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50 free Schindler's List trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Schindler's List won seven Academy Awards, was shot in black and white in Kraków in 72 days, and remains the film Steven Spielberg took a decade to feel ready to make. This Schindler's List trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers about the film and the true story behind it: Oskar Schindler and his enamelware factory, Itzhak Stern, Amon Göth and the Płaszów camp, the list of 1,100 names, and the ring inscribed with a line from the Talmud. It also covers how the film got made: the survivor who spent thirty years pushing for it, the directors Spielberg tried to hand it to, why Liam Neeson got the part over bigger stars, how the red coat was colored, who played the violin theme, and the awards, bans and controversies that followed. Some questions are for anyone who has seen the film; the harder ones are for people who have read about it too. Every answer was checked against the film's Wikipedia entry, which cites the production histories and contemporary reporting, and each question links to the page that establishes it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The film is based on a 1982 book by Thomas Keneally. What is it called?
Schindler's Ark
Keneally wrote it after a chance meeting in Los Angeles in 1980 with one of the survivors, who had spent decades trying to get the story told.
Q 02Who plays Oskar Schindler?
Liam Neeson
Spielberg cast the relatively unknown Neeson after seeing him in Anna Christie on Broadway, preferring him to interested stars like Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson.
Q 03Who plays the SS officer Amon Göth?
Ralph Fiennes
Fiennes gained 28 pounds for the role and looked so much like Göth that survivor Mila Pfefferberg trembled when she met him in costume.
Q 04Ben Kingsley plays Itzhak Stern. What is Stern's role in Schindler's business?
His accountant
The film's Stern is a composite of the real accountant, factory manager Abraham Bankier and Göth's secretary Mietek Pemper; Dustin Hoffman turned the part down.
Q 05What does Schindler's Kraków factory produce at the start of the film?
Enamelware
He bribes Wehrmacht and SS officials to acquire it; the real Emalia factory is now a museum that Kraków opened in 2010.
Q 06In which city is most of Schindler's List set?
Kraków
The film was shot at or near the real locations, though the camp had to be rebuilt in a nearby quarry because modern high-rises were visible from the original site.
Q 07Where was Oskar Schindler from, according to the film's opening?
Czechoslovakia
He is a German Nazi Party member who arrives in Kraków hoping to make his fortune; his hometown of Zwittau is near where he later builds his second factory.
Q 08What concentration camp does Amon Göth arrive to build and command?
Płaszów
When it is ready he liquidates the Kraków ghetto: two thousand Jews are sent to the camp and two thousand are killed in the streets.
Q 09What does Göth do from the balcony of his villa?
Shoots prisoners at random
He also brutalizes his Jewish maid, Helen Hirsch, whom the film shows hiding in the villa's cellar.
Q 10Who plays Göth's maid, Helen Hirsch?
Embeth Davidtz
Caroline Goodall plays Emilie Schindler; critic Terrence Rafferty singled out Davidtz's performance alongside the three male leads.
Q 11How many names does the list eventually contain?
1,100
Schindler and Stern draw it up to move workers to a new munitions factory instead of letting them be sent to Auschwitz.
Q 12Where does Schindler move his workers in the last part of the film?
Brünnlitz
The town is near his hometown of Zwittau; part of the factory opened as the Museum of Survivors in May 2025.
Q 13When the women on the list are mistakenly sent to Birkenau, which commandant does Schindler bribe?
Rudolf Höss
Director Michael Haneke later criticized the shower scene that follows, saying an audience should never be left guessing whether gas or water will come out.
Q 21Which director was attached to Schindler's List in 1988 before Spielberg took it back and gave him Cape Fear?
Martin Scorsese
Scorsese had hired the screenwriter whose draft was eventually used; he later said his version would not have been the hit Spielberg's became.
Q 22Who wrote the final screenplay?
Steven Zaillian
Spielberg found his 115-page draft too short and had it extended to 195 pages; Keneally's own 220-page adaptation had been the first attempt.
Q 23What was the film's budget?
$22 million
Holocaust films were not expected to make money; it went on to earn more than $320 million worldwide.
Q 14How much usable armament does Schindler's munitions factory produce?
None
He spends his fortune bribing officials and buying shell casings from other companies, and runs out of money in 1945 just as Germany surrenders.
Q 15What gift do the workers give Schindler as he leaves?
A ring engraved with a Talmudic paraphrase
The inscription reads "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire"; they also give him a signed statement about his role in saving them.
Q 16How does the film's epilogue say Amon Göth died?
He was hanged for crimes against humanity
Schindler and his wife were declared Righteous Among the Nations and a tree was planted for him in Jerusalem.
Q 17Which survivor spent decades pushing to film Schindler's story and is credited as Leopold Page?
Poldek Pfefferberg
He tried to make a film with MGM as early as 1963; at their first meeting in 1983 Spielberg told him he would start filming in ten years.
Q 18Which studio executive sent Spielberg the book review that got him interested?
Sid Sheinberg
Sheinberg later greenlit the film on one condition: that Spielberg direct a certain blockbuster first.
Q 19Which film did Spielberg have to make first as a condition of getting Schindler's List greenlit?
Jurassic Park
He spent several hours each evening in Kraków editing the dinosaur film, which premiered in June 1993.
Q 20Which director, a survivor of the Kraków Ghetto, turned down Spielberg's offer to direct the film?
Roman Polanski
His mother was killed at Auschwitz; he eventually made his own Holocaust film, The Pianist, in 2002.
Q 24What did Spielberg do with his salary for the film?
He refused to take one, calling it "blood money"
He also believed the film would fail; the profits later helped him found an archive of survivor testimony.
Q 25Which star's script reading worried Spielberg because of his accent and "movie star baggage"?
Warren Beatty
Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson also expressed interest before Spielberg settled on Neeson.
Q 26Which media executive's charisma did Spielberg show Neeson on film clips to help him prepare?
Steve Ross of Time Warner
Neeson also studied a tape of the real Schindler speaking to learn his intonation and pitch.
Q 27How many days did principal photography in Kraków take?
72
The schedule had planned 75; about forty percent of the film was shot with handheld cameras.
Q 28Why was a replica of part of Birkenau built just outside the real entrance?
The World Jewish Congress objected to filming inside
Polish authorities had actually granted permission to film on the museum grounds.
Q 29Which comedian phoned Spielberg during the shoot to cheer him up?
Robin Williams
Spielberg said his wife Kate Capshaw rescued him "ninety-two days in a row" when things got unbearable.
Q 30Which 1985 documentary influenced Spielberg's decision to shoot without storyboards, like a documentary?
Shoah
Its director Claude Lanzmann nonetheless called Schindler's List a "kitschy melodrama".