Power and ignorance are a dangerous combination. In the movie, Schindler’s List, this disgusting combination and the resulting horror are apparent. Oskar Schindler, a wealthy businessman, saw the devastation the Nazis were causing and had to pretend to be sympathetic to the Nazi cause in order to save the lives of over 1,200 Jews.
Control, another form of power, has a way of tempting a person and perverting them into something unrecognizable. Control can create a monster with the desire to consume anyone and anything in its path. Power is the only reason or explanation for what Hitler was able to do to the Jews. The human devastation he caused is impressive in a sickening way. To think that the world let this one man and his followers inflict that kind of destruction is unthinkable.
To display this kind of suffering and destruction, Spielberg chose to film the entire movie in black and white except for a couple of elements. I believe the reason he chose to do this was because he felt that black and white filming was the best way to convey the rawness of the emotion in this story. Personally, I believe that color can artificially inflate a viewer’s emotions. With black and white, the actions and events that are taking place on the screen are what dictate the emotions that viewers experience during the film.
One element that Spielberg chose to do in color was the coat of a little Jewish girl who was only three or four years old. The little girl and her red coat represented the innocence of the Jews. Oskar Schindler saw this girl twice and recognized her by her red coat. The first time he saw her was during the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. The second time he saw her was when her body was being carted away with the other dead bodies in a concentration camp.
The convergence of the hunger for power, the exertion of control and the tolerance of ignorance created the perfect storm in the case of the Nazis. The amount of human suffering they caused has been unparalleled in history. Hopefully, with any luck, this will remain the case forever.