11/25/2004|||110138433494383236||||||

SCHINDLER'S LIST RE-WRITTEN?

Like a lot of people, I felt uneasy about the idea of Thomas Keneally's "Schindler's Ark" being classified as a novel. It's a compelling piece of work - as is the Steven Spielberg film - but shouldn't we be absolutely confident about the facts if we want to defeat the David Irvings of this world?
Now, according to The New York Times' Dinitia Smith, a new biography of Schindler adds significant detail and appears to contradict aspects of Keneally and Spielberg's version:

"To begin with, there was no Schindler's List.

" 'Schindler had almost nothing to do with the list,' said David M. Crowe, a Holocaust historian and professor at Elon University in North Carolina, whose book, "Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities and the True Story Behind the List," was published this fall by Westview Press.

"...Mr. Crowe said that there were nine lists. The first four were drawn up primarily by Marcel Goldberg, a corrupt Jewish security police officer and assistant to an SS officer in charge of transporting Jews. (Goldberg was later accused of accepting bribes and of favoritism.) Schindler suggested a few names, Mr. Crowe said, but did not know most of the people on the lists. The authors of the other five lists are unknown."

Although Crowe says he admires Keneally's book, he is candid about the Spielberg movie:

" 'Steve is a very wonderful, tender man," Mr. Crowe said of Mr. Spielberg, "but 'Schindler's List' was theater and not in an historically accurate way. The film simplifies the story almost to the point of ridiculousness.' "

Not that any of this detracts from Schindler's heroism. Elie Wiesel believes Crowe has simply given us a more rounded picture:

"He's made Schindler more human, and also more extraordinary."

|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2004/11/schindlers-list-re-written-like-lot-of.html|||11/25/2004 01:01:00 pm|||||||||

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