Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activites, and the True Story Behind the List (Paperback)

~ David Crowe (Author)
Key Phrases: racial laboratory, brutal closing, permanent concentration camp, Oskar Schindler, Schindler Jews, General Government (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Most biographies are written against a sketchy background of historical events drawn with just enough broad strokes of the brush to provide context for a life. Crowe's book, apart from the affecting last chapters on the autumn of Schindler's life, is just the opposite...In these Auschwitz memorial days we are filled with tales and images of Jewish deaths. Crowe's book honours the heroism of Hitler's working Jews in life" The Spectator"

Product Description

The first true exploration of the myths and realities of the controversial Holocaust figure.

Spy, businessman, bon vivant, Nazi Party member, Righteous Gentile. This was Oskar Schindler, the controversial savior of almost 12,000 Jews during the Holocaust who struggled afterwards to rebuild his life and gain international recognition for his wartime deeds. Author David Crowe examines every phase of the subject's life in this landmark biography, presenting a figure of mythic proportions that one prominent Schindler Jew described as "an extraordinary man in extraordinary times."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (May 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465002536
• ISBN-13: 978-0465002535
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #175,679 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Schindler by David Crowe, December 16, 2007

By	Mr. T. E. Thornby - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As background reading for my Masters thesis it is a good book. As light reading for one who might have a passing interest in Schindler, the book is protracted and discursive. The edition I read was possibly the worst edited book I have ever read! The historian Sir Ian Kershaw is introduced as Kreshaw!!...........and so the errors persist. Crowe has researched his topic well, using a vast number of sources and quoting the work of others (notably Robin O'Neill - former student of Sir Martin Gilbert - who has researched Schindler too). A particularly interesting facet of this work is the cross-referencing/comparison of Schindler's life and deeds with Spielberg's film. This was most useful and interesting and dispels many of the myths that filmgoers might accept as fact. A good book - spoilt by poor editing - revealing the man behind the myth: warts and all!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not What I'd Hoped, July 11, 2008

By	Scot D. Houtz "Shoutz" (DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A good biography, to me, has always been a book where the reader truly gets to know the person he or she is reading about. In that regard, this book tends to fail. Not that isn't a truly informative book, far from it, but instead it reads like a history book...chronologically (mostly) moving from early life to old age, giving out facts, quotes, and stories about Schindler's life so that by the last page you feel as though you know ABOUT his life, but not really WHY he lived it (ironically my greatest "insights" in Schindler come from quoted intelligence files ABOUT him confiscated after the war, not the author's words).

Maybe this problem is endemic more to the man than the other. He (apparently) was a many-faceted man and that could make writing a book to make the reader understand him difficult. Still, just because a historic figure is "difficult" to understand doesn't mean he can't be written about in such a way as the reader can come to understand who this person really was and to be honest I just don't really think I can say I have that idea after having read the book (I personally think, for good or bad, that the movie gave me a better impression than the book).

So...if you want to learn about the man and what he did (and all the tangential characters that he ran across in his life) this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book that gives you the facts of his life AND the understanding of the man, you might do better to look elsewhere.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A lost opportunity..., November 21, 2008

By	T. A. Papassilekas (Greece) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For anyone interested in the historical Oskar Schindler, this is an exhaustively researched account of the life and death of the man,focused around his WWII-related activities.

While the subject matter is of huge interest it is quite tiresome. The author goes into tremendous detail in everything that touches Schindler, directly or indirectly, and there are chapters where Oskar is not even mentioned! It would make a much more interesting, easy and focused reading if he didn't explain the whole Sudetan history and politics, for instance: sure, it is of historical interest, and sure, Oskar came from that background, but so much detail is simply off topic...

The problem is that the author felt compelled to include, in the book, all the research that he did, along with extensive introductions about diverse matters - like state policy against mentally ill people etc. All this halts the narrative and really destroys any sense of continuity.

What's more, for some reason the author has obviously set out to destroy the 'myth of Oskar Schindler". While, of course, the movie was not 100% historically accurate I really see no reason for the author to feel like 'debunking it'. The title of one chapter, "The beginning of the Schindler Myth" really got to my nerves.

All in all, a lost opportunity...