History TearJerker / SchindlersList

* The scene where the mothers are cheerfully getting dressed after being selected. Then the children are lured out presumably to be thrown in the gas chambers onto trucks. As the children gleefully wave good-bye to their parents, a rampage of parents heads howling and running toward the trucks.

Let's just come out and say it: ''the whole movie'' is a TearJerker, and is considered one of the biggest TearJerker Films in Cinematic History. There's a reason why it won the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture Oscar for Best Picture]].

** [[https://www.youtube/watch?v=WP8bpvb0Llk The most powerful scene in the movie]].

** [[http://youtu.be/WP8bpvb0Llk The most powerful scene in the movie]].

* The entire scene of the Plaszow Ghetto being liquidated. The entire scene is chaotic, filled with the Nazis going into homes and either looting homes or massacring Jews en masse. The residents of the ghetto are terrified and doing everything they can to hide and/or survive.

** One scene has a man beg for the soldiers to help his wife, who is non-respondent. A Nazi tells the man to let go of his wife, and when he doesn't calmly puts a bullet in the woman's head before telling the man to get in line. What's worse is that this could have been a [[Main/MercyKill mercy]] so that the man would have a chance to live.

--> '''Schindler's mistress:''' (''on the verge of crying'') Oh, please, let's go. Let's go, please.

* Stern and Schindler finally sharing a drink just after they've learnt that all the Płaszow inmates, including Stern, are to be sent to Auschwitz and almost certain death.
-->'''Oskar''': Someday... this is all going to end, you know. I was going to say "we'll have a drink then".\\
'''Itzhak''' ''(with tears in his eyes)'': I think I'd better have it now.

* The horrifying scene where human corpses are cremated at the Hujova Gorka in Plaszow, and Schindler, shocked, wipes the ashes off the wheel of his car as if they were falling snow. One of the SS men makes scary faces at the Jews carrying the corpses to the fire and laughs.

Let's just come out and say it: ''the whole movie'' is a TearJerker. There's a reason why it won the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture Oscar for Best Picture]].

Let's say it. The WHOLE MOVIE is a Tearjerker. There's a reason why it won the Best Picture [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]].

* The scene that sets the tone for the rest of the film is the death of the one armed gentleman. Shortly after a scene where he praises Schindler and promises to work his hardest, he is taken aside while shovelling snow by the guards, all while blithely exclaiming "I work for Oskar Schindler!" before being shot. After that, we see Schindler, who had harshly criticized Stern for hiring him and demanded never to be put in such a position again, angrily demanding compensation and insisting that the man was an essential worker: "[[MeaningfulEcho Quite skilled]]."

--> '''Schindler's mistress:''' (''on the verge of crying'') Oh, please, let's go.

!!Meta
* Producer Branko Lustig's [[http://youtu.be/1HKTYYX50hQ?t=3m13s speech]] after winning the Best Picture Oscar also counts as this. [[RealitySubtext He is a survivor of Auschwitz]].
* The title theme by Music/JohnWilliams; the violin almost sounds like it's ''sobbing,'' wailing out its grief and pain at so much loss. The orchestra was led by famed Jewish violinist Itzhak Perlman, who considered it the greatest honor of his career.

** Rather than be brutally shot to death, many hospital patients are given poison to drink by the nurses to make their deaths more peaceful.

* During the liquidation scene, a doctor and nurse are seen euthanizing their bedridden patients so they won't be brutally killed by the Nazis.

* The ending scene at Schindler's Grave, with all the real survivors respectfully placing stones at it.

* The scene where Stern tells Schindler that he's broke. This man did so much to save all those people and what does he get out of it? He was rich and now he has nothing.
* The epilogue stating that the Schindler Jews and their descendants outnumber the Jewish population of Poland... drive home the scale of the tragedy, why don't you?
* Two Nazi soldiers were holding a boy by his arms and another soldier shot the boy. And the scene where parents got to see their children being carried off for medical exams...

* The fact that, baring some ArtisticLicense, everything depicted in the movie ''actually happened.''

