Steven Spielberg says 'Schindler's List' is more relevant today thanks to increased 'collective hate'

Steven Spielberg discussed the relevance of his film 'Schindler's List' in a recent interview. (Getty Images)

Famed director Steven Spielberg recently said that audiences could gain more out of watching his 1993 holocaust movie “Schindler's List” today more than any other time thanks to the current political climate.

He sat down with NBC News’ Lester Holt to discuss the upcoming re-release of the film to commemorate its 25th anniversary. In the interview, Spielberg was asked about its relevance following what Holt described as a rise in anti-semitism in America in the wake of a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

“I think this is maybe the most important time to re-release this film,” Spielberg says in the video below. “Possibly now is even a more important time to re-releases Schindler’s list than 1993-94 when it was initially released. I think there’s more at stake today than even back then.”

He was later asked what he hoped a modern audience could learn from sitting down to watch the movie, which chronicles the real-life story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved 1,200 Jewish people during the Holocaust by employing them in his factory.

“Individual hate is a terrible thing, but when collective hate organizes and gets industrialized, then genocide follows.”

Regardless of its modern relevance, “Schindler’s List” was a decided hit when it was released, eventually earning 12 Academy Awards and scoring roughly $320 million worldwide. At the time, however, Spielberg wasn’t sure that the movie would be well-received, let alone a hit.

"I couldn't imagine based on the story that we told that an audience would tolerate just the amount of violence, human against human. Or inhuman against human," the 71-year-old director said. "No one thought the film was going to make any money."