Infobox Book
name = Schindler's Ark
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption = First edition cover
author = Thomas Keneally
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =
language =
series =
subject =
genre =
publisher = Hodder and Stoughton
release_date = October 1, 1982
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
pages = 380 (hardcover edition)
isbn = ISBN 0340278382 (hardcover edition)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
"Schindler's Ark" is a Booker Prize winning novel (1982) by Thomas Keneally, which was later adapted into the highly successful movie "Schindler's List" directed by Steven Spielberg. The United States version of the book was called "Schindler's List" from the beginning; it was later re-issued in Commonwealth countries under that name as well.
The book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi Party member, who turns into the unlikely hero. By the end of the war, Schindler has saved 1100 Jews from concentration camps all over Poland and Germany. While the author wrote a number of well received novels before this book, this book was monumental and every book after this was shadowed by it. [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1134412,00.html Guardian Review of Author] ]
Fiction or Non-Fiction
"Schindler's Ark" describes actual people and events. It was initially published as fiction and won the Booker Prize under that category. Later editions appeared to downplay the fictional nature of the book.[ [http://www.answers.com/topic/schindler-s-list-critical-overview Answers.com] ] ]Inspiration
Keneally was inspired to write the book by Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. After the war, Pfefferberg had tried on a number of occasions to interest the screen-writers and film-makers he met through his business in a film based on the story of Schindler and his actions in saving Polish Jews from the Nazis, arranging several interviews with Schindler for American television.
In 1980 Keneally went into Pfefferberg's shop to ask about prices of briefcases, and they started discussing. Pfefferberg, thus learning that Keneally was a novelist, showed him his extensive files on Schindler. [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/bookclub/story/0,,2082930,00.html Guardian Book Club] ] Keneally was interested, and Pfefferberg became an advisor for the book, accompanying Keneally to Poland where they visited Kraków and the sites associated with the Schindler story. Keneally dedicated "Schindler's Ark" to Pfefferberg: "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written."
After the publication of "Schindler's Ark" in 1982, Pfefferberg worked to persuade Steven Spielberg to film Keneally's book, using his acquaintance with Spielberg's mother to gain access. The awarding of the Booker prize caused some controversy at the time: as this award is for the best fiction, it was debated on whether Keneally wrote fiction or was simply reporting on history.
tory Line
This book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, self-made entrepreneur and bon viveur who almost by default found himself saving Polish Jews from the Nazi death machine. Based on numerous eyewitness accounts, Keneally's story is unbearably moving but never melodramatic, a testament to the almost unimaginable horrors of Hitler's attempts to make Europe "judenfrei", or free of Jews. What distinguishes Schindler in Keneally's version is not, superficially, kindness or idealism, but a certain gusto. He is a flawed hero; he is not "without sin". He is a drinker, a womaniser and, at first, a profiteer. After the war, he is commemorated as a "Righteous Person" at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but he is never seen as a conventionally virtuous character. [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/bookclub/story/0,,2077629,00.html The Observer Book Review] ] The story is not only Schindler's. It is the story of Kraków's dying ghetto and the forced labor camp outside of town, at Plaszów. It is the story of Amon Goeth, Plaszów's commandant. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E2DB153BF937A15753C1A964948260 New York Times Book Review] ]
His wife Emilie remarked in a German TV interview that Schindler did nothing remarkable before the war and nothing after it. "He was fortunate therefore that in the short fierce era between 1939 and 1945 he had met people who had summoned forth his deeper talents." After the war, his business ventures fail, he separates from his long-suffering wife, and he ends up living a dishevelled life in a small flat in Frankfurt. Eventually he arranged to live part of the year in Israel, supported by his Jewish friends, and part of the year as a sort of internal emigre in Frankfurt, where he was often hissed at in the streets as a traitor to his "race". After 29 unexceptional years he died in 1974.
References
