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte. After invading Russians excavated the Lublin camp, news of Germany gassing Jews with Zyklon B was suddenly published around the world. Himmler was secretly trying to make himself a successor to Hitler, and this involved making a promise to stop the gassings. Even after the order went out, some, like General Pohl in Oranienburg and Adolf Eichmann, decided to ignore the new directive, meaning many Jews from Płaszów and elsewhere are still being gassed up until November.
The negotiations between Himmler and Count Folke Bernadotte show that the Nazis weren’t always united in their strategy, particularly toward the end of the war as Germany’s situation became more desperate. These secret dealings at the top would eventually come down to affect the lives of average prisoners like the ones under Schindler.
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All of this means that for their first eight days in Auschwitz, the “Schindler women” are at great risk of being gassed. They are separated, with some sent to huts for the terminally ill. Doctors at Auschwitz, like the infamous Josef Mengele, sometimes inspect them at roll call. Even Schindler may not be enough to protect them, because there is precedent of other skilled Jewish workers being gassed by the trainload, as was the case with the chemical company I. G. Farben. The living conditions of the “Schindler women” at Auschwitz are dire, with many getting dysentery. Some begin to doubt Schindler’s promises, while other keep faith in him.
Though Schindler is a careful planner, in some cases, luck is the only thing keeping his prisoners alive. After having the extraordinarily bad luck to be taken to Auschwitz, the female prisoners end up surviving their stay through some very good luck. Disease in particular poses a major threat to them, making it difficult for them to hold on to their health, as Schindler advised them to.
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In Brinnlitz, the men arrive to a mostly empty camp that doesn’t even have bunks yet. Still, they eventually get things up and running. The workers move at a leisurely pace, just fast enough to please the SS men watching, sensing that Schindler has no real intention of contributing to the war effort. The men begin to become increasingly concerned that the women haven’t arrived yet. One day, the men gather around Schindler, and he tells them simply, “I’m getting them out.”
Schindler boldly promises that he’s getting the women out, perhaps before he even knows how he’s going to do so. Still, he’s learned that displays of confidence are important, and that sometimes it’s necessary to act the part first.
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Quotes
One hopeful bit of news is that the SS men guarding Schindler’s factory seem to be middle-aged men who are content to lead a peaceful existence. The one potential problem is that their commanding officer has not yet arrived.
The SS were not a monolith, and like any workforce, there were some who were content to do the bare minimum. In this way, the Nazi’s vast bureaucracy and hierarchy worked to their disadvantage, as it allowed apathetic workers, like these middle-aged guards, to go unnoticed.
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Amid all the preparations for the new factory in Brinnlitz, Schindler is arrested for a third time. Gestapo show up after a truck from Cracow arrives with cigarettes, vodka, cognac, and champagne. The volume of goods suggests that Schindler intends to make a living on the black market.
Though Schindler and the others can sense that the end of the war is near, this won’t save him if his arrest goes poorly. Each arrest puts Schindler and his prisoners in greater danger, as the arrests could potentially draw more attention to Schindler’s factory.
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In Schindler’s office, the two Gestapo men ask Schindler about his connections with Goeth and Goeth’s loot. Schindler says he has a few of Goeth’s suitcases and shows them to the men. They find nothing but arrest Schindler anyway. Those who knew Schindler will later suggest that this arrest scared him more than any of the others.
Schindler readily provides evidence against Goeth, which confirms that all of Schindler’s overtures were just a way of strategically manipulating Goeth and taking advantage of their relationship. But even divulging this information isn’t enough to help Schindler avoid arrest, as the Gestapo and other Nazi officials seem to be cracking down more harshly as the war draws to a close.
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Schindler is taken by train back to Cracow. At the station, he is approached by a man named Huth, who had been a civilian engineer at Płaszów. Huth’s motivation is unclear—he used to act subservient toward Goeth—but it seems that Huth may have been working with Klonowska (who is once again trying to get Schindler off the hook).
Schindler couldn’t tell before if Huth was on his side because of Huth’s deference toward Goeth. Schindler himself deferred to Goeth, however, which suggests that outward appearances don’t necessarily indicate a person’s true allegiance.
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Schindler is locked in a room on Pomorska Street like he was during a previous arrest. He knows there are torture rooms that they could use on him if they are desperate enough to get dirt on Goeth. Huth comes to Schindler and confirms for him that Klonowska is rallying his old friends. A panel of 12 SS investigators interrogates Schindler the next day. They ask if he ever gave Goeth money to “go easy on the Jews,” which Schindler denies. He says the money was simply a loan. He maintains that his goal was to keep up his body of skilled labor so that he could continue contributing to the war effort.
