Schindler's List

"[To Pfefferberg] Boxed teas are good, coffee, pâté, um, kiełbasa sausage, cheeses, beluga caviar. And of course, who could live without German cigarettes, as many as you can find. And some more fresh fruit – the real rarities: oranges, lemons, pineapples. I need several boxes of Cuban cigars, the best. And dark unsweetened chocolate, not in the shape of lady fingers, the chunk chocolate, big as my hand. You sample it at wine tastings. We're going to need lots of cognac, the best – Hennessy. Dom Pérignon champagne. Get L'Espadon sardines. And, oh, try to find nylon stockings."

"It is my distinct pleasure to announce the fully operational status of Deutsche Email Fabrik – manufacturers of superior enamelware crockery, expressly designed and crafted for military use, utilizing only the most modern equipment. DEF's staff of highly skilled and experienced artisans and journeymen deliver a product of unparalleled quality, enabling me to proffer with absolute confidence and pride, a full line of field and kitchen ware unsurpassable in all respects by my competitors. See attached list and available colors. Anticipating the enclosed bids will meet with your approval, and looking forward to a long and mutually prosperous association, I extend to you, in advance, my sincerest gratitude and very best regards. Oskar Schindler."

"[To Gestapo men, as they are arresting him] I'm not saying you'll regret it, but you might. You should be aware of that."

"I violated the Race and Resettlement Act. Though I doubt anyone can point out the actual provision to me. I kissed a Jewish girl."

"The train with the women has already left Płaszów and will be arriving here very shortly. I know you've had a long journey, but it's only a short walk further to the factory where hot soup and bread is waiting for you. Welcome to Brinnlitz."

"[To guards pulling girls out of the lines to get the train to Brinnlitz] Hey! Hey! Hey! What are you doing?! These are mine! These are my workers, they should be on my train! They're skilled munitions workers! They're essential. Essential girls! Their fingers polish the insides of shell metal casings. How else am I to polish the inside of a 45-millimeter shell casing? You tell me. You tell me!"

"[To Brinnlitz guards] Under Department W provisions, it is unlawful to kill a worker without just cause. Under the Businesses Compensation Fund, I am entitled to file damage claims for such deaths. If you shoot without thinking, you go to prison, I get paid. That's how it works. So, there will be no summary executions here. There will be no interference of any kind with production. In hopes of ensuring that, guards will no longer be allowed on the factory floor without my authorization. [To the Commanding Officer, Josef Liepold] For your cooperation, you have my gratitude."

"[To his wife, Emilie] No doorman or Maître D' will ever mistake you again. I promise."

"The unconditional surrender of Germany has just been announced. At midnight tonight, the war is over. Tomorrow you'll begin the process of looking for survivors of your families. In most cases … you won't find them. After six long years of murder, victims are being mourned throughout the world. We've survived. Many of you have come up to me and thanked me. Thank yourselves. Thank your fearless Stern, and others among you who worried about you and faced death at every moment. I am a member of the Nazi Party. I'm a munitions manufacturer. I'm a profiteer of slave labor. I am … a criminal. At midnight, you'll be free and I'll be hunted. I shall remain with you until five minutes after midnight, after which time – and I hope you'll forgive me – I have to flee. [To the factory's SS guards] I know you have received orders from our commandant, which he has received from his superiors, to dispose of the population of this camp. Now would be the time to do it. Here they are; they're all here. This is your opportunity. … Or, you could leave, and return to your families as men instead of murderers. [The guards gradually exit; he addresses the workers again] In memory of the countless victims among your people, I ask us to observe three minutes of silence."

"Today is history. Today will be remembered. Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today is history and you are part of it. Six hundred years ago when elsewhere they were footing the blame for the Black Death, Kazimierz the Great – so called – told the Jews they could come to Kraków. They came. They trundled their belongings into the city. They settled. They took hold. They prospered in business, science, education, the arts. They came with nothing. Nothing. And they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Kraków. Think about that. By this evening, those six centuries are a rumor. They never happened. Today is history."

"[To Stern] Goldberg and Chilowicz make sure I see my cut from the factory owners in this camp, leaving you to take care of my main account – the Schindler account. He wants his independence. I gave it to him. But independence costs money. This you understand? [Stern nods] Look at me. Don't forget who you are working for now."

"[To Helen] I came to tell you that you really are a wonderful cook and a well-trained servant. I mean it. If you need a reference after the war, I'd be happy to give you one. It's kind of lonely down here, it seems, with everyone upstairs having such a good time. Does it? You can answer. "What was the right answer?" That's – that's what you're thinking. "What does he want to hear?" The truth, Helen, is always the right answer. Yes, you're right. Sometimes we're both lonely. Yes, I mean, I would like, so much, to reach out and touch you in your loneliness. What would that be like, I wonder? I mean, what would be wrong with that? I realize that you're not a person in the strictest sense of the word. Maybe you're right about that too. You know, maybe what's wrong isn't – it's not us – it's this. I mean, when they compare you to vermin and to rodents and to lice, I just, uh … you make a good point, a very good point. [He strokes her hair] Is this the face of a rat? Are these the eyes of a rat? "Hath not a Jew eyes?" I feel for you, Helen. [He decides not to kiss her] No, I don't think so. You're a Jewish bitch. You nearly talked me into it, didn't you? [He beats her]"

"[Defending Schindler] He likes women. He likes good-looking women. He sees a beautiful woman – he doesn't think. He has so many women. They love him, yeah, they love him. I mean, he's married, yeah, but … all right, she was Jewish, he shouldn't have done it, but you didn't see this girl. I saw this girl. This girl was, wuff, very good-looking. They cast a spell on you, you know, the Jews. When you work closely with them like I do, you see this. They have this power, it's like a virus. Some of my men are infected with this virus. They should be pitied, not punished. They should receive treatment, because this is as real as typhus. I see this all the time. It's a matter of money, hm?"

