THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702210095
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 104 lines
IT WAS SURELY destiny 17 years ago when author Thomas Keneally walked into Paul Page's shop of imported fine leather goods in Los Angeles, looking to replace his worn briefcase.
While the men waited for Keneally's credit card company to approve the purchase, Page told him the remarkable story of a tall, handsome, flamboyant German businessman named Oskar Schindler - and how he had saved hundreds of Jews from the gas chambers.
Page's accounts of the Holocaust formed the basis for Keneally's book, ``Schindler's List,'' which evolved into an epic film produced in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, who also directed.
Tonight on NBC, ``Schindler's List'' will be seen starting at 7:30 with a limited number of commercials from the sponsor, Ford Motor Co. Spielberg plans to address viewers before and after the movie regarding the Shoah Foundation for Holocaust Survivors.
Page, who survived the horrors of the Nazi purge with his wife, Ludmilla, because they were on that precious list of Schindler's, had been trying for years to interest writers in the story now known to millions. Some asked to be paid to write it. Imagine that.
Keneally was different, Page said from Los Angeles where, at age 84, he still puts in a full day's work at the leather shop. Keneally knew a great story when he heard it.
``He fell in love with our story,'' said Page, whose name was Poldek Pfefferberg when the Nazis overran Europe in World War II and condemned the Jews to genocide.
Spielberg cast Liam Neeson as Schindler, a profiteer, opportunist and member of the Nazi party who at first exploited Jewish slave labor and then yielded his fortune to save 1,100 Jews from torture, starvation and death. A good choice, Page said of the casting of Neeson as Schindler.
``He was Oskar, from how he wore his double-breasted suits to how he moved to his magnetic voice. When I see him, I see Oskar,'' said Page. ``Oskar protected those of us who worked in his factories. That cost him every penny he had. In the end, he became a pauper with not even a quarter to his name.''
Once Schindler committed himself to saving the Jews who worked for him, it took bribes to keep the Nazis from carrying the Schindlerjuden to slave-labor camps or the gas chambers. These safe havens were set up first in Krakow in the Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik enamelware factory, making mess kits early in the war, and later farther west to Brinnlitz, where the Jews made artillery shells. And, always, it was Schindler bargaining with the Nazis in cash or diamonds or items from the black market such as cognac and nylons to save the Jews from Auschwitz.
Schindler was always there, dressed splendidly in well-cut suits and shirts with French cuffs, to tell the Nazis, ``I'll compensate you.''
He asked what each life was worth - how much it would take to add a name to Schindler's list of factory workers.
The list is life, Ben Kingsley, as accountant Itzhak Stern, says to Schindler as he types the names on an Underwood. The click, click, click is the sound of life.
Spielberg's film, which won seven Academy Awards, including Oscars for best picture and best director, is at times difficult to watch, because he does not shield audiences from the Nazi atrocities. Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) is the camp commander with the high-powered rifle who shoots prisoners for sport while Schindler bargains with him for more workers.
As terrible as these scenes are in ``Schindler's List,'' they only hint at the real nightmares. ``You cannot put on the screen all of what I have seen,'' said Page. ``Nobody could bear to watch.''
His character stands out in the film, set in the ghetto of Krakow, Poland, where Schindler's factory still stands. Page is played by Jonathan Segalle. You will see him, as Poldek Pferrerberg, fleeing the Germans in Krakow's sewers and then coming face to face with the troops who were emptying or ``liquidating'' the ghetto in March 1943 as the Nazis' ``final solution'' intensified.
He decided to play good soldier, clicking his heels and saluting as he cleared away luggage in the path of the German troops.
``Herr Commandant. I respectfully report to you that I had received an order to put all the bundles together to one side of the road so that there will be no obstruction of the thoroughfare.''
The SS officers were amused by Pfefferberg - so amused that they did not shoot him on the spot. But they beat him. ``I was whipped,'' he said.
That beating is not in the film, which NBC says will have minimal editing for TV and, therefore, is expected to carry the TV-M rating - may be unsuitable for children under 17. This film is definitely unsuitable - much too intense - for young children.
Also not in the picture is the moment in the Krakow Jewish Quarter that Page remembers as if it happened an hour ago.
``I saw an SS man take a child of 2 or 3 by the legs and smash the child's head against a wall. Then he shot the screaming mother. There were the dogs tearing the people apart,'' said Page. He still recalls how the boots and riding breeches of the SS men were splashed in blood.
``Schindler's List'' is a long film for which NBC has arranged two intermissions.
In the finale, Spielberg shows 128 of the survivors, including the Pages, visiting Schindler's grave in Jerusalem, where years ago a tree was planted in his honor on the Avenue of the Righteous. He died in 1974. He was buried in Jerusalem, according to his wishes.
Not covered in the film are the final 20 years of Schindler's life - his time as a farmer in Argentina, his life in Frankfurt as the owner of a cement factory, his efforts in pursuit of war criminals, his work with the German Friends of Hebrew University.
``When he died,'' said Keneally in the epilogue of his book, ``Oskar Schindler was mourned on every continent.'' ILLUSTRATION: MCA/UNIVERSAL
Ben Kingsley plays Itzhak Stern, the Jewish accountant of Oskar
Schindler, in "Schlinder's List" at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on NBC.