Schindler's List (1993)

Liam Neeson: Oskar Schindler

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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.

• Oskar Schindler : I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don't know. If I'd just... I could have got more.

  Itzhak Stern : Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.

  Oskar Schindler : If I'd made more money... I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I'd just...

  Itzhak Stern : There will be generations because of what you did.

  Oskar Schindler : I didn't do enough!

  Itzhak Stern : You did so much.

  [Schindler looks at his car] 

  Oskar Schindler : This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people.

  [removing Nazi pin from lapel] 

  Oskar Schindler : This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this.

  [sobbing] 

  Oskar Schindler : I could have gotten one more person... and I didn't! And I... I didn't!

• [Addressing his workers at the end of the war in 1945] 

  Oskar Schindler : 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.

  [He addresses the factory's SS guards] 

  Oskar Schindler : 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] 

  Oskar Schindler : In memory of the countless victims among your people, I ask us to observe three minutes of silence.

• Oskar Schindler : In every business I tried, I can see now, it wasn't me that failed. Something was missing. Even if I'd known what it was, there's nothing I could have done about it because you can't create this thing. And it makes all the difference in the world between success and failure.

  Emilie Schindler : Luck?

  Oskar Schindler : [Schindler kisses his wife's hand and smiles]  War.

• Oskar Schindler : Stern, if this factory ever produces a shell that can actually be fired, I'll be very unhappy.

• Oskar Schindler : How are you doing, Rabbi?

  Rabbi Menasha Lewartow : Good, Herr Direktor.

  Oskar Schindler : The sun is going down.

  Rabbi Menasha Lewartow : Yes it is.

  Oskar Schindler : What day is it? Friday? It is Friday, isn't it?

  Rabbi Menasha Lewartow : Is it?

  Oskar Schindler : What's the matter with you? You should be preparing for the Sabbath, shouldn't you. I've got some wine in my office. Come.

• [to Stern, upon closing the factory deal] 

  Oskar Schindler : My father was fond of saying you need three things in life - a good doctor, a forgiving priest, and a clever accountant. The first two, I've never had much use for.

• Helen Hirsch : My first day here, he beat me because I threw out the bones from dinner. He came down at midnight and asked for them. And I asked him, I don't know how, I could never ask him now, I said, "Why are you beating me?" He said, "The reason I beat you now is because you ask why I beat you."

  Oskar Schindler : I know your sufferings, Helen.

  Helen Hirsch : It doesn't matter. I have accepted them.

  Oskar Schindler : Accepted them?

  Helen Hirsch : One day, he will shoot me.

  Oskar Schindler : No, no, no, no, no. He won't shoot you.

  Helen Hirsch : I know. I see things. We were on the roof on Monday, young Lisiek and I and we saw the Herr Kommandant come out of the front door and down the steps by the patio right there below us and there on the steps he drew his gun and he shot a woman who was passing by. A woman with a bundle, through the throat, just shot her. Just a woman on her way somewhere, you know, she was no fatter or thinner or slower or faster than anyone else and I couldn't guess what - had she done. The more you see of the Herr Kommandant the more you see there are no set rules that you can live by. You can't say to yourself, "If I follow these rules, I will be safe."

  Oskar Schindler : He won't shoot you because he enjoys you too much. He enjoys you so much he won't even let you wear the star. He doesn't want anyone to know it's a Jew he's enjoying. He shot the woman from the steps because she meant *nothing* to him. She was just one of a series neither offending him or pleasing him.

• Oskar Schindler : 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!

  [shows the guard Danka Dresner's hand] 

  Oskar Schindler : Their fingers polish the inside of shell metal casings. How else am I to polish the inside of a 45 millimeter shell casing? You tell me. You tell me!

  S.S. Guard : [to the girls he has been herding away from their parents]  Back on the train!

• [Stern brings a report to Schindler at lunchtime] 

  Oskar Schindler : I could try to read this or I could eat my lunch while it's still hot. We're doing well?

