America and the holocaust: schindler's list

Activity 1. On Schindler´s List by Steven Spielberg (1993)
Viewing questions.
You must view the film and answer the following questions before class starts.
Vocabulary: Define the listed terms and describe how or why they are significant to the film. You may have to use outside sources.
Discussion: Write a paragraph or a short paper to explain the requested information. Why isthis important to the history involved?
Part I –The war begins
Vocabulary
|1. Krakow |
|2. Judenrat |
|3. OskarSchindler |
|4. OD (Jewish Ghetto Police) |
|5. Plaszow Forced Labor Camp|
|6. Amon Goeth |
|7. Ghetto |
|8. SS (Schutzstaffel)|

1. KRAKOW
Krakow is a city wrapped in legend, where time flows differently, and where every moment becomes a moment of history. For centuries Krakow was the capital of Poland, the seat of kings, drawing great scholars and artists from the whole world. It is their talents and imagination wemust thank for the city's rich legacy of unique historical relics, which reflect the most important trends in European culture.
However, there is another side, the terrible one. After the Nazi Germany invaded Poland at the beginning of the Second World War, Kraków became the capital of Germany's General Government. At that time the Jewish population were pushed and located in a walled zoneknown as the Kraków Ghetto, before being sent to extermination camps such as that of Auschwitz and Płaszów.
The first part of the film is located in Krakow, where Mr. Shindler arrives to set up his business in 1936.
2. JUDENRAT
Before the war, there was local Jewish governance over local Jewish communities called kehilla. The agency usually governed things which would become under theauspices of the Judenrat: benevolence, health and welfare, and general civic concerns of the community. The idea therefore of a governing Jewish council was not new as orders were issued for Jewish citizens to report to the Ghettos. Upon deportation only two concerns were forefront: the time limit and living arrangements.

Upon the establishment of the ghetto and the oncoming population, theJudenrat was established by Nazi officials to govern the people and attend to budgets, deaths, health and welfare, housing, benevolence, hospitals, orphanages, and labour, although the intervention in labour which was forced was often a point of contention between Nazi officials and the Judenrat. The Jewish council was comprised of twenty-four elected Jews responsible for the order.

Themen chosen from the Jews to govern the ghetto were often men with business or professional backgrounds with strong ties in the Jewish community.
In the film the ghetto in Krakow is overcrowded with Jews. The Jewish people are all gathered together and organized into working groups by the Judenrat. Oskar Schindler visits the ghetto. He is a German businessman, who wishes to see Itzhak Stern, a...