PERSPECTIVE ON THE HOLOCAUST : When Will Jews Let It Rest? : ‘Schindler’s List’ sanctifies an amoral war profiteer; this is the last straw in the obsession with victimization.

For the life of me I can’t understand what possessed Steven Spielberg to make “Schindler’s List,” to glorify a latter-day Robin Hood who profited at the expense of Polish Jewry.

In brief, this is Oskar Schindler, as depicted in the film, which, being shot almost completely in black and white, conveys the impression of a documentary: Schindler, a failed German businessman, goes to Krakow in 1939 to make his fortune as a supplier of the German army. He takes over a factory that the Nazis have appropriated from the Jewish owners. He persuades Krakow Jews, whose bank accounts are being frozen, to provide him with the capital he needs to start the manufacture of cookware; since they can’t own money, he pays them back in pots and pans. He hires Jews because they are cheaper than Poles. He ingratiates himself with the most vile of the Nazi Establishment to keep his contracts--and his obscene profits--growing.

In his personal life, too, Oskar Schindler is less than heroic, to put it mildly. He indulges in every excess of vanity and sensuality. With a wife back home, he keeps a mistress in Krakow while maintaining a years-long affair with his secretary. He lives like a prince (in a home expropriated from Jews), wears the finest silk suits and jewelry, drives--or is chauffeured--in the most luxurious cars.

All that he has is afforded by the round-the-clock labor of Jews, his virtual slaves. I would call it “Swindler’s List.”

As the movie evolves, Schindler decides to help “his” Jews for one of two reasons: because man also has a soul and he will have to give an accounting to G-d after death; or that he play G-d by saving his worker-victims from the Nazi ovens and make even more profit. We really never know.

In the end--and this I find incredible, almost blasphemous--Jews anoint him a tzadek, a righteous person of great rarity, sending the message: No matter how evil man is, he can change. I don’t think so. Let me explain.

I was a fifth-generation American growing up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in the 1950s. With survivors of the Holocaust all around, it was like living in the Twilight Zone. The butcher had a tattoo number from the Nazi camps, as did the baker and the teacher. Almost everyone had a number. I thought that when you came from Europe you received a number on your hand together with your passport.

I can remember visiting a family and being told by the woman, “How lucky you are, yingela, sonny-boy, that you have a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, uncles, aunts and even grandparents. The only thing I have left from Germany is this!” She shoved her hand with the blue tattoo in front of me.

My teacher, a survivor of the camps, often would start to cry, thinking of the suffering he and his family had experienced. Many of my classmates were from second marriages, with half-brothers and -sisters 10 or 15 years older. Either their father’s or mother’s first spouse had been killed and the survivor had remarried.

In almost every household I visited, the fear of death and persecution persisted. There was hardly a holiday or happy occasion that didn’t end in a funeral speech for the family members who weren’t there. At parties for newborn babies or Bar Mitzvahs, there was always talk about a dead or martyred relative for whom the child was named.

At times I felt like a victim myself for having been born free, healthy and safe in rich America. Survivors of the Holocaust would point to me and say, “Look at this American! How old are you?” I would state my age. “Yes, that’s how old my son would be, but he was killed in the camp.” Others would ask, “How many brothers or sisters do you have?” After I answered, they would say, “Lucky you! Mine were killed before their Bar Mitzvah age.” I became very sensitive to their cries of misery and untold misfortune.

With this in mind, I am wondering why Jews in Hollywood are singing the praises of “Schindler’s List” and its sanctifying of Oskar Schindler. He should be shown for what he was, a war profiteer, an opportunist, a carpetbagger of the worst kind, and not a “righteous Gentile.” Why did he make an effort to save Jews near the end of the war? Was it because he knew that Germany was losing and wanted to have some Jews on his side? Was it because he wanted to outsmart the Germans, or establish himself as a more superior Aryan than the other Germans? What moral awaking occurred in this man driven to play G-d? I really don’t care to know. He went to his grave with the answer.

I understand that for many Jews this film is a sacred cow and nothing bad should be said about it, just as the museums of the Holocaust are considered beyond criticism. However, truly speaking, for young Jewish Americans, these films and museums add nothing but fear. The message is that the world is never a safe place for Jews.

Throughout Jewish history there have been untold catastrophes. Beginning with the enslavement in Egypt, millions of Jewish brothers and sisters were sacrificed; millions more were dispersed; all that they put into building new lives in the diaspora was lost, again and again. Yet there never was a need for museums.

I am sick and tired of this generation identifying Judaism with suffering. Why is it imperative for our children and young people to visit Holocaust museums? Why do they need to hear lectures about skinheads and neo-Nazis and growing anti-Semitism? Why should they see every film about the Holocaust, always portraying Jews as victims running for their lives?

I know what I am talking about. I may not make movies, but I run a school for children. What we should be doing is teaching the richness and everlasting greatness of our noble religion and not the negative experiences.

It is preposterous to think that an American filmmaker can help preserve Judaism by showing a most horrific and pitiful scene of naked Jewish women huddled in the gas chamber. This doesn’t make better Jews, just better-selling movies. If for a moment you think that there is a moral lesson to be learned from “Schindler’s List,” tell it to E.T.

These movies, museums and displays only cause more pain. There is no enlightenment to be gained from seeing Jews as victims over and over again. If anything, it gives Jewish young adults further reason to think they should assimilate. “Why be Jewish?” they ask after viewing such material.

“Schindler’s List” is expected to make millions for its producers. If only this money were channeled into building Jewish schools and rehabilitating the children and grandchildren of Holocaust victims, then it would make some sense.

What is sincerely needed is a commitment to end all negative portrayals of Jews. What is needed is for Jews, first of all, to say to Steven Spielberg and anyone else tempted to present Jews as victims and call it entertainment: Dayeno! Enough!