  Itzhak Stern : Yes.

  Oskar Schindler : Better this month than last?

  Itzhak Stern : Yes.

  Oskar Schindler : Any reason to think next month will be worse?

  Itzhak Stern : The war could end.

• Amon Goeth : You want these people?

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

  Amon Goeth : Who are you? Moses?

• Itzhak Stern : By law I have to tell you, sir, I'm a Jew.

  Oskar Schindler : Well, I'm a German, so there we are.

• [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.

• Emilie Schindler : I will only stay if you promise me, no doorman or maitre d will ever mistake anyone but me for Mrs. Oscar Schindler.

  Emilie Schindler : [Next shot she is going away on a train]  Good-bye!

  Oskar Schindler : Good-bye!

• 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!

• Oskar Schindler : [Schindler and Stern are writing the list]  How many?

  Itzhak Stern : 400, 450.

  Oskar Schindler : More. More.

• Itzhak Stern : How many cigarettes have you smoked tonight?

  Oskar Schindler : Too many.

  Itzhak Stern : For every one you smoke, I smoke half.

• 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?

• Itzhak Stern : I'm sorry, Herr Direktor, you're running very late. Here, this is for the Obersturmbahnführer and this is for his niece, it's her birthday, Greta. Greta as in Garbo.

  Oskar Schindler : By the way, don't *ever* do that to me again. Didn't you notice that man only had one arm?

  Itzhak Stern : Did he.

  Oskar Schindler : What's his use?

  [gets into his car] 

  Itzhak Stern : Very useful.

  Oskar Schindler : [shouts from car window]  How?

  Itzhak Stern : [shouts back]  Very useful! Success!

• Oskar Schindler : I've been speaking to Goeth.

  Itzhak Stern : I know the destination. These are the evacuation orders, I'm to help arrange the shipments, put myself on the last train.

  Oskar Schindler : That's not what I was going to say. I made Goeth promise to put in a good word for you. Nothing bad is going to happen to you there, you'll receive special treatment.

  Itzhak Stern : The directives coming in from Berlin talk about "special treatment" more and more often. I'd like to think that's not what you mean.

  Oskar Schindler : Preferential treatment. All right? Do we have to create a new language?

  Itzhak Stern : I think so.

• Itzhak Stern : Let me understand. They put up all the money. I do all the work. What, if you don't mind my asking, would you do?

  Oskar Schindler : I'd make sure it's known the company's in business. I'd see that it had a certain panache. That's what I'm good at. Not the work, not the work... the presentation.

• [Schindler deals with two uncooperative Nazi officers at the train station] 

  SS Sgt. Kunder : Well, the list is correct, sir. There's nothing I can do about it.

  Oskar Schindler : What is your name?

  SS Sgt. Kunder : My name? My name is Kunder. Hauptsturmführer Kunder.

  Oskar Schindler : [writing in his notebook]  K-u-n-d...

  SS Sgt. Kunder : [producing his own notebook]  What's yours?

  Oskar Schindler : Schindler. S-c-h-i-n-d-l-e-r. Gentlemen, thank you very much. I think I can guarantee you, you'll both be in Southern Russia before the end of the month. Good day.

  [Schindler walks the length of the train, shouting for Stern] 

  Oskar Schindler : Stern!

  Gestapo Clerk Klaus Tauber : [hurrying behind him]  Stern!

  SS Sgt. Kunder : [hurrying behind them]  Stern!

• Oskar Schindler : You'd leave a lady alone at a table in a place like this?

  [to Agnieska] 

  Oskar Schindler : Sweetheart, you're the picture of loneliness.

• Oskar Schindler : They won't soon forget the name "Oskar Schindler" around here. "Oskar Schindler," they'll say, "Everybody remembers him. He did something extraordinary. He did what no one else did. He came with nothing, a suitcase, and built a bankrupt company into a major manufactory. And left with a steamer trunk, two steamer trunks, of money. All the riches of the world."

• [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] 

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

  Montelupich Prisoner : Did your prick fall off?

