Synopsis

In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler builds a factory staffed by Jewish workers, initially motivated by profit and wartime opportunity. As Nazi persecution intensifies, he gradually risks his wealth, influence, and safety to protect his employees from deportation and death. His efforts culminate in a list of names that becomes a fragile instrument of survival.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is based on Thomas Keneally's 1982 historical novel Schindler's Ark, which drew on accounts from Holocaust survivors who knew Oskar Schindler.

• It was filmed primarily in black and white to create a documentary-like, historically detached appearance. The limited use of color, including the girl's red coat and the candles at the beginning, gives those moments unusual visual and emotional force.

• Although permission was obtained to film at Auschwitz, the production did not shoot inside the actual camp out of respect for those who died there. The Auschwitz sequences were recreated near the original site.

• The production was filmed in and around Krakow, Poland, during the spring of 1993.

• The filmmaker gave up royalties and residuals from the movie, directing them instead toward the Shoah Foundation's work recording testimony from survivors of genocide.

• Composer John Williams was reportedly so affected when he first saw the film that he took a walk before discussing the score.

• The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and was added to the National Film Registry in 2004 for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.