Schindler’s List: A Look Back At This Incredible True Life Story of Oskar Schindler

Dec 9, 2018

Schindler’s List was one of the most profound and moving movies about the Holocaust I have ever seen. The Guardian looks at Steven Spielberg’s efforts in 1993 to create this incredible film about a heroic man, Oskar Schindler, who saved thousands. Based on the true life story written by Australian author Thomas Keneally.

A big screen re-release leads to a re-examination of the 1993 Oscar-winner which had a profound effect on both critics and audiences

Twenty-five years ago, Steven Spielberg brought out two of his best movies, in just a matter of months. The films were poles apart in style and subject matter, and the process of completing one while shooting the other left the director exhausted and emotionally ragged. In spring 1993, Spielberg was in Poland, recreating the terror of the Kraków ghetto and the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp for Schindler’s List by day, and each night he was calling Industrial Light & Magic in California to oversee the special effects for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Spielberg’s friend Robin Williams would call him up once a week to tell him jokes for 15 minutes at a time and release the tension.

Spielberg pulled off a similar double recently when he shot the political drama The Post in the midst of post-production for his blockbuster spectacle Ready Player One. With Schindler’s List in 1993, Spielberg couldn’t bear the thought of delaying the production of his Holocaust passion project for another year. With The Post, he felt that the story’s resonances with the current political climate were too urgent to wait. Likewise, the trailer for the 25th anniversary rerelease of Schindler’s List rings with the words “Now more than ever”.

By 1993, Schindler’s List had been on Spielberg’s desk for a decade. He was first given a copy of Thomas Keneally’s book after completing ET the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982. Keneally’s book is a novelized version of a true story: how a German industrialist and Nazi named Oskar Schindler managed to save 1,200 Jews from transportation to concentration camps. It’s a gruelling tale, and Schindler is not a conventional hero. He sets out as a profiteer, buying a former Jewish business in the Kraków ghetto, and exploiting Jewish labour to make enamelware to sell to the German army. As the war continues, Schindler can no longer stomach the regime and is moved to save a group of Polish Jews from the gas chambers. It’s a brave and righteous act, but one that pales in comparison to the scope of the Nazi atrocity. Nevertheless, a title card at the end of Spielberg’s adaptation informs that in 1993, as a result of the Shoah, there were only 4,000 Jews living in Poland, but around the world, there were more than 6,000 descendants of the Jews saved by Schindler. As is also shown in the film, the men and women that Schindler protected present him with a ring inscribed with words from the Talmud: “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”

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Modern Medicine and the Great War Smithsonian Exhibit Till Feb 2019!

Nov 19, 2018

The Smithsonian has a super exhibit running from April 6, 2017 to February 3, 2019 about Modern Medicine and the Great War

This display explores the ways medicine was applied on the battlefield as well as highlighting important wartime advances in medical science. World War I provided a testing ground for the application of new medical technologies and procedures and, in some cases, accelerated their general acceptance or development in a much wider context. Simultaneously, wartime medical practice reflected the larger concerns and prejudices of early 20th century America as the country coped with the ever-changing complexities of modern industrial society.

About the Artifact Walls

Artifact walls, consisting of 275 linear feet of glass-fronted cases lining the central first and second floors, highlight the depth and breadth of the collections. They reflect the Museum’s core mission to collect, study, and exhibit objects from our nation’s rich and diverse history. This display is one of the special cases that highlight anniversaries, views into the collections, and research findings.

In April 1917 the United States entered a world war that had already claimed millions of lives and left millions more disabled by wounds or disease.

Health and fitness were central to building a strong military force, and sick and wounded soldiers required treatment to return them to the fight. The task ahead was enormous, but developments in science-based medicine—such as identifying microorganisms as the cause of diseases and developing sterile surgical procedures—gave medical practice increased prestige. Armed with new technologies and scientific methods, medical leaders were confident that health could be measured, disease prevented, and wounded bodies restored.

The war would put these ideas to the test on an unprecedented scale and under the most difficult conditions. Medical practices developed during the war changed the country’s approach to health care in ways that continue to affect us today.