Schindler's List (1993)

Ralph Fiennes: Amon Goeth

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Quotes 

• Oskar Schindler : Power - is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't.

  Amon Goeth : You think that's power?

  Oskar Schindler : That's what the Emperor said. A man stole something, he's brought in before the Emperor, he throws himself down on the ground. He begs for mercy, he knows he's going to die. And the Emperor - pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go.

  Amon Goeth : I think you are drunk.

  Oskar Schindler : That's power, Amon. That - is power.

• Amon Goeth : You want these people?

  Oskar Schindler : These people. My people. I want my people.

  Amon Goeth : Who are you? Moses?

• Amon Goeth : 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, Casimir the Great - so called - told the Jews they could come to Krakow. 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. And they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries will be a rumor. They never happened. Today is history.

• [Goeth admires Schindler's his suit] 

  Amon Goeth : It has a nice sheen to it. What is it, silk?

  Oskar Schindler : Of course! I'd say I'd get you one but the man who made it's probably dead.

• Amon Goeth : This is really cruel, Oskar. You are giving them hope. You shouldn't do that. *That's* cruel!

• Wilhelm Kunde : [Goeth is being driven round the Ghetto in an open top car]  This street divides the ghetto just about in half. On the right, Ghetto A, civil employees, industrial workers and so on. On the left, Ghetto B, surplus labor, the elderly and infirm, mostly, which is where you will want to start. Any questions?

  Amon Goeth : Ja. Why is the top down? I'm fucking freezing.

• Oskar Schindler : Look, all you have to do is tell me what it's worth to you. What's a person worth to you?

  Amon Goeth : No, no, no, no. What's one worth to you!

• Reiter : I'm a graduate of Civil Engineering from the University of Milan.

  Amon Goeth : Ah, an educated Jew... like Karl Marx himself. Unterscharführer!

  Hujar : Jawohl?

  Amon Goeth : Shoot her.

  Reiter : Herr Kommandant! I'm only trying to do my job!

  Amon Goeth : Ja, I'm doing mine.

• Amon Goeth : Oskar, there's a clerical error here at the bottom of the last page.

  Oskar Schindler : No, there's one more name I want to put there. I'll never find a maid as well trained as her at Brinnlitz. They are all country girls.

  Amon Goeth : [referring to Helen]  No. No.

  Oskar Schindler : One hand of 21. If you win, I pay you 7400 Reichmarks. Hit a natural and I make it 14800. If I win, the girl goes on my list.

  Amon Goeth : I can't wager Helen in a card game.

  Oskar Schindler : Why not?

  Amon Goeth : Wouldn't be right.

  Oskar Schindler : She's going to Auschwitz on Number Two anyway. What difference does it make?

  Amon Goeth : She's not going to Auschwitz. I'd never do that to her. No, I want her to come back to Vienna with me. I want her to come to work for me there. I want to grow old with her.

  Oskar Schindler : Are you mad? Amon, you can't take her to Vienna with you.

  Amon Goeth : No, of course I can't. That's what I'd like to do. What I can do, if I'm any sort of a man, is the next most merciful thing. I should take her into the woods and shoot her painlessly in the back of the head. What was it you said for a natural 21? Was it 14800?

• Amon Goeth : So... this is where you come to hide from me. I came to tell you... that you, um.. 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... be happy to give you one. It must get lonely down here when you're listening to everyone upstairs having such a good time.

  [pause] 

  Amon Goeth : Does it?

  [pause] 

  Amon Goeth : You can answer.

  [pause] 

  Amon Goeth : "But what's the right answer?" That's what you're thinking. "What does he want to hear?"

  [pause] 

  Amon Goeth : The truth, Helen, is always the right answer.

  [pause] 

  Amon Goeth : Yes, you're right. Sometimes, we're both lonely. Yes. I... 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, but... No, maybe you're right about that, too, you know. Maybe what's... what's wrong isn't... it's not us. It's... no, it's this. I mean, when... when they compare you to... to, uh, vermin, to rodents, and to lice. I just, uh... No, you make a good point. You make a very good point.

  [touches her hair] 

  Amon Goeth : Is this the face of a rat? Are these the eyes of a rat? Hath not a Jew eyes?

  [put his hands on her] 

  Amon Goeth : I feel for you, Helen.

  [leans forward to kiss her] 

  Amon Goeth : No, I don't think so. You're a Jewish bitch. You nearly talked me into it... didn't you?

  [proceeds to beat her] 

• [it's a scorching hot day and the Jews are packed into the cattle cars] 

  Oskar Schindler : What do you say we get your fire hoses out here and hose down the cars? Indulge me.

  Amon Goeth : Hujar.

  Albert Hujar : Yes sir?

  Amon Goeth : Bring the fire hoses.

  Albert Hujar : Where's the fire?

  [Schindler and Goeth laugh] 

• Amon Goeth : [Touching his reflection in a mirror]  I pardon you.

• Amon Goeth : Scherner told me something else about you.

  Oskar Schindler : Yeah, what's that?

