Schindler’s List is regarded as one of the most impactful war movies of all time, but while it is filled with harrowing moments on-screen, the most devastating happens entirely offscreen. War movies are known for being brutal and emotional watching experiences and there have been some iconic moments in the genre that have given unflinching glimpses of the horrors of war, like the storming of Omaha Beach in Saving Private Ryan or the prisoner of war scenes in The Deer Hunter. However, Schindler’s List delivered a moment that stayed with audiences, despite them never seeing what really happened.

Schindler’s List was Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece that has gone down as one of the filmmaker’s most iconic movies of all time, winning six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and earning $322 million at the worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo). That is especially impressive given how hard the movie and its depiction of the Holocaust are. However, Spielberg is intelligent enough to know when to spare audiences from the brutality onscreen while still showing the truth of the history, such as in the movie’s most famous moment.

So Many War Movies Hit Hard, But Schindler’s List’s Girl In The Red Coat Is Particularly Devastating

The Famous Moment Features A Distinct Use Of Color In The Black-And-White Movie

Despite Schindler’s List not taking place on the battlefield like other war movies, it still delivers some truly harrowing moments. The cold-hearted brutality of SS officer Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes) executing Jewish citizens out of sport and the scenes of Jewish women being led into the gas chambers at the concentration camps are certainly hard to watch. However, it is the reveal of the fate of the girl in the red coat in Schindler’s List that has stayed with audiences for decades and remains the most emotional moment in this devastating movie.

The girl in the red coat comes into the movie as Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) watches in horror as the liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto is carried out. Steven Spielberg presents Schindler’s List in stark black-and-white, but this scene adds an unexpected use of color, with the little girl’s coat making her stand out among the crowd, drawing the audience to her. She does not look scared, but rather like an innocent young child wandering through the chaos.

However, the effect of her coat being the only bit of color comes into effect moments later when Schindler and the audience see a pile of ᴅᴇᴀᴅ bodies from the people of the ghetto who have been murdered. Among the corpses, a splash of red is seen, telling the audience the fate of the little girl. We don’t see what happened to her, nor is her corpse even shown in full view, but the confirmation of this innocent little girl being among the victims of this atrocity is a heartbreaking reveal nonetheless.

The Girl In The Red Coat’s Story Happening Offscreen Makes It More Powerful

The Moment Is A Reminder Of The Lives Lost, Not The Villains Who Took Them

The true story of Schindler’s List and the reality of what happened in the Holocaust are nothing the public is unaware of, and the atrocities of this time are well documented. The death of the girl in the red coat is nothing that would surprise audiences, as many children were killed in the real events. However, Spielberg’s decision not to show the audience the death avoids sensationalizing the moment while also not avoiding the realities of the Holocaust.

Seeing the people of the ghetto from afar, the use of red in Schindler’s List‘s black-and-white look makes the audience connect with the girl in the crowd. We immediately become invested in her and hope for her survival amidst the inhumanity of the scene. When we realize she has been killed, it is a devastating reminder of the injustice and cruelty of this dark moment in history. Spielberg might have shown her being killed, such as being executed by a soldier. However, the emotion of the scene then would have been hatred towards the soldier, which is not what is intended.

The sequence of the liquidation of the ghetto is not about the Nazis carrying it out, but rather the people who were targeted. The audience loses the girl in the chaos of the scene, looking for that glimpse of red once again. Seeing it among the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ bodies is a reminder that these were not nameless victims, but people who had lives and loved ones. We are drawn to the red coat, but it makes us consider all of the other bodies she lies with, each with their own story.

The moment also puts the audience in the place of Oskar Schindler, a man who wasn’t part of the Nazi’s plan, but was also doing nothing to stop it. For the first time, he is witnessing the evil he is a part of and, like the audience, sees this little girl at the center of it all. For him as well, she dies out of sight, with him realizing that he acted too late to do something to stop this. It is a message of the cruelty and evil that can happen when the world is not looking.