In this age of growing antisemiticsm, it is fitting that Better Together Forever is holding a viewing of the award winning Schindler’s List. This film serves as a stark reminder of the Holocaust and those who attempted their best to stand between hatred of the Jewish people and those who thought it was alright to slaughter them. The iconic use of symbolism will be discussed below.

This 1993 epic historical drama was produced by Steven Spielberg. It is based on the 1982 novel, Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally The storyline follows how German industrialist, Oskar Schindler used his position to save more than a thousand mostly Polish Jewish refugees by employing them in his factories. Set in World War II, Liam Neeson starred as Schindler; Ralph Fiennes as SS Officer Amon Goth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler’s accountant, Itzhak Stern. The movie was principally filmed in Krakow, Poland. John Williams composed the score, and Itzhak Perlman performed the main theme on violin.

All in all, Schiindler’s List won seven out of the twelve Academy Awards for which it was nominated. In 2004, the Library of Congress selected this great movie for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. One of the reasons for this is it’s iconic use of symbolism. For one thing, parts of this great movie were shot on the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. This lent an air of realism that cannot be overstated as it smacks the viewer in the face of the factual scenario that was called Shoah – an era of Jewish history that cannot be allowed to be forgotten.

The effectiveness of this classic being shot almost entirely in black and white has led to comparisons of its cinematography to German Expressionism and Italian neor-ealism. Singularly noteworthy was the use of the the child’s tune Oyfn Pripetshik ((On the Cooking Stove) when the Ghetto was being liquidated. May we never forget the horrendous amount of prisoners,especially Jews that were cooked alive in those damnable extermination camps.

The film is a classic study in the primary theme of good and evil. Watch as Schindler develops his morality from beginning to end, there is much to be said about mankind’s potential in this. And pay particular attention to the one person who has color on her. A little girl,played by a three year old, whose coat is the color red. It is said this color red was used to symbolize “innocence, hope or the red blood of the Jewish people being sacrificed in the horror of the Holocaust” The Sabbath candles at the beginning serve as a bookend for the smoke that rises in the killing of these unfortunate persons in the cursed ovens.

Life without light is the color they died in.

May we never forget…