Former child actress Oliwia Dabrowska, who played the little girl in the red coat in a famous 'Schindler's List' scene, is now helping Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border.
The Polish former child actress who played the girl with the red coat in a famous scene of Schindler's List is now volunteering at the Polish-Ukrainian border, helping refugees fleeing the Russian invasion.
The 32-years-old has shared some of her experiences and called for help and donations in posts on Instagram. "Everything helps. We need material and especially donations in money. We need volunteers. The situation is dramatic and I've seen this with my own eyes", she said in a post she shared.
Oliwia Dabrowska was three-years-old when she starred in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning movie, which portrays a German business man's attempts to save Jews from death camps during the Third Reich. In the movie, which was shot in black and white, Oliwia portrayed a little girl in a red coat, walking through Krakow's ghetto while the Nazis rounded up residents for execution, untouched by the chaos.
A symbol of hope
"She was always the symbol of hope. Let her be it again," Dabrowska wrote on Instagram on March 9, alongside a still from her famous scene in Schindler's List rendered in yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
The Polish ex-actress also spoke about the dramatic moments she experienced volunteering at the border, including when Russia bombed Yavoriv on March 13, just 20 kilometers from the border: "I am scared but this motivates me even more to help refugees".
In her last post on Instagram on April 9, Dabrowska called for donations to buy books in Ukrainian for refugees.
Millions of refugees in Poland
More than 4.6 million people have fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR; more than 7 million have been internally displaced within Ukraine -- making this the largest influx of displacement crisis in Europe since World War II. Dabrowska's home country of Poland -- which shares a large border with Ukraine -- has seen the largest number of arrivals: More than 2.6 million have arrived since Russia launched its attack on February 24.