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About This Quiz
This stunning, sobering film about the Holocaust won multiple Academy Awards back in the early 1990s. Test your knowledge of this Spielberg masterpiece with our quiz!
What year was Schindler's List released?
1991
1992
1993
The idea for a Schindler film had been floating around Hollywood for decades. Even Steven Spielberg delayed, wondering if he was mature enough as a filmmaker to take on the topic of the Holocaust.
1994
What artistic choice separated Schindler's List from other '90s films?
the absence of a musical score
it was filmed in mostly black-and-white
"Schindler's List" begins in color, around a Sabbath table. After the candles are extinguished, the film cuts to Poland in 1939 and proceeds in black-and-white to the very end.
the exclusive use of handheld camera
it was filmed as a "found footage" movie
What was Schindler's first name?
Ernst
Jacob
Oskar
Oskar Schindler was born in 1908 and died in 1974. He is buried in Mount Zion Catholic Cemetery, Jerusalem.
Ralph
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Who played Oskar Schindler?
Anthony Stewart Head
Liam Neeson
Spielberg liked Neeson's performance in the play Anna Christie. In it, Neeson acted opposite the woman he would later marry, Natasha Richardson.
Tommy Lee Jones
John Malkovich
Where was Oskar Schindler born?
France
Germany
Moravia
Schindler identifies himself as German in the film, and he was ethnically German. But he was born in Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic.
Poland
Schindler's profession is usually summed up as what?
estate agent
industrialist
Schindler is portrayed in the film as a very savvy industrialist. He has an unerring instinct for which palms to grease, and how to handle difficult personalities.
machinist
salesman
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Who played Schindler's accountant, Itzhak Stern?
Ben Kingsley
The Stern character was actually a composite of three people close to Schindler: Stern himself, Schindler's plant manager, and Schindler's secretary. In the list-making scene, Stern is shown, but in real life, secretary Mietek Pemper typed the names.
Harvey Keitel
Kevin Kline
F. Murray Abraham
Why does Stern scratch his head when around the Nazis?
he wants to look confused and nonthreatening
he wants them to think he has head lice
Stern says that the Nazis stay away from Jews they believe have lice, for fear of catching it. Stern sacrifices a bit of dignity to keep his enemies at a distance.
they just make him twitchy and uncomfortable
he doesn't realize he's doing it
What does Schindler's first factory in Krakow manufacture?
paper goods
enamelware
Enamelware is kitchen goods made of cast iron coated with enamel. Enamel is valued for cookware because it's scratch resistant and easy to clean.
munitions
typewriters
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Where does Schindler find the black marketeers in Krakow?
in a cabaret
in a card room
in a church during mass
The young, irreverent traders do business in the pews while a priest intones the mass. Schindler breaks the ice with one of them by complimenting his shirt, then saying he'd like to find one like it.
in a beer garden
In conversation with his wife, what does Schindler say is the ingredient that has made him successful at last?
luck
good faith
hard work
war
Toward the end of the film, Schindler outright calls himself a "war profiteer." By that point, though, his motives in running his business have changed.
What is Schindler's wife's name?
Anna
Emilie
Schindler was, unfortunately, a famous womanizer. His marriage to Emilie did not last a lifetime, though it lasted through the war years.
Liesl
Karen
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Who played SS officer Amon Goeth?
John C. McGinley
John Lithgow
Tim Roth
Ralph Fiennes
British actor Tim Roth was also up for the role. But Fiennes was chosen because Spielberg felt he had an "evil sexuality."
What item noticeably appears in color in an otherwise black-and-white scene?
a little girl's red coat
Spielberg has said that he intended the girl's coat being in color -- being noticeable -- to represent the fact that the United States, even those at the highest levels of power, knew about the ethnic cleansing of the Jews and did not intervene.
a poppy outside Auschwitz
the gold ring the Jews give Schindler
Goeth's SS pin
Goeth has a Jewish engineer shot for telling him a foundation has to be repoured. What does he do next?
has a drink
cries
laughs
tells his men to repour the foundation
This moment in the film underscores the utter arbitrariness with which the Nazis treated their Jewish prisoners. The engineer, who had a degree from the University of Milan, was correct, but was killed anyway.
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What is the name of Goeth's personal housekeeper?
Mila Pfeffenberg
Helen Hirsch
Hirsch is part of a riveting intercut of scenes halfway through the film. Goeth happens upon her while bathing and seems close to forcing himself on her, while Schindler enjoys a raucous party upstairs and a young Jewish couple is married in the barracks.
Danka Dresner
Manci Rosberg
What is the fate of Goeth's houseboy, Lisiek?
he goes to Schindler's factory and ultimately survives
he is shot by Goeth
Goeth, trying on a magnanimous personality, "pardons" Lisiek for not being able to get stains off his bathtub walls. Then, Goeth looks in the mirror and his expression turns sour, and a moment later, Lisiek is felled by a rifle shot. It's clear that Goeth is to blame.
he dies at Auschwitz
he is sent away in the truckloads of children and not seen again
Why, in the film, is Schindler arrested?
for cheating SS officers at cards
for kissing a young Jewish woman
This was apparently an embellishment in the script. Schindler was arrested several times for black-market activities, but not for kissing a Jewish woman.
for falsifying documents
for overcharging for his goods
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What does Schindler intend to make at his new factory?
more enamelware
shoes
munitions
Goeth scoffs at the idea at first; everyone is making munitions, he says. And he was right to be skeptical. Schindler's factory is a "model of nonproduction," as the film puts it.
watches
In what town does Schindler locate his munitions factory?
