Searching for Schindler

Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally

Here is another example of how a movie I saw many years ago has influenced or motivated me to locate more information about the subject of the movie. Ever since I saw Schindler's List, the Steven Spielberg masterpiece, I have not only read the book on which the movie is based, but I have read several other books about this amazing story.

The original story, Schindler's List or Schindler's Ark (Keneally's original title), is a phenomenal piece of literature. Ironically, and I remember wondering about this when I first read the book, it is classified as fiction. If you want to know the reason for this classification, you should pick up this book, Searching for Schindler. This is the story about how an Australian writer, Keneally, learned about this Nazi opportunist, researched his story, and interviewed many of the Schindler Juden throughout the world.

Thomas Keneally met Leopold “Poldek” Pfefferberg, the owner of a Beverly Hills luggage shop, in 1981 when he was searching for a new briefcase. Poldek, a Polish Jew and a Holocaust survivor, had a tale he wanted the world to know. The phenomenal success of the book and the film all hinges on this charming, charismatic, and persistent luggage shop owner in Beverly Hills. Poldek convinced Keneally to relate the incredible story of the all-drinking, womanizing, all-black-marketeering Nazi, Oskar Schindler. In spite of these "character flaws", Poldek states, "to me he was Jesus Christ.”

Searching for Schindler is the engrossing chronicle of Keneally’s pursuit of one of history’s most fascinating and paradoxical heroes. Any fan of the book or the movie will enjoy reading about the back story.