Steven Spielberg's powerful film attempts to offer an emotional catharsis worthy of the immense human catastrophe that afflicted European Jews during World War II. This honest, unflinching movie won innumerable awards, including Hollywood's Best Picture and Best Director. Such credits throughout the world testified to the subject's relevance a full half-century after the events shown in the movie had occurred.

Based on the amazing story of a Czech-born German businessman named Oskar Schindler, as told in Thomas Keneally's novel, Schindler's Ark, the film closely follows the ordeal of the Jews of Krakow, Poland. The film focuses on the thousands of Jews who died in Nazi extermination camps, part of the Holocaust that claimed six million Jews and millions more deemed "subhuman" by Nazi leaders. Schindler's List demonstrates the importance of individual moral choice, even in times of utter darkness.

After a brief opening of Hebrew Sabbath prayer, the movie cuts to the arrival of Nazi soldiers in Poland in September 1939. Bewildered Jews from around the country appear before Nazi officials, who are compiling lists of Jewish names who will become their victims.

The movie shifts to a well-dressed man preparing for a night on the town who pins a Nazi Party swastika insignia on his lapel. Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson) is also a newcomer to Krakow, a man on the make who hopes to take advantage of the thriving war economy. He wines and dines with Nazi leaders to gain profitable war contracts, even those that exploit Jewish slave labor.

As anxious Jews are forced from their homes to make way for Nazi officers, Schindler enters the packed office of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) and calls for Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), arousing fear as well as curiosity among the nervous onlookers. Schindler takes the former accountant aside and explains his need for Jewish investors and Jewish workers to establish an enamel-ware factory to produce military mess kits. "I'm sure you'll do just fine once you get the contracts," says Stern. "In fact, the worse things get, the better you will do."

By March 1941, the Nazis order all Jews in Krakow to move into a ghetto. As German soldiers force one family to leave their apartment, a Polish neighbor shouts, "Goodbye Jews!" Schindler occupies the abandoned apartment. Soon after, Stern arranges for the profiteer to meet with Jewish investors. After they reach agreement, Schindler asks Stern to recruit Jewish workers because they are cheaper than Poles. The accountant takes the opportunity to find so-called "non-essential" unskilled workers who otherwise the Nazis would transfer to death camps.

Schindler proceeds to develop a thriving black market trade in luxury items that he uses to bribe and beguile the Nazi rulers, enabling his factory to prosper. When Schindler's wife arrives, he interrupts an adulterous affair to boast about how successful he is in business. He appears indifferent to the fact that Stern's employment practices are saving the lives of Jewish workers.

As Nazi atrocities increase, Stern is caught in a roundup and heading to a concentration camp. Schindler rescues his valued worker, scolding Stern for imperiling his business. As they leave the station, the camera focuses on huge piles of confiscated personal property, including eyeglasses, clothing, and jewelry.

The Germans open a labor camp at Plaszow under S.S. officer Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), worsening the crisis for the Jews. Goeth is cruel, merciless, and random in inflicting pain. He boasts that 600 years of Jewish history in Krakow is about to end.

In March 1943, Goeth presides over the violent destruction of the Jewish ghetto. Observing the horror from a distance, Schindler sees a little girl, colorized red in the black and white movie, as she moves past lines of terrorized Jews, slips into a vacant building, and hides under a bed. For the first time, Schindler shows signs of distress.

The nightmare shifts to the Plaszow labor camp where Goeth randomly kills the inmates. Schindler tells him that the camp has taken away his labor force, imperiling his company. In exchange for expensive "gifts," the commandant agrees to allow Schindler to take back his workers. Although Goeth continues to torment Jews, bribes from Schindler snatch victims into the safety of his factory.

Schindler also begins to exhibit interest in Jews as individuals, including Goeth's servant Helen Hirsch (Embeth Davidtz). His kindness contrasts with Goeth's sadism. He dares to kiss a Jewish woman in front of Nazi officers.

Jewish inmates face arbitrary selections, determining who shall live or die. Those chosen for extermination are locked in cattle cars in brutal heat. Schindler persuades Nazi guards to spray the cars from water hoses, providing slight comfort for the victims. Such gestures lead to his arrest, but Schindler's connections gain his release.

With the war going badly for Germany, authorities order the exhumation of bodies and their cremation to destroy evidence of mass murder. Schindler realizes that the war is coming to an end along with his business success.

This realization finally transforms Schindler's behavior. Instead of simply going to home to Brinnlitz, Czechoslovakia with his wealth, he decides to save as many Jews as possible. He convinces Goeth to allow him to transport his workers to a munitions factory. Now Stern must compile a list of those who will be saved: Schindler's List. They number 1,100 people, including Helen Hirsch.

The journey to Brinnlitz is not easy. A trainload of women and girls is diverted to the Auschwitz death camp, but Schindler intervenes to rescue them. The new factory becomes a haven for Schindler's Jews, even as he sabotages the machinery so that no functional munitions can be made. The business becomes "a model of non-production." The flamboyant Schindler goes bankrupt.

A radio broadcast informs the workers that the war in Europe has ended. At this historical turning point, Schindler speaks to all the workers and guards. He urges the soldiers to ignore previous orders and not shoot the Jews, so that they can go home "as men and not as murderers."

Schindler does not exempt himself from the verdict of history: "I'm a member of the Nazi Party. I'm a munitions manufacturer. I'm a profiteer of slave labor. I am a criminal. At midnight, you'll be free and I'll be hunted."

The Jewish workers insist on acknowledging their gratitude, giving him a gold ring (made from a worker's teeth) inscribed, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." Schindler collapses with guilt for all the Jews he could have saved but did not. The Jewish survivors also give him a letter explaining to outsiders all his good deeds. And then, dressed in prisoners' uniforms, Schindler and his wife depart.

A concluding caption explains that surviving Jews have honored Schindler by electing him as "a righteous person." The film then dissolves into color and shows the surviving "Schindler Jews" visiting Oskar Schindler's grave (he died in 1974), each pausing to place a commemorating stone on his memorial plaque. A caption says that there are over 6,000 living descendants of Schindler's Jews.

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