SACRAMENTO -- Jessica Gildersleeve-Fong figures she was old
enough. But just barely. She was 14 when she first watched
"I guess I was old enough," she says. But she found it hard to
watch, as do most viewers of any age.
"It was really moving. But I thought it was kind of bloody,"
says Gildersleeve-Fong, now 15 and in the ninth-grade at Kennedy
High School. Watching was strictly her choice. She wanted to see it
after visiting the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington,
D.C., on vacation. She saw the video alone at home last year.
"I think younger kids shouldn't watch it. I think you need to be
older to really appreciate it," she says.
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Every parent will have to decide how old is old enough when
"Schindler's List" airs Sunday night from 6:30 to 10 on NBC
[Channel 2 in Tulsa]. The 1993 movie graphically depicts the
horrors of the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews perished. At what
Most experts say that some sixth-graders, at 11, are mature
enough. They say most middle-school kids -- ages 12 and 13 -- can
watch it, while high school kids are definitely old enough.
Ultimately, though, parents have to decide for themselves. Whatever
the decision, experts stress the importance of watching the movie,
which was rated R when it was released, with your kids.
It's an issue that even Steven Spielberg, who directed the film,
is concerned about. In a brief introduction that will air before
"I want you -- and especially parents -- to know that
'Schindler's List' is more explicit and more graphic than anything
you may have seen before on network television.
"... While every parent should make a judgment for their own
family, I do not personally believe this is a film for the very
young. My younger children, for example, of elementary school age,
have still not seen `Schindler's List.' If they were of high school
age, I would want them to."
The 31/2-hour movie, which won seven Oscars, tells the true
story of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi party member and war profiteer who
saved 1,100 Jews from the death camps during World War II. The film
stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ben Kingsley as the Jewish manager
of Schindler's factory and Ralph Fiennes as a particularly vicious
It is not easy to watch. Jewish prisoners are shot in the head
with a casualness that is stunning. Mothers run after trucks that
carry their children to death. Concentration camp prisoners are
forced to extract gold teeth from dead prisoners.
There is none of the distancing comfort of fiction. But many
feel that history demands that we watch and remember -- and pass on
the difficult lesson to our children.
"I think that kids do need to know what happened," says Rabbi
Reuven Taff of the Mosaic Law congregation in the Arden area. "We
need to sensitize our youth to the fact that these atrocities
occurred. And the film helps to send the message to those who deny
that the Holocaust ever happened that it did occur."
Taff will be watching the movie with his wife and three sons,
In much the same way that "Roots" became a historical event 20
years ago, those who watch "Schindler's List" Sunday may also feel
that they are part of something monumental. NBC expects some 30
million Americans to tune in -- 5 million more people than saw the
movie in U.S. theaters during its initial release. Its impact has
been global -- more than 200 million people around the world have
seen it. It has also become part of the curriculum at many schools.
Videotapes of the film and study guides are already in 25,000
schools and libraries across the country. Close to 2 million high
school students have seen it in free screenings.
The TV version, which will be shown without commercials and will
have two 105 second intermissions, has been cut by less than a
minute, and NBC will not disclose what the trims are. The broadcast
is sponsored entirely by Ford. The film's violence and nudity are
still strong enough for the network to have given the broadcast the
first TV-M rating on commercial television. The rating means it is
not intended for children under 17.
Susan Cosden director of education, for the congregation B'nai
Israel in Land Park, where 310 kids from preschool through high
school receive religious instruction, says some sixth-graders may
be able to handle the movie. In area synagogue programs, sixth
grade is when kids start studying the Holocaust fully. Mostly,
Cosden stresses the need for families to watch together -- and not
"I think one of the greatest things that this can offer families
is a time to discuss it. Also, it's a real opportunity for the
non-Jewish community, especially since this is from the viewpoint
"If a kid sees it, you've got to help them with it," says Les
Finke. His daughter, who is in fifth grade, is not ready, he says.
"She's still recovering from 'Bambi.'"
He'll wait to watch it with her, even though it's hard.
"I'm anxious to watch it with her, the movie was so monumental
"Schindler's List" gave Finke, who is 46, a new vocation. After
seeing it, he became one of a handful of those trained to conduct
video interviews with survivors for Spielberg's Shoah Foundation,
which has conducted some 27,000 interviews. He has conducted one so
far. He says the foundation knows of about 40 survivors who live in
Finke will speak with young adults and seniors at a gathering
before the movie is shown at the Jewish Federation's Albert
Einstein Residence Center, a senior housing complex in the Arden
area, where Finke is director.
But such gatherings are rare. Most people will watch with their
immediate families. Like Marlene Anapolsky and her family, who will
be watching at home in Gold River.
"I think knowing that everyone is watching it at the same time
makes it special. It's like when Hanukkah and Passover come, and
you know everyone is doing the same thing at the same time," she
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