first time watching *SCHINDLER'S LIST*

Whenever this movie is shown in German TV, there are no ad breaks at all, no matter what TV station it is shown by, to not draw attention away from the seriousness of the story

'I could have got one more person....and I didn't' 😢 😭. Hits me in the feels every time.

A survivor visited the set one day. When she saw the actor playing Amon Goeth, she almost fainted because he looked so much like the real person, who was even worse in real life.

My dear girl. I have a REALLY tough time with cruelty. I never thought I would see this film. But when I saw it on your channel, I knew you were the one I could watch it with. Not only because of your heritage, but also because of your immense capacity to love. Thank you for being the one I shared this with. ❤

When Spielberg showed the film to John Williams and asked him to score the film, John said "You need a better composer than I am for this film", Spielberg responded, "I know, but they're all dead!"

Liam Neeson is terrific, the scene at the end where Schindler breaks down chastising himself for "not doing enough" gets me every time.

I'm a 57 yo man & STILL cry every time I watch this powerful movie. Some of the "actors" are actually holocaust survivors e.g. the mom of Danka (little girl with glasses) is the REAL Danka Dresner. One of THE MOST powerful hitting movies of all time.

Be careful to not be too dismissive of the historical accuracy of the film, as Spielberg had to get from point A to point B to point C in 3 hours and 15 minutes what actually took place over the course of 5-1/2 years; in a manner which really gets the audience to feel and understand what transpired. To have made a truly, historically, accurate portrayal, he'd have had to have made a very long mini-series, and even then, he would have never been able to show everything due to the absolute brutality of what they lived through. If he'd filmed even a tenth of what they actually went through, the film would garner an X-rating. In addition, characters were combined as is often the case. There were actually two maids named Helen - which were combined; and the movie character Itzhak Stern was a combination of several historic people. Oskar, if memory serves me correctly, was actually in jail at the time the list was drafted. But none of the events of the film are actually fictional..... just filmed in a way to get the audience to better understand the importance of each moment in time. For instance, in the film, Oskar sees the girl in the red coat (which is colored red against the black and white backdrop) and then rides away. In reality, when he saw the little child in red, he slid off his horse, hugged a pine tree, and vomited his guts out at the realization that this wasn't an instance of a small group of individuals, but was the policy all the way from the top down being carried out. It was at that moment that he changed from being a businessman to being a humanitarian. I could go on, but this is one instance where reading the book (that the film is based upon) is extremely recommended. There's a lot of misinformation going around the internet regarding Oskar Schindler ~ both regarding the reality and the film. Was he a perfect human being or a man to be idolized or looked upon as a role-model? Not by a long shot. But if one focuses on who he was instead of what he did when very few other people were doing anything constructive, then we undervalue the 1,200 lives he saved. It wasn't the efforts of just him and Stern.... and the key line in the movie is when he tells the survivors to thank the many other people who did what they could to save as many people as they did. It was truly a collaborative effort, but one that wouldn't have been possible without Oskar Schindler doing his part, as it was his membership in the Nazi Party and the influence he possessed that made it all possible. Beyond that, he wasn't a great human being or someone to emulate or look up to. He was a drunk, and a playboy, and a party-boy until the day he died, and relied on the charity of those he saved to sustain his lifestyle after the war since he never was a very good businessman. But, 1,200 people were alive after the war because of what he did, who wouldn't have been, otherwise. Nothing is ever black and white. Nobody is perfect, and no one is pure good or pure evil ~ we just like to convince ourselves that such is the case. What matters is what we do in key moments during our lives. Do we stand up even when the odds are against us, because it's the right thing to do, or do we simply look away and tell ourselves it's someone else's problem? Do we live with courage and conviction when it matters most, or do we fade into the background and hope nobody sees us just going about our business? Do we care or not care? Do we sacrifice only when there's something in it for us personally? To present historical events in a movie, it's more about capturing the essence of the moments than a moment by moment factual reproduction. We can't make a movie 5-1/2 years long to capture all of the facts...... we just can't. But we must remember what happened in order to prevent such horrific events from ever occurring again ~ and we are horrible at preventing or stopping repetitive atrocities. They keep happening every single year, with different places and different people being affected. Not a single continent is ever spared the worst human nature has to offer..... BUT, that doesn't mean we should just quit trying or give up. To turn a blind eye would only result in things escalating further if unchecked. This, in all honesty, is one of those books which should be required reading in my opinion. Especially in the face of holocaust deniers and white supremacists..... before things get out of hand and spiral past any point of no return. We like to tell ourselves that what the Nazis did "could never happen here" ~ but the truth is that they can, and will, if too many people keep lying to themselves and/or turning a blind eye.

