 First edition cover | |
| Author | Thomas Keneally |
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| Language | English |
| Genre | Biographical novel |
| Publisher | Hodder and Stoughton |
Publication date | 18 October 1982 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover andPaperback) |
| Pages | 380 pp (hardcover edition) |
| Awards | Booker Prize 1982 |
| ISBN | 0-340-27838-2 (hardcover edition) |
| OCLC | 8994901 |
| Preceded by | The Cut-Rate Kingdom |
| Followed by | A Family Madness |
Schindler's Ark is a historical fiction published in 1982 by the Australian novelistThomas Keneally. It is based on the fictionalized story of the historical figure, Oskar Schindler. The United States edition of the book was titledSchindler's List; it was later reissued inCommonwealth countries under that name as well. The novel won theBooker Prize,[1] aliterary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, and was awarded theLos Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction in 1983.[2]
The book tells the story ofOskar Schindler, a member of theNazi Party who becomes an unlikely hero by saving the lives of 1,200Jews duringthe Holocaust. It follows actual people and events, with fictional dialogue and scenes added by the author where exact details are unknown.[3] Keneally wrote a number of well-received novels before and afterSchindler's Ark; however, in the wake of its highly successful1993 film adaptation directed by directorSteven Spielberg, it has since gone on to become his most well-known and celebrated work.[4]
In 2022, the novel was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books byCommonwealth authors, selected to celebrate thePlatinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.[5]
Poldek Pfefferberg, aHolocaust survivor andSchindlerjude,[6] inspired Keneally to writeSchindler's Ark. After the war, Pfefferberg had tried on a number of occasions to interest the screenwriters and filmmakers he met through his business in making a film based on the story of Schindler and his efforts to save Polish Jews from the Nazis, as well as arranging several interviews with Schindler for American television.
Keneally's meetings with Pfefferberg and his research and interviews of Schindler's acquaintances are detailed in his 2007 bookSearching for Schindler: A Memoir. In October 1980, Keneally went into Pfefferberg's shop inBeverly Hills to ask about the price of briefcases. Learning that Keneally was a novelist, Pfefferberg showed him his extensive files on Schindler, kept in two cabinets in his back room.[7] After 50 minutes of entreaties, Pfefferberg was able to convince Keneally to write the book. Pfefferberg became an advisor, accompanying Keneally to Poland, where they visitedKraków and other sites associated with the Schindler story. Keneally dedicatedSchindler's Ark to Pfefferberg: "who by zeal and persistence caused this book to be written."
After the publication ofSchindler's Ark in 1982, Pfefferberg worked to persuadeSteven Spielberg to film Keneally's book, using his acquaintance with Spielberg's mother to gain access.
Acarbon copy of Schindler's original 13-page list, initially thought to be lost, was discovered in 2009 in a library in Sydney, Australia.[8]
This novel tells the story ofOskar Schindler, self-made entrepreneur andbon viveur who finds himself saving Polish Jews from the Nazi death machine. Based on numerous eyewitness accounts, Keneally's story takes place withinHitler's attempts to make Europejudenfrei (free of Jews). Schindler is presented as a flawed hero – a drinker, a womaniser and, at first, a profiteer. After the war, he was commemorated asRighteous Among the Nations by theYad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but was never seen as a conventionally virtuous character.[9] The story is not only Schindler's, it is the story ofKraków's Ghetto and the forced labour camp outside town,Płaszów, and ofAmon Göth, Płaszów's commandant.[10]
His wifeEmilie Schindler later 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 failed and he separated from his wife. He ended up living a sparse life in a small flat inFrankfurt. Eventually he arranged to live part of the year inIsrael, supported by his Jewish friends, and part of the year in Frankfurt, where he was often hissed at in the streets as a traitor to his "race". After 29 unexceptional postwar years, he died in 1974. He was buried in Jerusalem, as he wished, with the help of his old friend Pfefferberg.
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