Personal thanks to Mr. Spielberg

Rating: 10/10 (29 May 2002)

Mr. Spielberg: Thank you. "Schindler's List" is certainly more than a motion picture masterpiece. To simply attach adjectives leaves me unfulfilled, so I am compelled to leave this offering:
As a 40-year old American Protestant man, my only personal connection to the holocaust is my father's distinguished military service in during WWII.
Like so many young men in the early 1940's, my dad answered the call and joined the army in a rush of patriotism. He arrived in Europe armed only with basic training and the gear thrown on his back. He returned two years later as a decorated veteran and moved on with his life. Marriage and family and many years of hard work followed.
Through my childhood in the 1960's, the war was in the past and rarely spoken of. The medals he earned and the black and white photos he brought back from his tour of duty did most of the talkingbut only when they were pulled from their closet storage box. I spent hours looking at the pictures. Smiling soldiers, posing with their guns and tanks, or with civilians. A few showed marching columns of German prisoners. Some had smoke rising in the distance, indicating where the "action" was, or had been. But for the most part, they were innocent snapshots taken during the war's quiet moments.
The photos captured my imagination and gave my own feelings of patriotism a foundation. But I always sensed there were more pictures, the ones not taken with a camera. There must have been many images captured and stored only in my father's memories. As I grew up and learned more about the war, that sense became a certainty. Beyond acknowledgment, however, dad wasn't one to offer details of the war's darker experiences, and curiosity could never overcome my reluctance to ask about them.
He passed away in 1993.
What "Schindler's List" has given me, in addition to a phenomenal movie experience, is a glimpse at the images that my father didn't capture with his still camera. And those that he did capture have changed. The soldiers' smiles are different somehow. The poses aren't as carefree as they seemed to be years ago. The snapshots have lost much of their innocence.
Did "Schindler's List" do all of this? No. Age and education change perspective more than any movie. But the film certainly played a part, and it serves as a reminder with each viewing.
And for that, Mr. Spielbergmy thanks.