* The little girl in the red coat. She walks past death, vaguely aware of the violence around her. To make matters worse, when Schindler sees the little girl take refuge (unnoticed) in an abandoned place, Schindler leaves, thinking she'll be all right. Then he discovers her in the cremating scene.

* The little girl in the red coat. She walks past death, vaguely aware of the violence around her. To make matters worse, when Schindler sees the little girl take refuge (unnoticed) in an abandoned place, Schindler leaves implying to himself "she's all right." Then he discovers that she joins the cremating scene.

* During the scene where the children get taken away onto the trucks, there were other kids either running away, or hiding from the guards. One boy tries to find a hiding spot, but every place he looks is already occupied by one or two other kids. This eventually leads him to hide down a latrine, completely filled with crap. But the real kicker here? It was yet another occupied spot by two other kids.

* The epilogue stating that the Schindler Jews and their descendants outnumber the Jewish population of Poland...drive home the scale of the tragedy, why don't you?

-->'''Oskar:''' This pin... two people. This is gold; two more people. He would've given me two for it. At least one, he would've given me one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this.

** One brief yet gut-wrenching part comes just before Schindler's breakdown. Right after he says, "I could have got more out," Itzhak slowly shakes his head, with a sad expression on his face. He ''knows'' what's about to happen.

** The last part of Oskar's line is muttered. It sounds very much like Schindler is saying "what person was that" instead of "a person, Stern, for this." Coupled with his staring into space, imagine the eyes and faces of every Jew he saw in the camps are now flashing through his head when he sees that he truly could have saved at least one more person. What person would he choose? ''How'' could he have chosen?

* The silent disbelief of a jeweler when he's suddenly given an entire pouch of golden teeth and dentistry fillings to assess as if it was just another tranch of precious metal.

* Most tragic of all, everything depicted in the movie ''actually happened.''

* During the scene where the children get taken away onto the trucks, there were other kids either running away, or hiding from the guards. One boy tries to find a hiding spot, but every place he looks is already occupied by one or two other kids. This eventually leads him to hide down a latrine, completely filled with crap. But the real kicker here? It was yet another occupied spot by two other kids. Ultimately leading to the harshest BrickJoke in movie history: the Nazis find and shoot them all, including the three children in the latrine.

* During the scene where the children get taken away onto the trucks, there were other kids either running away, or hiding from the guards. One boy tries to find a hiding spot, but every place he looks is already occupied by one or two other kids. This eventually leads him to hide down [[spoiler:a latrine, completely filled with crap]]. But the real kicker here? [[spoiler: It was yet another occupied spot by two other kids.]]
** Don't forget the harshest BrickJoke in movie history: [[spoiler: the Nazis find and shoot them all, including the three children in the latrine.]]

* The girl in the red coat [[spoiler: being carried off in a cart full of corpses]].
* The biography of Oskar Schindler made me cry more than the movie...
--->'''Schindler:''' I could have gotten more...
* The end of the movie where some of the ''actual'' people, or members of their family, Schindler was able to save file past his ''actual'' grave to give their respects. It would be over the top melodrama if it just weren't so damn painful to know that these are real, flesh and blood people, people with friends and family, none of whom would be there except for Oskar.
* And then when it tells you that the Schindler Jews and their descendants outnumber the Jewish population of Poland...drive home the scale of the tragedy, why don't you?
* Two Nazi soldiers were holding a boy by his arms [[spoiler:and another soldier shot the boy. And the scene where parents got to see their children being carried off for medical exams...]]
* A scene in the beginning shows a man with one arm missing coming up to thank Schindler for letting him work in the factory. He seems so pleased because he feels a sense of importance, a purpose even though he has only one arm. However, in a later scene, when the Nazi's stop the ghetto members from going to work to shovel the snow from the street. This moment isn't necessarily significant until [[spoiler: you realize that the Nazis are trying to weed out the people who are physically infirm. The one armed man from earlier is then taken, while he tries to defend that he's important to the factory so that they won't shoot him]].

* The title theme by Music/JohnWilliams; the violin almost sounds like it's ''sobbing,'' wailing out its grief and pain at so much loss.
** The orchestra was led by famed Jewish violist Itzhak Perlman, who considered it the greatest honor of his career.