AUTHOR: Thomas Keneally
PUBLISHED: 1982
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: History
PREMISE: In WWII a man puts together a refuge for Jewish people in Germany.
MY REVIEW: Full disclosure: I have never seen the movie Schindler's List. I've heard the beautiful soundtrack. But I've never seen the movie. I might be rectifying that in the future because this was fascinating. It was also maddening as it went into all the reasoning Germans had for allowing Hitler to do his bs. Personally, I'm seeing a lot of parallels between pre-WWII German attitudes and the US right now. Which is really scary to me.
This is not for the faint of heart. Keneally does not shy away from the horrors inflicted upon the Jewish people. If you want a sugar-coated version of WWII, this is not going to be your book. I also appreciate that Keneally did not try to make Schindler out to be a saint. The book is matter of fact about how this was not really started out of some altruistic motive (though it may have ended up that way).
This is just a fascinating bit of history. I also highly recommend the audiobook, which is narrated by Ben Kingsley. That's how I read it and I found that easier to get through then the physical book which has a lot of blocky dense text.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of The Book Thief, those who have only seen the movie, WWII history buffs
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five interesting bits of history
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