Why read Schindler's List?

Book cover of Schindler's List

Book description

The basis for the Oscar-winning Spielberg movie, this novel recreates the story of Oskar Schindler, an Aryan who risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland.

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Poland

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Why read it?

3 authors picked Schindler's List as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Stan Morse

Author

Just because you are a good person, does not mean that those who occupy your social class are not equally good people. It often takes personal sacrifice, and a willingness to face personal risk, in order to help those who are deserving.

Even if it means you may be found out and punished for your good deeds.

From Stan's list on suspense where a character seeks redemption.

Charles Palliser

Author

If there is any light to be found in the horror of what happened in Eastern Europe under the Nazis, it is in stories like these. The novel is very closely based on real events in which a German businessman takes a risk by employing and then protecting a large number of Jews.

What I think is so good about it is that it doesn’t sentimentalize or over-simplify what happened. You want to identify with Schindler, the heroic German, but he’s far from saintly. And not all the people he rescues are wholly admirable, either. I found the novel unputdownable,…

From Charles' list on the Holocaust without exploiting it.

Robert Tucker

Author

One of the most powerful novels I’ve ever read, Schindler’s List depicts how a courageous man saved Jews from extermination during World War II. The novel is a moving and masterful work that captures one man’s heroic resistance to the horrors and human degradation imposed by the Nazis.

From Robert's list on grand literary historical fiction.