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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. By midsummer of 1940, how many people were employed at Schindler's Emalia plant?

2. How many women did Schindler estimate were to live in each barracks in Plaszow?

3. In Chapter 11, who does Schindler name as the plant manager of DEF?

4. What is the name of Schindler's wife?

5. What restaurant did the ZOB bomb?

Short Essay Questions

1. In an ironic twist, Amon Goeth is arrested in Chapter 31, not for crimes against the prisoners, but for embezzlement. To some of the prisoners, though, like Helen Hirsch and Mietek Pemper, this was worse than a more serious charge. Why?

2. While Titsch does not join Oskar's facory, he does help him add names to the list before it is finalized. Personnel clerk Marcel Goldberg, however, then commences to "tinker" with the names. Based on what you've read in the book, what did Goldberg gain from this tinkering?

3. Henry Rosner recalls that, even after the war, Oskar was the "great discoverer of unprocurables." What did he obtain in Munich that seemingly no one else could obtain?

4. Describe Oskar Schindler's physical appearance.

5. In the Prologue, Keneally describes "a prison road paved with Jewish gravestones." Discuss the symbolism of this image.

6. What does Keneally's initial description of Oskar Schindler tell you about the man?

7. The funeral pyres described in Chapter 27 signal the beginning of the end for Plaszow, yet there is no description of any panic or worry on the part of the prisoners. Having read the descriptions of the prisoners to this point, explain why you think this is so.

8. Unlike the secret pictures taken by Babar in Chapter 25, Raimund Titsch took rolls of photographs with Goeth's knowledge. In fact, many of them were of Goeth, as well as Goeth's girlfriend Majola. What does the fact that Goeth allowed this tell you about him?

9. Oskar Schindler, a man very much like his father, apparently married a woman very much like his mother. What reason does Keneally give for Oskar's decision to marry Emilie?

10. In the midst of a concentration camp, Josef Bau meets, falls in love with, and decides to marry Rebecca Tannenbaum. Based on what you know from the book to this point, why do you think Josef did this, when either of their lives could end at any moment?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the Prologue, Goeth and his dinner partners laugh at the image of Oskar in a military uniform, and in Chapter 1 there is only the briefest mention of his military service, and the statement that he abhorred it mostly on the grounds of discomfort. Do you think, then, that Oskar was a combatant during the war? Was his ownership of DEF "military service"? If so, for which side? He did, after all, manufacture enamelware for the German troops.

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 15, Keneally contrasts a scene of brutal killing against a scene of Red Genia's survival. Describe your thoughts not only on the scenes themselves, but why Keneally juxtaposed them together in this way.

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 2, Oskar Schindler befriends Itzhak Stern, and puts in motion the process of buying and running the Rekord factory. Choose one of the following to write about. Be sure to explain your answers, using at least one reference from the book.

1. Do you think Oskar Schindler was already entertaining the idea of sheltering Jews in his factory by the end of Chapter 2? Why or why not? Are there instances in Chapters 3-5 that support your opinion? If so, what are they?

2. If Oskar Schindler were experiencing cognitive dissonance over the persecution of the Jews, why do you think he would buy an entire factory in which to shelter them? Couldn't he do something less risky, like carry messages in his travels? Explain why you think Oskar Schindler chose this path.

3. At the end of Chapter 2, Stern refers to a Talmudic verse, and believes that quoting that verse made a difference in Oskar's eventual actions. What was that verse, and why do you think it could have made a difference? At this point in the book, Schindler has never saved anyone, he's a member of the German occupation and not a Jew. What possible benefit could he have seen from embarking on buying a factory and filling it with Jews? And how does that action tie in with Stern's reference?

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