Brinnlitz, Czechoslovakia
Schindler has to bribe Goeth to allow him to relocate his factory, and all his workers, to the town. In Brinnlitz, Czechoslovakia, he intends for his factory to be extremely nonproductive, as he doesn't really want to help the war effort.
Bonn, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Warsaw, Poland
What does Goeth suggest he might do with Helen Hirsch?
find her a position in SS office work
take her to Vienna and grow old with her
take her into the woods and shoot her
both #2 and #3
This moment shows Goeth's tortured state of mind: in a sick way, he feels his loves his housekeeper. Enough to fantasize about spending his life with her, and enough to consider a mercy killing rather than let her go to Auschwitz.
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How does Schindler win Helen Hirsch's freedom from Goeth?
he trades an expensive watch for her
he plays cards for her
Schindler coaxes Goeth into the card game. We don't see the game itself, but later Hirsch is among the women lined up to go to Brunnitz.
he sneaks her out of the house at night
he challenges Goeth to a boxing match
Where is the train of women accidentally routed?
Auschwitz
The train goes to Auschwitz. This leads to what might be the movie's most harrowing scene. In it, the women are given haircuts by force and herded into showers. The audience suspects they're about to be gassed, but the room turns out to be, actually, a communal shower.
Bergen-Belsen
Fascist Italy
Soviet Russia
Which happens first: Schindler running out of money, or the end of the war?
Schindler runs out of money
the war ends
these things happen at about the same time
Apparently, this was more or less what happened in real life. The once money-motivated Schindler spent his fortune protecting his Jewish workforce, running out of funds at about the time Germany surrendered.
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How does Amon Goeth die?
he kills himself with poison
he is hanged
The scene where Goeth is hanged has a "banality of evil" feel about it. He stands on a stool with a noose around his neck, and when the time comes, the soldiers have a hard time kicking it out from under him -- it takes several awkward attempts before he finally hangs.
he is shot
we don't know; he disappears
Who greets the Jews outside the factory, the morning after Schindler leaves?
a U.S. Army tank
a Soviet officer on horseback
The Soviet officer tells them they are now free. It's true, but the workers are perplexed as to which way to go, and finally they set off toward a town in search of food.
townspeople from the village nearby
a rabbi from the nearest temple
At what moment does the black-and-white film turn back to color?
when the Nazis walk out of the factory
when the workers give Schindler the ring
when Schindler's car pulls out of the compound
when the surviving, present-day "Schindler Jews" are shown
The film cuts from the actors portraying the workers heading across a field, to the survivors standing in the same field. Then the action moves to Israel, where they visit Oskar Schindler's grave.
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What did the Schindler Jews and the film's actors lay on Schindler's grave?
photographs
lilies
stones
In Jewish graveyards, stones are placed on a grave for remembrance, whereas Christians usually lay flowers. Liam Neeson does lay two roses on Schindler's grave, after everyone else is finished.
various personal effects
Was Oskar Schindler a Nazi?
yes
While we tend to think of "Nazis" as only the military officers and troops, a great many average people were members of the Nazi Party -- and so was Schindler. This makes it all the more extraordinary that he was buried on Mount Zion in Israel.
no
Which of the following actors was NOT considered for the role of Schindler?
Warren Beatty
Kevin Costner
Mel Gibson
Anthony Edwards
Edwards, then of "Top Gun" fame, would have been a bit young. Gibson's candidacy now seems ironic, given his anti-semitic outburst in the 2000s.
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The movie was based on what source material?
an oral history of the Schindler Jews
a magazine article
a novel, Schindler's Ark
There was a magazine article about Schindler -- The Humanitarian Who Cheated Adolf Hitler -- but it wasn't the primary source. Poldek Pfefferberg, a former Schindler worker, interested the Australian novelist Thomas Keneally in the story, and Keneally wrote the book that came to Spielberg's attention.
the personal diaries of Leopold Page
Which famous violinist performed on the soundtrack?
Yehudi Menuhin
Yo-Yo Ma
Itzhak Perlman
Perlman was born in Tel Aviv before it was part of the nation of Israel. His parents were from Poland, where much of Schindler's List is set.
Pinchas Zukerman
Which director, who turned down the chance to direct the film, actually survived the Krakow ghetto?
Aaron Sorkin
Sydney Pollack
Roman Polanski
Spielberg apparently felt he had misstepped by offering the property to someone who'd been so personally affected by the Holocaust. But Polanski went on to make his own Holocaust film, The Pianist.
Billy Wilder
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Steven Spielberg won the Oscar for Best Director for Schindler's List. How many had he won before?
zero
Spielberg's failure to win a Best Director award, or sometimes even to be snubbed of a nomination, was much talked about around Hollywood. Schindler's List was, quite deservedly, the film that broke his streak.
one
two
Spielberg later used the film for what purpose?
as course material for a class he taught in filmmaking
as course material for a class he taught on the Holocaust
as part of a bid for a Lifetime Achievement Oscar
in lieu of a student project while belatedly getting a degree in film
Spielberg returned to school to finish his degree in film many years after dropping out. His professor accepted Schindler's List in place of a final project. Way to show up the rest of the class, Steven.
You Got:
/35
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