  [laughs] 

• Oskar Schindler : [Puts a a bag of diamonds down as a bribe]  I'm not making any judgments about you. I just know that in the coming months, people are going to need more portable wealth.

  Rudolph Hoss : I could have you arrested.

  Oskar Schindler : I'm protected by powerful friends. You should know that.

  Rudolph Hoss : I do not say that I am accepting them. All I say is that I'm not comfortable with them on the table.

  [pockets diamonds] 

• Itzhak Stern : Do you have any money hidden away someplace that I don't know about?

  Oskar Schindler : No. Why, am I broke?

  Itzhak Stern : Uh, well...

• Oskar Schindler : Boxed teas are good - coffee, pâté... um, kielbasa sausage, cheeses, beluga caviar. And of course, who could live without German cigarettes? As many as you can find. Some more fresh fruit, the real rarities - oranges, lemons, pineapples. I'll need several boxes of Cuban cigars, the best. And dark unsweetened chocolate, not in the shape of lady fingers - the chunk chocolate, as big as my hand, you sample at wine tastings. I'm going to need lots of cognac, the best, Hennessy. Dom Pérignon champagne... Um, get L'Espadon sardines. And, oh - try to find nylon stockings.

• Itzhak Stern : What did Goeth say about this? You just told him how many people you needed, and...

  [suddenly realizing what Schindler is planning] 

  Itzhak Stern : You're *not* buying them?

  [Schindler says nothing; Stern is stunned] 

  Itzhak Stern : You're *buying* them? You're paying him for each of these names?

  Oskar Schindler : If you were still were still working for me, I'd expect you to talk me out of it. It's costing me a fortune.

• 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.

• Itzhak Stern : The standard SS rate for skilled Jewish workers is seven marks a day, five for unskilled and women. This is what you pay to the Reich Economic Office. The Jews themselves receive nothing. Poles you pay wages. Generally, they get a little more. Are you listening?

  Oskar Schindler : What was that about the SS? The rate? The what?

  Itzhak Stern : The Jewish worker's salary - you pay it directly to the SS, not to the worker. He gets nothing.

  Oskar Schindler : But it's less. It's less than what I would pay to a Pole.

  Itzhak Stern : It's less.

  Oskar Schindler : That's the point I'm trying to make. Poles cost more. Why should I hire Poles?

• Oskar Schindler : War brings out the worst in people.

• Oskar Schindler : Why do you drink that motor oil? I send you good stuff all the time. Your liver's going to explode like a hand grenade.

• Rolf Czurda : A one-armed Machinist, Oskar?

  Oskar Schindler : He was a Metal-Press Operator! Quite skilled.

• Oskar Schindler : Someday this is all going to end, you know. I was going to say we'll have a drink then.

  Itzhak Stern : I think I'd better have it now.

• [after Schindler pulls him off a train bound for the work camps] 

  Itzhak Stern : Somehow I left my work card at home. I tried to explain to them that it was a mistake, but... I'm sorry. It was stupid!

  Oskar Schindler : What if I got here five minutes later? Then where would I be?

• Oskar Schindler : So the man can turn out a hinge in less than a minute, why the long story?

• Oskar Schindler : I lost a worker. I expect to be compensated.

  Rolf Czurda : File a grievance with the Economic Office. It's your right.

  Oskar Schindler : Would it do any good?

  Rolf Czurda : [chuckles]  Of course not.

• 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.

• Oskar Schindler : [to Emilie Schindler]  No doorman or Maitre d' will ever mistake you again. I promise.

• Oskar Schindler : Cry, and I will have you arrested! I swear to God!

• Itzhak Stern : That's it, there's no more.

  Oskar Schindler : I will not accept that.

• Oskar Schindler : People die! It's a fact of life! He wants to kill everybody? Great. What am I supposed to do about it? Bring everybody over? Is that what you think? Send them over to Schindler. Send them all. His place is a haven, didn't you know? It's not a factory. It's not an enterprise of any kind. It's a haven! For rabbis, and orphans, and people with no skills whatsoever! You think I don't know what you're doing? You're so quiet all the time. I know. I know!

