Schindler’s List
Universal PicturesRalph Fiennes as Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List.
While Schindler’s List did a remarkable job of portraying the Holocaust to a modern audience, it is difficult for any film to portray the true, tragic fate of those who did not make Schindler’s list.
Wikimedia CommonsA mugshot of Amon Goth, the Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer and the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów, 1945.
If the tragic movie were to further explore the true horror of Amon Goth’s reign in Plaszow’s forced labor camp, Schindler’s List would have been little more than a succession of scarcely believable and horrific tortures.
FlickrAmon Goth’s house and balcony overlooking the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów.
Some real-life incidents from Goth’s time include him using his dogs to eat the inmates while they were still alive, shooting and then urinating on inmates during the morning parade, and a horrific incidence where Goth forced a young boy, sick with diarrhea, to eat his own excrement before shooting him.
Wikimedia CommonsThe concentration camp in Plaszow near Krakow, erected by Nazi-Germany in 1942.
The reality of Oscar Schindler’s post-war life was also more tragic than you would imagine for such a genuine hero. After the war, Schindler was completely bankrupted – he had spent all of his money on bribes to keep his Jewish workers alive.
Schindler ended up emigrating to South America where he tried and failed, to become a chicken farmer. Schindler then returned to Europe and remained fairly destitute until the end of his life.
Enjoy this article on real life stories behind tragic movies? Next, why not read about what Hollywood always gets wrong about the vikings? Then have a look at three of colonial propaganda films about Africa that are even more appalling than you’d think.