The panel of 12 SS investigators is a visible sign that this investigation has much higher stakes than any of the previous ones. One of the questions running through Schindler’s head is whether this investigation is primarily related to Goeth, or if the investigators are just using Goeth as a pretext to investigate what Schindler himself is doing.
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The interrogation goes four days, and though there’s no torture, it is still very intense. Schindler denies being any friend of Goeth’s, at one point saying, “I’m not a fairy,” bringing up rumors about Goeth and young orderlies. Goeth himself mistakenly believes Schindler wants to help him and will vouch for him. In the end, Schindler is helped by three things: his lack of actual business connections to Goeth, his natural charm (whether lying or telling the truth), and the fact that his credentials check out. Colonel Lange and Sussmuth are among those who testify to Schindler’s importance in the war effort.
Schindler uses rumors about Goeth’s sexuality to his advantage (the implication being that Goeth had sex with his male orderlies), trying to distance himself from the disgraced former commandant. Despite Schindler’s personal connections with Goeth, he is fortunate that he never did business with him (perhaps because he knew enough not to trust Goeth as a partner).
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On the fourth day, the interrogators spit on Schindler and call him a “Jew-lover.” He can’t be sure whether this is part of the process, or if this is why they actually brought him in. Finally, after a week, Schindler sends a message through Huth and Klonowska to Scherner. Scherner comes and says it’s an outrage how Schindler is being treated, but he says Goeth deserves what he gets.
Scherner’s preferential treatment of Schindler is telling. Ideologically, Scherner probably has more in common with Goeth, but because Schindler is more likable and generous, Scherner prefers him.
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On the morning of the eighth day, Schindler is finally let out on the street. He walks back to where his old factory was located and sends word to Emilie that he’s free.
The fact that Schindler is able to come out of this long interrogation unscathed is yet another testament to his ability to make connections with the right people and manipulate the Nazi bureaucracy to his advantage.
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Meanwhile in Auschwitz, the “Schindler women” move about carefully, knowing that they are presided over by Rudolf Höss (who will infamously be depicted in the novel Sophie’s Choice). Despite his fearsome reputation, Höss hasn’t murdered any Auschwitz prisoners by hand, preferring instead to rely on more clinical methods like Zyklon B gas. The story goes that it was Höss himself that Schindler had to negotiate with in order to protect his 300 women, though there were other camp officials he also had to deal with.
Höss only appears as a minor character in the book, perhaps because his life has been so thoroughly documented elsewhere. Some of the most crucial elements of Schindler’s story, like how he negotiated the release of the female prisoners, have been partially lost to history because of the lack of surviving witnesses to the events.
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Though a lot of mythology surrounds Schindler’s dealing with Auschwitz, one certainty seems to be that he sent a young woman to Commandant Höss with his list, as well as with a suitcase full of valuable goods, including alcohol, meat, and diamonds. As Stern tells it, Schindler picked one of his secretaries for the job, warning her that Höss had a thing for pretty women but saying that she’d get a big diamond ring for her efforts if she pulls it off. The identity of the woman and the exact terms of the deal, however, remain a point of contention among the survivors.
Because the reality itself is so similar to a legend—in that World War II and the Holocaust were surreal and hard to believe in some ways—it’s perhaps unsurprising that myths and confusion sprang up around the events.
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The officers at Auschwitz try to convince Schindler to abandon his quest, claiming that his 300 women have become sickly and worthless in the camp, and that there are plenty of other women he could use instead. Schindler continues to insist that he needs his specific women for their skilled munitions labor. Some question his need for 9- and 11-year-old children, but Schindler replies that he needs their long fingers to polish narrow shells (which is, in fact, a lie).
Schindler knows that the arguments he is making aren’t especially convincing. He doesn’t need to convince anyone, however—he just needs to make the officers think that investigating him would be more trouble than it’s worth.
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It is true that the women have been worn down by their time in Auschwitz. Clara Sternberg is one who gets separated from the main group and ends up in a separate hut where she’s under constant inspection from doctors. She takes care not to cough and even puts clay on her face to make her complexion seem healthier. At one point, she becomes so desperate that she looks for an electric fence to commit suicide, but a fellow prisoner urges her to hold on a little longer.
