A businessman goes to Poland to make money in the war — but he ends up saving many lives instead. Most of this story is true.
Want more detail? Read this lesson at B2/C1 level →
These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = B (a factory) · 2 = A (a worker) · 3 = D (a list) · 4 = E (to hide)
5 = F (danger) · 6 = C (brave) · 7 = G (to save) · 8 = H (a promise)
Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993). This is a true story about the Holocaust, so we tell it carefully and with respect. Read each part, try the questions from memory, then talk about it. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
In 1939, a German businessman called Oskar Schindler travelled to Poland during the war. He was a member of the Nazi Party, but mostly because it helped his business. In the city of Kraków, he opened a factory that made metal pots and pans. He needed cheap workers, so he gave jobs to Jewish people from the city. At first, Schindler only cared about making money. He was friendly with important officials and gave them gifts and parties.
One of his workers was Itzhak Stern, a careful Jewish accountant. Stern managed the factory's money. He quietly tried to help other workers, and slowly, he began to change the way Schindler thought.
1. Why did Schindler go to Poland, and what did his factory make?
2. Who was Itzhak Stern?
1. He went to make money during the war. His factory made metal pots and pans.
2. He was a Jewish accountant who worked for Schindler and quietly helped other workers.
Life became much worse for the Jewish people of Kraków. Many were forced to move to a hard labour camp called Płaszów. The officer in charge, Amon Göth, was very cruel. Schindler saw some of this with his own eyes, and it changed him. He understood, for the first time, how terrible the situation really was.
Schindler began to help his workers. He paid officials money — he bribed them — so his workers could stay and work in his factory instead of going to the camp. It started small, but Schindler did more and more to protect them.
1. What happened to many Jewish people in Kraków?
2. What did Schindler start to do for his workers?
1. Many were sent to a hard labour camp called Płaszów, run by a cruel officer, Amon Göth.
2. He paid officials so his workers could stay in his factory, safe from the camp.
As the war got closer to ending, Schindler made a big decision. He moved his workers to a new, safer factory, far from the danger. To do this, he and Stern wrote a list of names — the workers who could go with him. This became known as "Schindler's list." He spent almost all his money on bribes to make this happen.
When the war ended, Schindler had to run away, because he was a member of the Nazi Party. Before he left, his workers gave him a special ring. It had words from Jewish tradition written inside it: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." About 1,100 people from that list survived the war.
1. What was "Schindler's list"?
2. What did the workers give Schindler, and what did it say?
1. It was a list of workers' names that let them move to a safer factory instead of a camp.
2. They gave him a ring with words meaning that saving one life is like saving the whole world.
This is a true story about the past, so we need the past simple to tell it. Some verbs are regular, and some are irregular.
Read the verb in brackets and write the correct past form.
1. Schindler (open) a factory in Kraków. (regular)
2. He (see) how bad the situation really was. (irregular)
3. Stern (help) many workers quietly. (regular)
1. opened (regular, +ed)
2. saw (irregular)
3. helped (regular, +ed)
Put the verb in brackets into the past simple. Then read it out loud.
1. Schindler and Stern (write) a list of names.
2. The workers (give) Schindler a ring.
3. Around 1,100 people (survive) the war.
1. wrote (irregular)
2. gave (irregular)
3. survived (regular, +ed)
Fill each gap with the past simple form of the verb. Read it aloud when you finish.
Schindler (come) to Poland to make money. He (employ) Jewish workers in his factory. Later, he (spend) all his money to save them, and around 1,100 people (live) because of him.
came · employed · spent · lived
Notice: come → came and spend → spent are irregular; employ → employed and live → lived are regular.
Yes — most of this film is based on real people and real events. It comes from a true book by Thomas Keneally, called Schindler's Ark, written in 1982.
Oskar Schindler was a real person. He really did run a factory in Kraków and gave jobs to Jewish workers. As the war got worse, he really did spend almost all his money to move about 1,100 workers to a safer factory, saving their lives. These survivors became known as the Schindlerjuden — the "Schindler Jews."
It is important to know that Schindler was not a perfect man. He was a member of the Nazi Party, and he first went to Poland just to make money. This makes what he did later even more surprising and important.
Amon Göth, the cruel camp officer in the film, was real too. After the war, a Polish court found him guilty of terrible crimes. He was executed in 1946.
In 1993, Israel's Yad Vashem organisation gave Oskar Schindler and his wife Emilie a special honour: "Righteous Among the Nations," given to non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save Jews. Schindler died in 1974, and he is buried in Jerusalem.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Schindler's List in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a businessman goes to Poland to make money → he sees how bad the situation really is → he starts to protect his workers → he spends his money and writes a list to save them → about 1,100 people survive.
Try to use some key words (factory, worker, list, hide, danger, brave, save, promise) and the past simple.
Schindler started only wanting money, but later he saved many lives. Do you think the reason someone helps matters, or only that they helped? Say why.
Talk about being brave and helping other people.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: