Schindler's List Reflection

Oskar Schindler was a German business man bent on making money and building a high life in Germany. He makes many friends in high places in the Nazi Party. Then, he formulates a plan to make himself more money: he wants to hire the Jews to work for him so that he can pay them little, but mass produce his pots and everything that he makes. He witnesses much harsh treatment of the Jews, but all the while, only cares about making more money. He hires Itzhak Stern to organize everything for him, like a secretary, to find ways to make more money. Eventually, after witnessing so much wrong doing and becoming so close to Itzhak Stern, he realizes that there's more to life than money, and decides to help the Jews by hiring around 1100 Jews so that they wouldn't be worked to death in the work camps, and so that they could live safely (or as safe as you could be in those times) away from all of the crazy Nazi soldiers trying to constantly kill them. Schindler creates a list of all of the Jewish names he/Itzhak knew and "buying" them so that they could work for him. Also, he had been producing faulty bullets so that when the Nazi's would try to kill the Jews, their guns wouldn't work. Schindler was then a criminal, and at the end, he had to make a run for it, but he had saved the lives of around 1100 Jews. He died on October 9, 1974 in Hildesheim, Germany.

http://www.oskarschindler.com/
http://www.teacheroz.com/wwii.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler.html

a. What does the word power mean to you? What does it mean to Goethe? What does it mean to Schindler? Do these people misuse power?
To me, the word power means being able to control things; being in control-you have power over it. To Goethe, power was in essence the same thing, but it was also something that could be abused without consequence, because since he was in such a high seat of power, it didn't matter if he used it to do things that weren't necessary (like shooting people from his balcony). To Schindler, power was money (in the beginning of the movie). Also, power was having friends in high places, and being able to bend the rules because of that. By the end of the movie, to Schindler, power was being able to control the outcome of a situation without people knowing. People misuse power all the time, but there's no way to stop that from happening.

b. Schindler went from being an "antihero" to a hero. What specific events did he experience and realizations did he have to create this transformation.
Schindler witnessed the many Jews being murdered, which is enough to make any sane person shiver. He also became good friends/colleagues with Itzhak Stern, who was continually trying to make Schindler realize that he should be doing this for the good of the Jews, as opposed to the good of himself and his money.

c. Did you think this film was effective? Why? Why not?
I think it was effective in the sense that it let people know what was going on, what happened and how. It showed the brilliance of Schindler, and shows you that having friends in high places helps.