Quotations and Literature Forum

I am currently writing a 3, 000 word assignment at about Schindlers List and I am interested in the role children play in Holocaust films and literature. At the moment I am researching the girl in the red cape in Schindler's List and I am considering the differences between Spielburg's representation of her in the film and Kenneally's representation of her in his novel.

I have recently read the novel and thought it was a fatastic piece of writing and I thought the way Kenneally handled the narrative was superb. I was wondering if anyone out there who had read Schilder's Arc by Thomas Keneally and if they would be able to help me with any of the following questions.

In the book we are told that Red Genia (The Red Cap) is relatated to Juda Dresner, Danker Dresner and Dr Scindel. We are told Oskar Schinler observes her from a hill, as he does in Spielburg's film. However, do we know if she is just a convention of the novel or did she really exist?

In the book do we know what happens to her? In the film we see her disposed of on a pile of deceased bodies. There is no such scene in the book and I have tried to pinpoint were she disappears but to no avail. Do we ever know what happens to her? Does she die or just disappear? Do you think the characters know what has happened to her? In the novel does she die? Or do you think that Kenneally uses her to orientate us with the characters and to prompt our memories, and that her disappearance is used to move us as readers emotionally.

Any answers, thoughts and\or views would be greatly received.

It is very possible that the real "Red Genia" (aka "Redcap") survived that Aktion. I read an interesting book written by a woman who thinks she may very well have been the same little girl that the prisoners of the Krakow Ghetto had nicknamed "Red Genia".

"The girl in the red coat : a memoir" by Roma Ligocka.

Unfortunately a film did not see, if there is such possibility lay out the reference.
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