"The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler" a film about a woman who saved 2.5 thousand Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, taking them away and hiding them in Polish families, orphanages and monasteries. Worth watching for people interested in the subject.

Jerry Seinfeld sent Spielberg new and unedited episodes of his TV show to watch during his down-time. Robin Williams called Spielberg every night to riff some comedy in his ear. This movie was unimaginably hard to create without sinking into depression

I went to the Theater on Christmas Day(the day it was released). There were gasps, sobbing, but what stick in my mind, is the entire theater sang Yerusheliem Shel Zahav during the movie. After it was over, a small group said Kaddish. My uncle liberated a camp and was made a NCO so he could translate the Yiddish and work as an interpreter.

They made us watch this movie as young students and now there are people that are surprised we've taken the message to heart: "Never again means never again for anyone."

I saw this in the theater. A family of three sat behind us. When the engineer was murdered, their son, who looked about 12, started bawling and they left.

The Line Producer of Schindler's List is a man named Branko Lustig. He was born in Croatia but lost his family in the Holocaust. He survived it all and was adopted by two other survivors. He grew up in Israel, became a film producer, and moved back to Europe, to Germany. He also produced the film Amadeus. Mr. Lustig has said that he never understood how adults survived the Holocaust. As a child, he could coup, but as an adult? Lustig appears two times in the movie. He plays the old head waiter in the restaurant scene in the beginning. He says: "That's Oscar Schindler". He also appears as a story in the story, as the little boy who hides in the latrine. That's his story.

RIP Oskar Schindler (April 28, 1908 – October 9, 1974), aged 66 You will be remembered as a hero

This film was so close to Spielberg’s heart that one year after he completed the film, he established the Shoah Foundation, a major nonprofit organization dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust (which in Hebrew is called the Shoah) a compelling voice for education and action. Thanks to him, there are thousands of recorded interviews with Holocaust survivors that are now permanently preserved. If I recall correctly, he also would not accept payment for his role as director.

Apparently Amon Goeth's daughter, Monika Hertwig never knew the truth about her father until she saw this movie. She was even friends with Schindler, and he never told her about the atrocities her father committed.

The fact he made this and Jurassic Park in one year is amazing

Being a German myself who was born in the mid 90's, everything regarding WW2 and the hoorifying things that happend to millions of innocent people seemed so far away and something, that happened so long ago. It was always strange to me, annoying almost, that our school system (especially in history class) and the teachers (even the younger ones) tried to nearly hammer everything that happend in WW2 into our minds, saying over and over again: "Something like this can never happen again! YOU need to be aware of signs, that could lead to somthing like this happening again! YOU need to make sure to be better! YOU must feel this shame that comes with it!". And I asked myself again and again, when this subject was thaught in school: "Why do I need to feel ashamed for things that people did almost 70 years ago (now almost 80 years ago), just because I am German? Why can't I feel pride for my country and my heritage when even my grandparents where mostly too young to even be involved in the war and the things that happend? Why is every grown up telling me to be aware to not be something I never even heared of before I learned of WW2?" ... I didn't really understand what was going on and why everyone was shying away to even really talk abount these subjects unless it was in a very dry "just facts from history books" kind of way. The first time I really began to understand why it is handeled this way in Germany, was when this movie was shown in History class. It was in 10th grade (so everyone must have been around 15 or 16 years old at that time) and I have never witnessed a classroom being this quiet for so long. Almost everybody cried during the movie at least once and noone was unmoved by the things shown in this movie. It was truly eye opening and much more understandable, why everyone was acting the way they were and why things are the way they are in Germany after watching this heartbreaking movie ... so, yeah, even after all these years WW2 and the things that happened hang over my country like a very dark shadow to the point, you can't even express pride for your country. Everywhere you go outside of Middle-Western Europe you get asked, if you are a Nazi just because you are from Germany. It truly changed everything: Germany, the lives of so many innocent people (on every side of the war), the World even ... truly horrifiyng. And at this point WW2 ended almost 80 years ago and it still is almost uncomprehensible how something like this could have happened in the first place. But here we are ...

I visited Auschwitz once. I lived in Krakow for almost a year and visited Auschwitz on a Friday. I went with some friends and the idea was to go out for a drink after come back to the city. We weren't in the mood at the end. It was... hard to see. But I think it is also a necessary visit, especially now with what is happening in Palestine.