On this day in 1993, Schindler’s List was released.
Steven Spielberg made a choice that would change filmmaking forever. Inspired by the Holocaust documentary Shoah, he chose not to storyboard, avoided Hollywood gloss, and shot with handheld cameras in stark black and white. He wanted the film to feel raw and real—like history itself.
Then came the red coat.
Amid the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto, a small girl in a red coat wanders through the chaos. Later, Schindler sees her lifeless body, the coat her only way to be identified. That moment marks his transformation—and for audiences, it became one of cinema’s most haunting symbols.
Spielberg said it showed how the Holocaust was visible to the world, “as obvious as a girl in a red coat,” yet ignored. Others interpret it as innocence, hope, or the blood of the Jewish people.
The girl was played by three-year-old Oliwia Dąbrowska, who decades later embraced her role in preserving memory. The story also reflects Roma Ligocka, a real girl in a red coat who survived and later published her memoir.
In two colors—black and white, with one vivid red—Spielberg didn’t just make a film, but a powerful reminder. A reminder of what humanity must never forget.
