Secular Sainthood - Tom Keneally’s Oskar Schindler

Abstract

This short paper will attempt to demonstrate that the fictional Oskar Schindler is a problematic protagonist. The paper will argue against the claim of the narrator: When you look at other events of that mad winter, you can see that Oskar wanted the extra thirty [prisoners] not because they were an extra thirty. It is not too fantastic to say that he desired them with some of the absolute passion that characterised the exposed and flaming heart of the Jesus that hung on Emilie's wall. (Schindler's Ark 351).