Leadership in Schindler’s List
Julianne Felix Deguzman Leadership in Schindler’s List Leadership has played a valuable role throughout history in countless leaders and even followers. Although some of the greatest leaders in history lead for a more notorious cause, the leadership skills they conveyed and followed were key to the success of their goal and accomplishments. I believe Oskar Schindler was a great leader for many reasons because of how he dealt with the Nazi party during the Holocaust and how he adapted to change and from that change resulted in saving over a thousand Jews from death.
Oskar Schindler shows how sometimes a leader has to change his values and therefore his actions to accommodate the surroundings and situation. As a result to this change Oskar Schindler’s values proved highly beneficial and impacted many lives from being lost. Based off Thomas Keneally’s novel Schindler’s Ark, Steven Spielberg captures the lasting results of Oskar Schindler’s Leadership through “Schindler’s List”. Set during World War II, the movie follows the German businessman Oskar Schindler through the rise and fall of the Holocaust and how he deals with the Nazi Party.
Initially Schindler arrives in the city with the goal of making a fortune by being a war profiteer. As Schindler was a member of the Nazi party he was able to bribe officials into a procurement that allowed him to be able to acquire a factory where he would be able to produce mess kits for the army. As Schindler only knew little knowledge of how to actually run a factory he then collaborated with Judenrat official from Krakow named Itzhak Stern as his accountant. Stern was well connected with black marketers within the ghetto as well as many Jewish businesses.
Jewish Poles were hired by Schindler rather than Catholic Poles because they cost less and because they worked at the factory they were allowed outside the ghetto. Stern falsified documents as a way to save the Polish Jews from being sent to the concentration campus as they were deemed “essential” to Schindler’s factory. As the holocaust continues and a final liquidation of Jews is put into effect, Schindler strategically befriends an SS lieutenant, Amon Goeth, who s in charge of the liquidation as a way to save his Jews as it will directly affect his factory and his fortune. By bribing Goeth, Schindler is able create a sub-camp which will allow his Jews to be saved and his factory running effectively. Although as the war continues, orders from Berlin commands that all Jews and any remains will be destroyed throughout the entire Krakow Ghetto. The turning point in the movie is when Schindler is unable to move away and bask in the fortune he has made as his values shift and he is unable to just abandon the “his” Jews.
As all Jews were ordered to be sent to Auschwitz, Schindler was able to save to save many from death by coming to a compromise with Goeth. Goeth charges an excessive bribe per Jew and that is how the title “Schindler’s List” derives from as both Stern and Schindler’s create a list of what Jews they want to save. As mostly all his Jews arrive safely to the factory at his home in Moravia, the train comprising of all the female workers were accidentally sent to Auschwitz and where Schindler is required to bribe many of the Nazi officials in order to get his workers back.
Due to the excessive amount of bribery, Schindler eventually runs out of money just in time for the war to end and flees. He is able to persuade the SS officials to return home rather than liquidate the remaining Jews. Schindler leaves his Jews as soon as he knows that they are liberated by the Red Army and are able to live the rest of their lives safely. Bribery was the main strategy that was used throughout the whole movie and depicted that the exchange of money was the main thing that Nazi Party members and SS officials responded well do.
The only use of persuasion was by money. Oskar Schindler was a Nazi whose actions liberated him from a party with notorious goals to a humanitarian who saved countless lives. Schindler showed how to “fight back” against the Nazis without the use of violence. His use of leadership utilized persuasion and careful strategic planning. Schindler was aware of what was happening around him and with help was able to do what he believed was effective for him and for the Jews.
Although at first he only cared for the Jews as just workers who were merely a part in his plan to make a fortune, he came to an attachment and realization that their lives were something to be valued and saved as was his own life for that matter. I believe that to be a good leader doesn’t necessarily define as someone who sets a goal and directs people to achieve it, but as someone who may have to adapt to change based off their surroundings and situations.
A leader should be someone who is able to guide with not only direction but also logic, understanding, and an open mind. Oskar Schindler proved with continued leadership that even the most dismal situations may be able to change your values and based off those values change your actions and the direction in which you choose to lead and how you influence. Works Cited Schindler’s List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Prod. Steven Spielberg. By Steven Zaillian. Perf. Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes. Universal Pictures, 1993. DVD.
