Spielberg reveals lasting impact of 'Schindler's List' on his life
May 1, 2003
By Cathleen Falsani, Religion Reporter
Photo: Michael L. Abramson

Steven Spielberg says his Oscar-winning 1993 Holocaust film, "Schindler's List,'' has deepened his faith and made it difficult for him to tell any other stories on film.

"Every movie I've made since "Schindler's List'' has not come close to fulfilling me the way that experience fulfilled me and continues to through the Shoah Foundation," the director said Wednesday.

Spielberg was in town to accept the 2003 Peacemakers award from Chicago's Catholic Theological Union on behalf of his organization, the Shoah Foundation, which has videotaped the testimonies of more than 52,000 Holocaust survivors. Tuesday was Yom Hashoah, the international Holocaust memorial day.

" 'Schindler's List' was one of the most incredible stories that was ever told to me. . . . Stories come and go, and I've told them and moved on to tell another. I was not prepared for this story to have such staying power in my personal life, and for this story sort of consuming me with a passion I have never had before in my real life."

While Spielberg insists he can still be passionate as a filmmaker--he cites "Saving Private Ryan,'' a tribute to his father's generation, as a prime example--the Holocaust film caused him to devote his life to the cause of making sure history doesn't repeat itself.

"One person can make a difference. Not an army of people. A single person can make a difference, he said, referring to the story of Oskar Schindler, an Austrian Catholic industrialist who saved more than 1,100 Jews employed in his factory from extermination by the Nazis. "It certainly empowers young people and gives them a mission in their lives to never let anything like this happen again if it's within their power."

The Rev. Donald Senior, president of Catholic Theological Union, said his seminary chose to honor Spielberg and the Shoah Foundation because they are "lifting up the values of reconciliation, human understanding and human justice."

Past winners include Nobel laureate John Hume of Northern Ireland and Queen Noor of Jordan.

The Shoah Foundation is editing and digitizing tens of thousands of interviews with Jewish, homosexual and Jehovah's Witness survivors of the Holocaust, as well as political prisoners, rescuers and liberation witnesses from Nazi death camps. The foundation plans to make the videotaped testimonies available in schools and hopes it will be used in teaching tolerance across the nation.

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