  Amon Goeth : That you know the meaning of the word 'gratitude.' That it's not some vague thing with you like it is with others. You want to stay where you are. You've got things going on the side, things are good. You don't want anybody telling you what to do. I can understand all that. You know, I know you... What you want is your own sub-camp. Do you have any idea what's involved? The paperwork alone? Forget you've got to build the fucking thing, getting the fucking permits is enough to drive you crazy. Then the engineers show up. They stand around, they argue about drainage, foundations, codes, exact specifications, parallel fences four kilometers long, six thousand kilograms of electrified fences... I'm telling you, you'll want to shoot somebody. I've been through it, you know, I know.

  Oskar Schindler : Well, you know, you've been through it. You could make things easier for me. I'd be grateful.

• [watching the incineration of Jews' bodies outside Krakow] 

  Amon Goeth : 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.

  Oskar Schindler : When?

  Amon Goeth : I don't know. As soon as I can arrange the shipments, maybe thirty, forty days. That ought to be fun.

• Oskar Schindler : I go to work the other day. Nobody's there. Nobody tells me about this, I have to find out. I have to go in... everybody's gone.

  Amon Goeth : No... no. They're not gone. They're here.

  Oskar Schindler : They're MINE! Every day that goes by I'm losing money, every worker that is shot cost's me money, I have to find somebody else, I have to train them.

  Amon Goeth : Don't be making so much money, none of this is going to matter.

  Oskar Schindler : It's bad business.

• [last lines] 

  Amon Goeth : [about to be hanged]  Heil Hitler.

• Amon Goeth : The truth, Helen, is always the right answer.

• Amon Goeth : My place is where?

  S.S. Guard : There, sir.

  Amon Goeth : There?

  S.S. Guard : Yeah, it's a villa.

  Amon Goeth : You call that a villa!

  S.S. Guard : The synagogue, can you see it?

  Amon Goeth : That's not a villa...

  S.S. Guard : We're planning on turning it into the camp stables.

  Amon Goeth : It's a house!

• Amon Goeth : One of you is a very lucky girl. There is an opening for a job away from all this back-breaking work, in my new villa. Umm, which of you has domestic experience? Ja, on second thought, I don't really want someone else's maid. All those annoying habits I'd have to undo.

• Amon Goeth : 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 it all the time. It's a matter of money? Hmm?

• Amon Goeth : [about to execute a prisoner when his gun jams]  Oh, Christ!

  Hujar : May I try that, sir?

  [takes gun while prisoner cowers on ground] 

  S.S. Guard : Check the angle lever, maybe it's bent.

  Hujar : No, no. You wouldn't hear a "click" if its the angle lever, it's the pin.

  S.S. Guard : Maybe its the pin. Maybe the pin shaft is greasy?

  Hujar : What did I just say? Here.

  [hands back gun and it jams again] 

• Amon Goeth : [Loads a rifle and points it in her face] 

  Majola : Amon, you're such a damn fucking child!

  Amon Goeth : Wakey-wakey.

  Majola : Make coffee.

  Amon Goeth : Make it yourself.

• Amon Goeth : [addressing prisoners]  Nobody knows who stole the chicken, hmm?

  S.S. Guard : Tell him about the chicken!

  Amon Goeth : A man walks around with a chicken and nobody notices this...

  S.S. Guard : Save yourselves, save yourself. Tell him about the chicken!

• Amon Goeth : We won't have arguments with these people.

• Amon Goeth : Control is power. That's power.

  Oskar Schindler : Is that why they fear us?

  Amon Goeth : We have the fucking power to kill, that's why they fear us.

  Oskar Schindler : They fear us because we have the power to kill arbitrarily. A man commits a crime, he should know better. We have him killed, and we feel pretty good about it. Or we kill him ourselves and we feel even better. That's not power, though. That's justice. It's different than power.

• Amon Goeth : She can work. Come here. Look, separate the sick from the healthy. Those who can work and those who can't. She can work.

• Amon Goeth : Come on, what is this? Where's the money in this? Where's the scam?

  Oskar Schindler : It's good business.

  Amon Goeth : Ja, it's good business in your opinion. Look, you've got to move them, the equipment, everything to Czechoslovakia. Pay for all that and build another camp. Doesn't make any sense.

  Oskar Schindler : Look, Amon...

  Amon Goeth : You're not telling me something.

  Oskar Schindler : It's good for me. I know them. I'm familiar with them. I don't have to train them.

  Amon Goeth : You're not telling me something.

  Oskar Schindler : It's good for you! I'll compensate you.

• Amon Goeth : Everybody's happy. Everyone's happy, except me. You're probably scamming me somehow. If I'm making 100, you've got to be making 300. And if you admit to 300, then it's 400, actually. But how?

  Reiter : I just told you.

  Amon Goeth : You did, but you didn't. Ja, all right, don't tell me. I'll go along with it. It's just irritating I can't work it out.

• Amon Goeth : He likes women. He likes good-looking women. He sees a beautiful woman, he doesn't think. I mean, he has so many women. And they love him. Ja, they love him. I mean, he is married, Ja, but he's - all right, no. She was Jewish. He shouldn't have done it. But you didn't see this girl. I saw this girl. This girl was, woof. She was 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? Hmm?

  Montelupich Colonel : You're offering me a bribe?

  Amon Goeth : A bribe? No. No, please. It's a gratuity.