50 Fun Facts About Schindler's List

The film is based on a 1982 book by Thomas Keneally. What is it called?

Keneally wrote it after a chance meeting in Los Angeles in 1980 with one of the survivors, who had spent decades trying to get the story told.

Who plays Oskar Schindler?

Spielberg cast the relatively unknown Neeson after seeing him in Anna Christie on Broadway, preferring him to interested stars like Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson.

Who plays the SS officer Amon Göth?

Fiennes gained 28 pounds for the role and looked so much like Göth that survivor Mila Pfefferberg trembled when she met him in costume.

Ben Kingsley plays Itzhak Stern. What is Stern's role in Schindler's business?

The film's Stern is a composite of the real accountant, factory manager Abraham Bankier and Göth's secretary Mietek Pemper; Dustin Hoffman turned the part down.

What does Schindler's Kraków factory produce at the start of the film?

He bribes Wehrmacht and SS officials to acquire it; the real Emalia factory is now a museum that Kraków opened in 2010.

In which city is most of Schindler's List set?

The film was shot at or near the real locations, though the camp had to be rebuilt in a nearby quarry because modern high-rises were visible from the original site.

Where was Oskar Schindler from, according to the film's opening?

He is a German Nazi Party member who arrives in Kraków hoping to make his fortune; his hometown of Zwittau is near where he later builds his second factory.

What concentration camp does Amon Göth arrive to build and command?

When it is ready he liquidates the Kraków ghetto: two thousand Jews are sent to the camp and two thousand are killed in the streets.

What does Göth do from the balcony of his villa?

He also brutalizes his Jewish maid, Helen Hirsch, whom the film shows hiding in the villa's cellar.

Who plays Göth's maid, Helen Hirsch?

Caroline Goodall plays Emilie Schindler; critic Terrence Rafferty singled out Davidtz's performance alongside the three male leads.

How many names does the list eventually contain?

Schindler and Stern draw it up to move workers to a new munitions factory instead of letting them be sent to Auschwitz.

Where does Schindler move his workers in the last part of the film?

The town is near his hometown of Zwittau; part of the factory opened as the Museum of Survivors in May 2025.

When the women on the list are mistakenly sent to Birkenau, which commandant does Schindler bribe?

Director Michael Haneke later criticized the shower scene that follows, saying an audience should never be left guessing whether gas or water will come out.

How much usable armament does Schindler's munitions factory produce?

He spends his fortune bribing officials and buying shell casings from other companies, and runs out of money in 1945 just as Germany surrenders.

What gift do the workers give Schindler as he leaves?

The inscription reads "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire"; they also give him a signed statement about his role in saving them.

How does the film's epilogue say Amon Göth died?

Schindler and his wife were declared Righteous Among the Nations and a tree was planted for him in Jerusalem.

Which survivor spent decades pushing to film Schindler's story and is credited as Leopold Page?

He tried to make a film with MGM as early as 1963; at their first meeting in 1983 Spielberg told him he would start filming in ten years.

Which studio executive sent Spielberg the book review that got him interested?

Sheinberg later greenlit the film on one condition: that Spielberg direct a certain blockbuster first.

Which film did Spielberg have to make first as a condition of getting Schindler's List greenlit?

He spent several hours each evening in Kraków editing the dinosaur film, which premiered in June 1993.

Which director, a survivor of the Kraków Ghetto, turned down Spielberg's offer to direct the film?

His mother was killed at Auschwitz; he eventually made his own Holocaust film, The Pianist, in 2002.

Which director was attached to Schindler's List in 1988 before Spielberg took it back and gave him Cape Fear?

Scorsese had hired the screenwriter whose draft was eventually used; he later said his version would not have been the hit Spielberg's became.

Who wrote the final screenplay?

Spielberg found his 115-page draft too short and had it extended to 195 pages; Keneally's own 220-page adaptation had been the first attempt.

What was the film's budget?

Holocaust films were not expected to make money; it went on to earn more than $320 million worldwide.

What did Spielberg do with his salary for the film?

He also believed the film would fail; the profits later helped him found an archive of survivor testimony.

Which star's script reading worried Spielberg because of his accent and "movie star baggage"?

Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson also expressed interest before Spielberg settled on Neeson.

