Schindler's List - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[richard]

As of 2018, the only film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

[maureen]

Amon Goeth at one points asks Schindler, "who are you, Moses?" Ralph Fiennes would later lend his voice to The Prince of Egypt (1998), in which he played the Pharaoh who lets Moses go. Ben Kingsley went on to play the title character in Moses (1995).

[fred]

Steven Spielberg: [father] Oskar tells his wife he can't commit to a family.

[tom]

The film, as shown in most countries, had the song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav", Jerusalem of Gold, at the end. When it was shown in Israel, audiences laughed at this, as this song was written before the 1967 war as a pop song. The producers then re-dubbed the song "Eli Eli", which was written by Hannah Senesh during World War II, over the end. However, some criticized this decision as a misinterpretation of the scene, since the song serves as a lead-in to a scene that takes place in modern-day Israel (long after the release of "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav") not during the Holocaust.

[ella]

Steven Spielberg watched Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (1990) six times before the shooting.

[clayton]

Sidney Lumet was approached to direct, but felt that he had already covered the subject of the Holocaust with The Pawnbroker (1964).

[albert]

During the Jewish ghetto liquidation scene, a Jewish boy being dragged by two S.S. soldiers is shot and killed by a third S.S. man as the other soldiers walk towards him. What follows is a heated exchange between the two S.S. soldiers. In the subtitles of the DVD version, it is possible to see exactly what is being said in the original German. The text translates as: "Just what did you think you were shooting at, are you crazy? With this rifle you could have shot me! You came that close to shooting me!" The second soldier then says something that includes "Entschuldigung", which is "excuse me" in German. The NCO then responds with, "What do we call excuses here? You are certainly crazy!" Thus, the translation sheds light that the S.S. soldier was not concerned that the Jewish boy had just been murdered, but rather that he was in the line of fire.

[scarlett]

After filming this movie, Liam Neeson (Schindler) and Ralph Fiennes (Göth) became very good friends.

[ronnie]

The shots featuring a red-coat-girl came from a story that Audrey Hepburn told Steven Spielberg while they were filming her final movie Always (1989). She told him of an incident during World War II where she saw a little girl with the same attire while the other people were loaded onto trains. That moment was forever etched in her memory, and it struck Spielberg when he made this film. Due to the amount of violence and horror depicted, Spielberg made Oliwia Dabrowska, the red-coat-girl, and her parents to promise him not to watch the film until she reaches eighteen (in 2007). True to what he said, she was horrified of the result when she violated the promise at the age of eleven.

[carla]

When Schindler berates Itzhak Stern for sending too many forced-labor camp workers to his factory, Stern reminds him about Amon Göth shooting twenty-five men from Bejski's camp. The Bejski that Stern refers to is Moshe Bejski, who eventually became Oskar Schindler's document forger, and later an Israeli Supreme Court Judge from 1979 to 1991. He is mentioned in the book. In the list, he is #531 on the men's list, and his occupation was a draftsman.

[kim]

Steven Spielberg gave Liam Neeson home movies of his mentor Steve Ross, the late chairman of Time Warner, to help him develop his portrayal of Schindler.

[dustin]

Steven Spielberg refuses to autograph any materials related to this film.

[carla]

The story features a character called Poldek Pfefferberg. Later, a Leopold Pfefferberg places a stone on Schindler's grave. Finally, a Leopold Page is credited as a consultant on the film. Despite the different names, these all refer to the same person. Poldek Pfefferberg changed his name to Leopold Page after the war, when he moved to the United States.

[caroline]

Contrary to popular belief, this was not the first film Steven Spielberg directed that received an R-rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. That credit goes to his short film Amblin' (1968).

[chris]

The film finally netted Steven Spielberg the Oscar for Best Director, something that had eluded him in the past.

[ivan]

The original missing list of Schindler's Jews was found in a suitcase together with his written legacy hidden in the attic of Schindler's flat in Hildesheim in 1999. Oskar Schindler stayed there during the last few months before his death in 1974.