Schindler’s Girl in Red Coat Helps Refugees in Ukraine

Stand for Israel  |  April 25, 2022

Perhaps nothing in recent decades did more to raise awareness about the Holocaust than Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film, Schindler’s List. And, as we once again focus on this dark chapter in history for Yom HaShoah, perhaps no other image from that movie stuck in minds more than “the girl in the red coat.” Now, the young woman who played this heart-wrenching role has grown up and, as reported by our friends at The Times of Israel, is still helping those in need, aiding refugees from war-torn Ukraine:

The Polish woman who played the standout part of the girl in the red coat in the film “Schindler’s List” has been helping Ukrainians fleeing to her country, and says she hopes her iconic role as an innocent victim of war will help draw further attention to the plight of modern-day refugees.

Oliwia Dabrowska, 32, participated in the famous scene in the middle of the Holocaust movie when she was three years old. In it, Oskar Schindler, watching the dissolution of the Krakow Ghetto, suddenly notices a small child walking down the street. Strikingly, the girl’s red coat is the only bit of color in the entire black and white film. Later in the movie, Schindler sees the girl’s body loaded onto a cart.

Dabrowska, who lives in Krakow, told The Washington Post on Friday that when the war in Ukraine started and refugees began streaming into the country, she felt she had to do something. She convinced her mother to go with her to volunteer at the border, and spent weeks helping to connect refugees with families who could host them, as well as driving them to various destinations across the country…

“I decided to change my fear [of the war] into action, into helping people,” she told The Post…