Which media executive's charisma did Spielberg show Neeson on film clips to help him prepare?

Neeson also studied a tape of the real Schindler speaking to learn his intonation and pitch.

How many days did principal photography in Kraków take?

The schedule had planned 75; about forty percent of the film was shot with handheld cameras.

Why was a replica of part of Birkenau built just outside the real entrance?

Polish authorities had actually granted permission to film on the museum grounds.

Which comedian phoned Spielberg during the shoot to cheer him up?

Spielberg said his wife Kate Capshaw rescued him "ninety-two days in a row" when things got unbearable.

Which 1985 documentary influenced Spielberg's decision to shoot without storyboards, like a documentary?

Its director Claude Lanzmann nonetheless called Schindler's List a "kitschy melodrama".

Who was the cinematographer, winning his first Oscar for the film?

He wanted the film to feel timeless so audiences would not sense when it was made, and compared the look to German Expressionism and Italian neorealism.

How was the red coat isolated in an otherwise black-and-white film?

Universal's chairman had asked Spielberg to shoot on color negative so color VHS copies could be sold; he refused, not wanting to "beautify events".

What did Spielberg say the girl in the red coat symbolized?

He said it was as obvious as a girl in a red coat walking down the street, yet nothing was done to bomb the German rail lines.

How old was Oliwia Dąbrowska, who played the girl in the red coat, when the film was shot?

Spielberg asked her not to watch the film until she was eighteen; she watched it at eleven and was horrified, but was proud of it as an adult.

Which Holocaust survivor, known in the Kraków Ghetto for her red coat, believes the character may be based on her?

Unlike the girl in the film, she survived, and published The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir in 2002.

Who performs the violin solo of the main theme?

John Williams told Spielberg "You need a better composer than I am for this film" and then won his fifth Oscar for the score.

Which Yiddish folk song does a children's choir sing during the ghetto liquidation in Schindler's List?

The title means "On the Cooking Stove"; the clarinet solos in the film were played by klezmer virtuoso Giora Feidman.

How many Academy Awards did Schindler's List win?

Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Score, Editing, Cinematography and Art Direction; Neeson and Fiennes were nominated but lost.

Where did Schindler's List have its world premiere on November 30, 1993?

It went into US release on December 15 and reached Germany on March 1, 1994.

Which network showed the film uncut and ad-free in 1997, the first broadcast to receive a TV-M rating?

Ford sponsored the telecast; an Oklahoma congressman who complained about the nudity and violence had to apologize.

Which country initially banned the film, its prime minister saying his people "have the right to ban any movie"?

The ban was lifted for a censored version in 1994, but Spielberg insisted on the full cut, so it was never screened; Indonesia banned it too.

In the Philippines, what did Spielberg do when the chief censor ordered cuts to three scenes?

President Fidel Ramos personally intervened and ruled that it could be shown uncut to anyone over 15.

Which song was replaced in Israeli prints of Schindler's List because it is seen as a Six-Day War anthem?

Israeli prints substituted "A Walk to Caesarea" by Hannah Szenes, a wartime resistance fighter.

What organization did Spielberg found after Schindler's List to record filmed testimony from Holocaust survivors?

He continues to finance its archive of filmed testimony.

Which director abandoned his own Holocaust project, Aryan Papers, after the success of Schindler's List?

Kubrick reportedly remarked that the Holocaust is about six million people who get killed, while Schindler's List is about 600 who don't.

Where does the AFI rank Schindler's List on its 2007 list of 100 greatest American films?

It was added to the National Film Registry in 2004 and even made the Vatican's list of 45 important films.

When John Williams said the film needed a better composer, how did Spielberg reply?

Williams went on to write the score anyway, with Itzhak Perlman performing the violin theme.

What did the city of Kraków buy in 2007 because of interest generated by the film?

The museum that opened there in 2010 covers the German occupation of the city from 1939 to 1945.

Roughly how much did Schindler's List gross worldwide?

In Germany alone it drew six million admissions, with municipal authorities paying for screenings in 80 of its 500 theatres.

Which actor was offered the role of Itzhak Stern but turned it down?

The character, played by Ben Kingsley, is a composite of the real Stern, manager Abraham Bankier and Göth's secretary Mietek Pemper.