The film portrays the devastation of European Jewry and its communities. How life fragments could hang in the balance of one German soldier or another. It is not a picture of an isolated pogrom in Russia or Poland. Instead, it is a film attesting to Hitler's program for the "final solution" of European Jewry. Yet in the middle of this chaos, Spielberg builds up a personality of an exceptional magnitude. And thanks to such courage and individual fortitude, it is clear that humanity has not completely lost all remnants of dignity. Spielberg, a Jew himself, whose parents are European in origin, felt compelled to show that humanity can still cling to hope, that evil can be overcome if one has the courage to try. Trying to fight under unjust conditions like the Holocaust requires a substantially stronger moral fiber of heroism than most people possess. One who possessed this courage was Oskar Schindler.
Schindler is a righteous Gentile who made a decision to help Jews escape death and was prepared to risk his own life in order to save the life of a Jew. He negotiated with German officers to help Jews even though he was of a different nationality, social and religious background. Schindler's personal life did not seem like one that could rise above his own mundane pleasure and yet he was able to assume a role of the likes of Raoul Wallenberg and other righteous individuals. What is most astonishing is how Spielberg, the director, was able to show the transformation of Schindler from a womanizer and a common businessman into a remarkable man who outwitted the Germans and saved countless lives from perishing in the gas chambers. Spielberg was successful in showing how Schindler evolved from being a war profiteer, with a flair for showmanship and grand courage for bribery, to helping hundreds if not thousands of Jews escape certain death.
Schindler spent millions helping save Jews. He died penniless. But his good deeds in his lifetime earned him the financial support of those he saved in his dying years and a place among the righteous for eternity.