  Itzhak Stern : Are you losing money?

  Oskar Schindler : No, I'm not losing money. That's not the point!

  Itzhak Stern : What other point is there?

  Oskar Schindler : It's dangerous! It's dangerous to me.

• Oskar Schindler : [after informing Itzhak he's going to be sent to Auschwitz]  Someday this is all going to end, you know. I was going to say we'll have a drink then.

  Itzhak Stern : I think I better have it now.

• Oskar Schindler : Not good enough? Look where you're living. Look where you've been put. "Not good enough." A couple of months ago you'd be right. Not anymore.

  Investor : Money's still money.

  Oskar Schindler : No, it is not. That's why we're here. Trade goods, that's the only currency that'll be worth anything in the ghetto. Things have changed, my friend.

• Oskar Schindler : She's so embarrassed. Look at her. You know something? You would like her.

  Emilie Schindler : Oskar, please.

  Oskar Schindler : What?

  Emilie Schindler : I don't have to like her just because you do.

  Oskar Schindler : You would, though.

  Emilie Schindler : It doesn't work that way.

• Oskar Schindler : Under Department "W" provisions it is unlawful to kill a worker without just cause. Under the Businesses Compensation Fund l 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.

• Oskar Schindler : [Pointing to the SS officer and his mistress across the room]  Bring them over a round of drinks.

  Waiter : Y-yes Sir, and who shall I say they are from?

  Oskar Schindler : You can say they are from me.

• Oskar Schindler : You have to understand, Goeth is under enormous pressure. You have to think of it in his situation. He's got this whole place to run, he's responsible for everything that goes on here, all these people, he's got a lot of things to worry about. And he's got the war. Which brings out the worst in people. Never the good, always the bad. Always the bad. But in normal circumstances, he wouldn't be like this. He'd be all right. There'd just be the good aspects of him, which... he's a wonderful crook. A man who loves good food, good wine, the ladies, making money...

  Itzhak Stern : Killing.

  Oskar Schindler : He can't enjoy it.

  Itzhak Stern : Boyevski told me the other day. Somebody escaped from a work detail outside the wire. Goeth lined up everybody from the missing man's barracks. He shot the man to the left of Boyevski, the man to the right. He walked down the line, shooting every other man with a pistol... Twenty-five.

  Oskar Schindler : [defensively]  What do you want me to do about it?

  Itzhak Stern : Nothing, nothing. We're just talking.

• Itzhak Stern : Is that all?

  Oskar Schindler : I'm trying to thank you. I'm saying I couldn't have done this without you. The usual thing would be to acknowledge my gratitude. It would also, by the way, be the courteous thing.

  Itzhak Stern : You're welcome.

• Itzhak Stern : You need a secretary. Pick one.

  Oskar Schindler : I don't know how. They're all so - qualified.

  Itzhak Stern : You have to choose.

• Emilie Schindler : It's not a charade, all this?

  Oskar Schindler : A charade? How could it be a charade?

  Emilie Schindler : The clothes, the car, the apartment.

  Oskar Schindler : Wait a minute. Take a guess how many people are on my payroll.

  Emilie Schindler : Oskar.

  Oskar Schindler : My father, at the height of his success, had 50. I've got 350. 350 workers on the factory floor, with one purpose.

  Emilie Schindler : To make pots and pans?

  Oskar Schindler : To make money. For me.

• 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.

• Oskar Schindler : I'm going home. I've done what I came here for. I've got more money than any man can spend in a lifetime. Some day, this is all going to end, you know. I was going to say we'll have a drink then.

  Itzhak Stern : I think I better have it now.

• 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.

• Oskar Schindler : They're in Auschwitz. The train was never routed here. A paperwork mistake.

• Oskar Schindler : [to Itzhak]  Finish the page and leave one space at the bottom. You.