TOwas only three years old when, wearing a red coatentered the history of cinema: she did it by playing a little girl during the scene of the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto by the German troops in the film (award-winning at the Oscars) Schindler’s List. Now Oliwia Dabrowska she is thirty-two and is one of the many women who is courageously helping the Ukrainian refugees to enter Poland.
The little girl in the red coat from Schindler’s List, now an upstart for Ukraine
Schindler’s List, Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film, has become a very powerful symbol. From the moment he left, he brought the tragedy of the Shoah back to the big screen with renewed strength the true story of Oskar Schindlera German businessman remembered for saving more than a thousand Jews from extermination during the Second World War.
Schindler’s List (1993)
The film was shot entirely in black and white. Only four scenes surpass this stylistic choice. Two of these see right the presence of Oliwia Dabrowska: a little girl in a red colored coat who poses during the sweep of the ghetto an alternative to the black and white of the painful tale.
At the time of the release of the film, Spielberg explained that the choice to insert that particular in red was a criticism of high-ranking American officials: the annihilation of European Jews was evident, according to the director, as was that little girl in the red coat, in the middle of the black and white crowd.
A critiqueso, to US immobility against the Holocaust. But also a symbol of hope, innocence and suffering.
Oliwia Dabrowska today, activist for Ukraine
The news in recent days about the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops is terrible. Painful. And they report to the triumph of inhumanity and injustice that Spielberg himself had decided to denounce through his film.
Oliwia Dabrowska, the girl in the red coat from Schindler’s List, now an activist for Ukraine
Oliwia Dabrowska, the little girl in the red coat of Schindler’s List. now lives in Poland and he wants to make his own the teachings of the film in which he starred. You seem to want to testify with your own life that – in the presence of an injustice – it is necessary to take the side of good. She is in fact one of the many women who are moving to help civilians trying to flee the war in Ukraine. To do it, went to the border between Poland and Ukraine and used social networks to inform and ask for help and support.
On the Polish border to give hospitality
“She has always been the symbol of hope. Let it be again“. This phrase often returns to the Instagram profile of the former actress. She is referring to the little girl she played her when she was only three years old. A little girl who challenged the consciences of the whole world with her red coat. And which is now tinged with the colors of the Ukrainian flag, as in the image shared by Dabrowska herself on Instagram.
On March 13, the former actress posted a photograph of him in Korczowa, on the border between Poland and Ukraine. “I was there with my brave mom. This place behind me is the welcome point. There we found a Ukrainian family (a mother with two children) who had to arrive in a very distant cityclose to the border with Germany, ”he wrote.
From Schindler’s List to activism for Ukraine, via social media
“Russia bombed today Yavoriv, just twenty kilometers from Poland. It is so close! I’m afraid, but this pushes me to help refugees even more. Speaking of this family, we usually try to “settle” refugees in our area, but this time we could not say no to their request for help. They desperately wanted to reach their sister. Those children… My God, I can barely hold back the tears, ”she continued, then asking for financial support to support their commitment.
Only three days ago, however, Oliwia Dabrowska has shared a new photograph, where she wears a volunteer bib. Her commitment, as well as that of many people, continues. That little girl’s gaze continues to penetrate us. And to ask us to never choose the path of indifference.
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