Steven Spielberg‘s movie Schindler’s List is an unforgettable masterpiece about the horrors of the holocaust. To convey his important message to viewers, Spielberg employed every filmmaking technique at his disposal to immerse the audience in this world and ensure that the atrocities depicted in the film would never happen again.

Today, I want to dive into one specific thing Spielberg did to emphasize his point, which is to have a girl in a red coat stand out in this black and white movie. The girl in the red coat functions as both a symbol and a motif.

Let’s dive in.

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Making Schindler’s List

No one had high hopes for this movie. It was supposed to be a bomb. The budget was just $22 million. No one had ever made a profitable film about the Holocaust. Spielberg himself didn’t take a salary, calling it “blood money.”

Janusz Kaminski shot the film in a 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio. He used Arriflex 35-III and Zeiss Standard Speed and Super Speed Lenses, the Arriflex 535A and Zeiss Standard Speed and Super Speed Lenses, and the Arriflex 535B and Zeiss Standard Speed and Super Speed Lenses.

According to Spielberg’s biography, written by Joseph McBride, handheld cameras were used to shoot 40% of the film was shot with handheld cameras. Not only that, but it had to be shot in just 72 days due to budget constraints, which Spielberg felt gave the film “a spontaneity, an edge, and it also serves the subject.” He filmed without using Steadicams, elevated shots, or zoom lenses, ‘everything that for me might be considered a safety net.’”

Kaminski would go on to win an Academy Award for his work, as would Spielberg. But there were more important things going on than just production.

Nothing could compare to the realization Spielberg had while shooting the movie.

He said, “Every day I realized that had I been standing in those same streets at that time, I would have been killed just for being a Jew.”

And he was not alone.

Again, principal photography lasted about 70 days, with the crew shooting in and near actual locations. The studio was originally against the black and white, wanting there to be a color version available for home video, but Spielberg pushed back, telling Lester Holt in an interview, “I don’t know the Holocaust in color. I wasn’t around then. But I’ve seen documentaries on the Holocaust. They’re all shot in black and white. That’s my only reference point. I wanted it to feel real.”

In fact, one of the most difficult parts of shooting the movie was Spielberg’s own emotions about the subject matter.

He said, “I was hit in the face with my personal life. My upbringing. My Jewishness. The stories my grandparents told me about the Shoah. And Jewish life came pouring back into my heart. I cried all the time.”

The film was finished, but the journey to changing the world had just begun.

Credit: Universal Pictures

Schindler’s List debuts and changes the world

Schindler’s List opened in theatres on December 15, 1993. It spread across the world the next year, with leaders like Bill Clinton urging the greater public to see it. Spielberg himself made sure to greet world leaders who saw it and to emphatically let them know it was up to us to make sure the events in the film never happened again.

The general public embraced the film, with a rare Cinemascore of an A+. Critics did as well, as the film hit many “Top 10” lists for the year. Altogether, the film grossed $96.1 million in the United States and Canada and over $321.2 million worldwide.

But the legacy of this wasn’t about being a profitable Holocaust film or even a prestige drama.

It was about telling people a historical truth that some had been denying. Spielberg did something unprecedented after the film left theaters. He found ways to make sure people saw it for free.

How was this done?

Through cooperation with all United States governors, MCA/Universal, and the theater owners, the film was shown to more than two million high school students at free morning screenings, preceded and followed by class instruction and discussion.

It was so successful in the spring semester of 1994, they did it again, even though the film had left theaters. A study guide was commissioned from Facing History and Ourselves. It is still available for free.

Another huge move was that a videocassette of Schindler’s List went to every American high school, public, private, and parochial, along with the study guide. The intention was that this could be a door toward wider teaching of tolerance, covering slavery, Indigenous American history, the immigration story, and a wide base of ethnic, religious, and gender issues.

Spielberg was quoted as saying, “It is important that the teachers make the study of the Holocaust and issues of hatred and intolerance as relevant as possible so that it can have a real meaning and impact for every individual in their own lives.”

Along with this, Spielberg helped develop and found The Shoah Foundation. It furthered the education and established “The Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation” to document the testimonies of thousands of survivors. For Spielberg, he wanted future generations to have these eyewitness accounts to serve as a permanent record. He hoped that there would never be a time we saw Nazism and fascism on the rise again.

The project has collected the testimony of more than 55,000 survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust as well as other atrocities.

“It wouldn’t have happened without Schindler’s List,” he said. “The Shoah Foundation wouldn’t exist.”

In that way, Schindler’s List effectively educated a generation and future generations about the atrocities of the Holocaust. While immeasurable, it took on hate and forced humanity to come to terms with one of the worst things to ever happen. It raised its voice in the face of hate and accomplished something staggering.

It changed world history. Even today, as America has seen a rise in Nazisim, Spielberg is still making the film available to high schools all over the country. Upon the movie’s rerelease, he got scores more students to attend screenings and study the film in classes, hoping to stop hate before it took seed.

The Meaning Behind the Girl in the Red Coat

The girl in the red coat is more than just a stylistic choice; she is a potent symbol and a motif that operates on multiple levels.

In the movie, we meet her during the liquidation of the ghetto. She wanders to a chorus of children’s voices as human beings are exterminated around her.

For the film’s protagonist, Oskar Schindler, the sight of the little girl in her red coat is a pivotal moment. It is the catalyst that transforms him from a pragmatic businessman profiting from the war to someone willing to risk it all to rescue over a thousand Jews from the gas chambers.

In that moment, the abject horror of the Holocaust becomes personal and tangible for Schindler. He can no longer remain a detached observer. The girl in red forces him to see the individual lives being extinguished, and he is forever changed.

This single splash of color reminds us that each and every victim was a person, a life, a story. It is a symbol that continues to resonate, a reminder of the importance of bearing witness, and a call to never forget.

The weight of the atrocity is put on the audience’s shoulders.

We are asked to never forget.

When prompted to talk about one of the only color moments in the film, the girl in red, Spielberg told USA Today, “In (Thomas Keneally’s) book, Schindler couldn’t get over the fact that a little girl was walking during the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. While everyone was being put on trucks or shot in the street, one little girl in a red, red coat was being ignored by the SS.”

For Spielberg, that came to symbolize the blind eye that world leaders turned to the murders going on in Europe.

“To me, that meant that Roosevelt and Eisenhower—and probably Stalin and Churchill—knew about the Holocaust… and did nothing to stop it. It was almost as though the Holocaust itself was wearing red.”

Spielberg’s Proudest Moment

The actual Oskar Schindler died in 1974 and was buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion. He is the only former member of the Nazi Party to be honored in this way. He and his wife Emilie were named Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli government in 1993, something that would be hard to believe could happen without the film highlighting his life.

As we all know, Spielberg and the film went on to win several Academy Awards for Schindler’s List, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film also won for Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.

Spielberg would win another Best Director Oscar for Saving Private Ryan five years later, but for him, what happened with Schindler would be his crowning achievement.

“I don’t think I’ll ever do anything as important,” he said. “So this, for me, is something that I will always be proudest of.”

Schindler’s List is a rare movie whose legacy is just as important as its existence. If you want to know more, please check out Teaching Schindler’s List as well as the other resources the Shoah Foundation has to offer.

Summing It All Up

Ultimately, the girl in the red coat is a powerful and enduring symbol of the individual lives lost in the vast and incomprehensible tragedy of the Holocaust.

I believe this movie is an enduring and important venture that should be seen by everyone in the world, not only to understand history, but to judge our place in it and to allow us to comprehend how this should never happen again.

Let me know what you think in the comments.