Witness - Franciszek Palowski

This book is a moving testament to the making of an exceptional movie. It is also a unique insight into how Spielberg makes his momovies, illustrating the care and the detail which he employs to achieve authenticity. When Schindler's List was released in 1993 it was acclaimed as both a motion picture masterpiece and a reaffirmation of the human spirit. In 1994 it had 12 academy award nominations and won in 7 categories including Best Picture and Best director. This book isthe moving story of how Steven Spielberg spent 10 years bringing the Thomas Keneally's winning novel Schindler's Ark to the screen. Written by Franciszek Powleski - guide, interpreter and consultant on the 1989 Booker prize movie from Spielberg's 1st research visit to Poland in 1992 - it is part diary, part chronicle of the massive undertaking in bringing the story to the screen, and part witness to the responsiblity of telling the traumatic stories of the Schindler jews who are still alive today. The author acted as coordinator of the 1300 Schindler Jews who travelled from all over the world to participate in re-telling the wartime events. Leopold Pfefferberg who 1st inspire Thomas Keneally to write Schindler's story supplied the photographs which served as a model for recreating the past and many reproduced in this book for the 1st time.