"[Supervising the incineration of bodies buried near Płaszów] Can you believe this? As if I don't have enough to do, they come up with this? I have to find every rag buried up here and burn it. The party's over, Oskar. They're closing us down, sending everybody to Auschwitz … as soon as I can arrange the shipments, maybe 30, 40 days. That ought to be fun."

"[Last lines, before being hanged] Heil Hitler. [The chair underneath is kicked out, and he is hanged to death]"

"Herr Direktor, don't let the things fall apart. I worked too hard."

"[To Schindler, presenting a ring] It's Hebrew from the Talmud. It says, "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.""

"It's illegal to buy or sell anything on the street. We don't do that. We're here to pray."

"I'm a policeman now, could you believe it? That's what's hard to believe … it's a good racket, Poldek. It's the only racket here. Look, maybe I could put in a good word for you with my superiors … come on, they're not as bad as everyone says. Well, they're worse than everyone says, but it's a lot of money, a lot of money."

"SS officer: This storm is different. This is not the Romans. This storm is the SS."

"Jewish Woman: [to the Judenrat] They come into our house and tell us we don't live there anymore. It now belongs to a certain SS officer … aren't you supposed to be able to help?"

"Mr. Lowenstein: The SS beat me up. They would have killed me, but I'm essential to the war effort, thanks to you. … I work hard for you. … I'll continue to work hard for you. … God bless you, sir. … You're a good man. … [to Stern] He saved my life. … God bless him. … [to Schindler] God bless you."

"Clerk: [to Schindler, about Stern] I'm sorry. You can't have him. He's on the list. If he were an essential worker, he would not be on the list … it makes no difference to us, you understand. This one, that one. It's the inconvenience to the list. It's the paperwork."

"SS Officer: [to Schindler, about relocating to Płaszów] Since your labor is housed onsite, it's available to you at all times. You can work them all night if you want. Your factory policies, whatever they've been in the past, they'll continue to be, they'll be respected."

"Oberführer Scherner: [to Schindler] We give you Jewish girls at five marks a day, Oskar. You should kiss us, not them. God forbid you ever get a real taste for Jewish skirt – there's no future in it. No future. They don't have a future. And that's not just good old-fashioned Jew-hating talk. It's policy now."

"Winston Churchill (on radio): Yesterday morning, at 2:41 AM, at General Eisenhower's headquarters, General Jodl signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea, and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command. The German war is therefore at an end. But let us not forget for a moment …"

"Rabbi Lewartow: [to Schindler] We've written a letter trying to explain things in case you are captured. Every worker has signed it."

"End titles: Amon Goeth was arrested while a patient in a sanatorium at Bad Tolz. He was hanged in Kraków for crimes against humanity. … Oskar Schindler failed at his marriage and several businesses after the war. … in 1958, he was declared a righteous person by the council of the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and invited to plant a tree in the Avenue of the Righteous. It grows there still. … The Schindler Jews today. … There are fewer than four thousand Jews left alive in Poland today. There are more than six thousand descendants of the Schindler Jews. … In memory of the more than six million Jews murdered."

"Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

"The List Is Life."

"A story of courage that the world needs now more than ever."

"Una vela no pierde su luz por compartirla con otra. (Spanish, "A candle loses nothing by lighting another", attributed to Father James Keller)"

"Liam Neeson – Oskar Schindler"

"Ben Kingsley – Itzhak Stern"

"Ralph Fiennes – Amon Goeth"

"Caroline Goodall – Emilie Schindler"

"Jonathan Sagall – Poldek Pfefferberg"

"Embeth Davidtz – Helen Hirsch"

"Mark Ivanir – Marcel Goldberg"

"Andrzej Seweryn – Julian Scherner"

"Adi Nitzan – Mila Pfefferberg"

"Michael Schneider – Juda Dresner"

"Miri Fabian – Chaja Dresner"

"Anna Mucha – Danka Dresner"

"Ezra Dagan – Rabbi Menasha Lewartow"

"Uri Avrahami – Chaim Nowak"

"Elina Löwensohn – Diana Reiter"

"Has Godard or any other director living or dead done more than Spielberg, with his Holocaust Project, to honor and preserve the memories of the survivors?""

"I regard as kitsch any representation of the Holocaust that is incapable of understanding or unwilling to understand the organic connection between our own deformed mode of life and the very possibility of the Holocaust."

"Rernicious in its impact and influence. Very sentimental"