Clara’s strategy of using mud as makeup to make herself look healthier is just one of many desperate tricks that prisoners like her learn at Auschwitz. Her consideration of suicide shows just how desperate the situation at the camp is, even with the hope of a possible rescue by Schindler.
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Something terrible happens while Schindler is away from Brinnlitz. The new Commandant of Gröss-Rosen, Josef Liepold, comes to visit the workshop with an inspector. The inspector has been ordered to look for children who can be used for Dr. Mengele’s experiments in Auschwitz. Several children, including Olek Rosner and Richard Horowitz, are spotted and rounded up. The parents of the children (including Henry Rosner and Dolek Horowitz) are also rounded up, and they’re all taken by train to Auschwitz.
Even Schindler is not able to keep all interference out of his camp. Dr. Mengele is another figure who plays a prominent role in other Holocaust remembrances but who only makes a brief appearance in Schindler’s List. These brief appearances help to situate the book within the larger Holocaust story.
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The SS officer taking the men and children is surprisingly polite—he tells them that after he takes them to Auschwitz, he is bringing the women to Brinnlitz. At one point, the officer even appears to have tears in his eyes. He tells the prisoners, “I know what will happen. We’ve lost the war. You’ll get the tattoo. You’ll survive.”
The SS officer is one of the few to vocalize what many other Germans are surely thinking: that the war is lost, and therefore, that much of what they did in the name of the Nazi Party is all for naught.
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On the very same afternoon that Clara Sternberg considered suicide, she gets word that they are finally being loaded onto trains. Unfortunately, however, she and a 60-year-old woman named Mrs. Krumholz are on the wrong side of a fence (which isn’t electric but is built with 18 strands of wire). Although there are gaps in the fence of less than a foot, somehow both Krumholz and Sternberg make it through to rejoin the other “Schindler women.”
Sternberg and Krumholz’s daring journey to the other side of the fence shows that even prisoners who are old or frail can be motivated to do amazing things when given a little room to hope.
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The trains are horrifying, even as the “Schindler women” begin to feel hopeful. Inside a train car, Niusia and Regina Horowitz, along with Manci Rosner, are horrified to see Olek Rosner and Richard Horowitz standing there in Auschwitz. They are concerned for the children, but Olek holds up his arm to show that he has the tattoo, and Richard does the same. Olek then shows some potatoes to prove he won’t starve. Their fathers, Dolek and Henry, are away working at the rock quarry—but when Henry Rosner comes back, he shows that he also has the tattoo. When Dolek gets back too, he and Henry try to be cheerful so that the women won’t feel like they have to stay for the children.
The experience of the Rosners and the Horowitzes—able to see each other but unable to be together—was a common occurrence at concentration camps. With the war nearing its conclusion, everyone is doing what they can to project high spirits, because surviving through the final days is crucial.
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Finally, the train rolls out. After two days, the “Schindler women” are ordered to get out at dawn, unsure where they are. They’re marched to a large gate in front of a factory, with a crowd of SS men in front of it. Though they fear the worst, they notice Schindler among the men in front, again wearing a Tyrolean hat. Next to him is Commandant Liepold. Schindler has discovered that Liepold is still a firm believer in the so-called “Final Solution.” But though Liepold is technically in charge, Schindler goes to greet the women.
Once again, Schindler is a joyful, reassuring presence to newly arriving prisoners who had to endure fear and uncertainty when they were separated from him. Even Commandant Liepold doesn’t bring down the mood, although he has the potential to do some real harm before the war is over. The “Final Solution” was the name for the Nazi ideology that all Jewish people eventually had to be wiped out, and true believers continued to follow this ideology to the end of the war.
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Schindler makes a grand speech, saying “You have nothing more to worry about. You’re with me now.” He says all this in front of Commandant Liepold, who is furious but seems incapable of doing anything for the moment. The men figure out what’s happening and are overjoyed to be reunited with the women. For the moment, however, they must remain separated, with the women quarantined to avoid bringing diseases from Auschwitz.
Schindler’s boldness in front of the commandant may seem reckless, but because projecting confidence has worked to Schindler’s advantage thus far, it’s hard to tell where the border between reckless and strategic really is.
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Emilie gets involved with the clinic where she tends to the many sick. Some claim that the good work she did there may have been obscured by Schindler’s greater fame and absorbed into his legend instead.
Emilie’s more reserved personality makes it difficult to assess her role in history, whereas Schindler’s more gregarious personality eventually make his deeds known around the world.
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