The Liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto, from "Schindler's List" (1993), directed by Steven Spielberg.

Sometimes the apocalypse descends within the species. Schindler's List, despite some third-act problems, is arguably Steven Spielberg's greatest film, and this genocidal rampage by Nazi SS troops under the command of Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes, in an Oscar-nominated performance) is its centerpiece. It expertly uses the Krakow locations depicted in the video clip linked in the comments -- I have walked many of those streets, toured Schindler's former factory, and also visited his grave on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (see photos below). As a sequence of cinematic genius, the liquidation of the Kazimierz Jewish quarter presents the usual aesthetic/ethical issues: this is a Holocaust movie, after all, and probably the most widely-viewed and iconic ever. What place does Spielberg's bravura filmmaking have when the subject is a horrific mass atrocity? Wherever you stand, there is nothing like this sequence in the history of movies to convey the human capacity for murderous violence against innocents, and the mindset of the Nazi killers. I've shown this in both my Genocide classes and my International Politics on Film course, as an almost documentary evocation of an emblematic moment in the Holocaust. Janusz Kamiński's Oscar-winning black-and-white cinematography is a luminous landmark (and the storied "Girl in the Red Coat" makes an appearance here as the only splash of colour).

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