Peter Feng writes: We see Schindler going to the Nazi bureaucracy, INSISTING that he must have these particular women back. The Nazis respond, any other women can do the work. And if we are to accept Schindler as humanitarian, then we must wonder whether it is important that Schindler saves any Jews, any specific number of Jews, or these particular Jews. (I suppose it could be argued that these particular women are important because they are related to the particular men who have already been saved... but that argument has its own problematic and perhaps offensive dimensions.) In response: It is a problematic moment that you cite, but perhaps the point being made is that Schindler had pretty much promised these particular women (who had been working for him for quite a while) that they would be safe in Czechoslovakia, thus making the rerouting to Auschwitz even more horrifying. In actuality, the situation was even more complicated, since the trainload of male workers had also been rerouted to a (different) death camp. The situation with the children was still more complex. This is all detailed in the BBC documentary SCHINDLER, from the 1980s, which was making the rounds of the independent tv stations close to Oscar time. It too took a lot from Kenneally's book, though it purports to be fact, where the book is a novel. All of this raises interesting questions about the relationship between history, fiction and "truth." BTW, I was glancing the other day at Nikki Giovanni's book of essays, RACISM 101, in which she rips apart Lee's MALCOLM X and imagines her own vision of such a film project. Some of her criticisms are on the mark, some at least arguable and one at least is off the wall: She cites the scene toward the end with school children evoking Malcolm's name and creeds to note that we (the audience? blacks?) don't need a "doofus" school teacher to bring the point home. That may or may not be true, but this talented and articulate African American writer somehow neglected to see that the "doofus" in question was actually Nelson Mandela!