[2] The book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party who becomes an unlikely hero by saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust.

[3] Keneally wrote a number of well-received novels before and after Schindler's Ark; however, in the wake of its highly successful 1993 film adaptation directed by director Steven Spielberg, it has since gone on to become his most well-known and celebrated work.

A carbon copy of Schindler's original 13-page list, initially thought to be lost, was discovered in 2009 in a library in Sydney, Australia.

[8] This novel tells the story of Oskar Schindler, self-made entrepreneur and bon viveur who finds himself saving Polish Jews from the Nazi death machine.

Based on numerous eyewitness accounts, Keneally's story takes place within Hitler's attempts to make Europe judenfrei (free of Jews).

After the war, he was commemorated as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but was never seen as a conventionally virtuous character.