Schindler's Ark - Thomas Kenneally

I always feel uneasy reading books on the Holocaust, World War II, the aftermath of the crimes of war for example. Schindler's Ark was one of them. A true story, this book was published as a memoir of Oskar Schindler and also corroborated with accounts from all the people he helped. I started this book early in March but it took me a whole six months before i could finally manage to power through the horrors of the Holocaust that are mentioned in this book.

To refer to my favorite trope (as mentioned in my previous blog post) I have positively compared both the books and the movie and I am strongly of the opinion that the book was way better. The movie glorified the genius of Oskar Schindler, his killer charm, his stomach for strong spirits and the undeniable businessman who came to Krakow to make a few quick bucks in business. The movies have painted him as a savior, an unblemished entity that protects them from the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi oppression. In reality however, Schindler was a deeply flawed character, a man with vices, a morally grey character, who used the grey just to provide for his numerous Jews so that they could not succumb to the cruelty of the Holocaust. He ate and drank with numerous Gestapo, just so that he could grease their hands well with gifts to provide for him special treatment and to overlook his practices in better treatment of the Jews in his Enamel Factory.

This book and the movie both were heartrending, heart wrenching, heart grating........

Honestly I have no idea how I powered through the book. The amount of cruelty, the sheer ruthlessness of the SS, the callousness with which people were being killed, the justification that was given to the public, all these were too much for me to handle at a stretch. I literally had to pause every few pages to pull myself back to the present, just so my digestion would restart. 

In an ideal world I would suggest only people who are interested in the History of WW2 to read this book but as we see in the present scenario, the prevalence of Holocaust deniers is on the rise, hence I would urge everyone to read this book and marvel in the premise of how such a horrible situation brings out the best out of the most unlikely of people.

As far as the movie is concerned 10/10 would recommend everyone to watch it. A movie simply does not feature on the Top 10 of IMDb and not be phenomenal.