FAQ for
Schindler's List (1993)

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. It is assumed that no one who is diligently avoiding spoilers will be visiting this page in the first place.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Schindler's List can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/parentalguide.

The little girl's jacket is red so that she stands out from the masses. When color is used, it makes a point and an impression. And Schindler´s soul is touched by the child, and he feels her pain. The plight of the one little girl in red touches him in a way the sheer numbers make unreal - she transforms the faceless mass around him into one real palpable human being. She is set-up in a way that would make the viewer think that she may be able to get away, but her later death shows the impact of the Holocaust on Schindler. There actually was a little girl in a red coat at the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto, but this little girl survived the war and later wrote a book about her experiences.

Edit: She is used as a symbol of innocence. Unlike the others that we have seen in the movie, this girl walks around somewhat aimlessly, and seems unaware of the severity of the situation. The importance of this vignette is that it seems to ask or ponder whether innocence can survive amidst the atrocities of war.

During the holocaust, Jews had a fear of not knowing when they are going to die. This method of the gun jamming was a torturing method of the Nazis. It was used to scare the workers to death so they would increase their production next time. All in all, it is a torturing method to scare the Jews since they had a fear of not knowing when they are going to die.

Edit: Also during the later parts of the war many factories were producing sub par weapons that would often jam or be missing key pieces. As well as many factory owners including Schindler made a point to not make any weapons that actually worked.

Edit: It is also possible that the jamming of the gun was symbolic of God's protection. We learn later that the hingemaker Goeth was trying to shoot outside the factory was, in fact, a rabbi. Because of Goeth's rage at the failing of the guns, we get the impression that this was not intentional torture, but was a failed execution. One of Goeth's officers says that the odds of all the guns failing at the same time were impossible. The viewer might ask: is this former rabbi lucky, or is he being protected?

Edit: The possibility of miracles as well as the inhumanity of the guards, insofar as they are more interested in the technical oddity of the gun jamming than whether the man at their knees lives or dies. (Note: I believe the standard issue pistol of the German armed forces during World War II [the Walther P.38] was known for its reliability, which adds a note of historical realism to the guards' surprise.) I don't think it had anything to do with scaring workers, if for no other reason than they didn't have to (it was already the lived quotidian reality that one could be killed on the slightest, or even no, pretext).

Edit: I think Spielberg used this as irony, Goeth tries to kill the rabbi, and when the Russians try to kill Goeth, the guard can't kick the chair out from under him and it ends up taking 2 guards to kick out 2 legs of the chair, before it finally falls.