Schindler's List Quotes

[the morning after Schindler leaves Brinnlitz, a Russian officer finds the workers]
Russian officer: You have been liberated by the Soviet army!
Itzhak Stern: Have you been in Poland?
Russian officer: I just came from Poland.
Itzhak Stern: Are there any Jews left?
Michael Lemper: Where should we

go?
Russian officer: Don't go east, that's for sure. They hate you there. I wouldn't go west either, if I were you.
Chaim Nowak: We could use some food.
Russian officer: Isn't that a town over there?

[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: [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]

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."

[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.

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.

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: 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.