Schindler’s List

Schindler is sitting in Goeth’s office with Madritsch and Bosch for what Goeth describes as a security conference. The Russians are advancing, encouraging resistance among Polish partisans and Jews. Goeth says they may even attack Płaszów. Bosch and Schindler joke that if partisans come for Goeth, they aren’t there visiting him.

As Schindler drives Goeth back down from the villa, he sees cattle cars full of Jewish people. He notices that they are hot, and that the people inside are thirsty. Pretending to joke, he asks Goeth if it would be okay to bring out a fire brigade. Goeth tolerates Schindler’s eccentricity because it amuses him. Schindler proceeds to call a fire brigade that hoses down every car. He even bribes an SS official to open the cattle car doors when the train stops at stations (Two survivors of the trip will confirm this actually happened.) Later, Goeth will comment to Schindler that he should relax and not go running after every trainload that leaves.

Garde, Schindler’s engineer, also notices a change in him. He notices Schindler paying close attention to the radio, particularly about the receding German Fronts. One night, he listens to the German radio station (instead of his usual BBC) because he’s heard there’s been an attempt on Hitler’s life. The official story is that Hitler survived, but Schindler continues to listen with Garde. Just after 1 a.m., however, Schindler and Garde are disappointed to hear Hitler himself on the radio.

Rumors come to Cracow that the camps like Płaszów might be disbanded. In fact, Schindler learns that his security meeting with Goeth wasn’t really about partisans but about the upcoming closure. In fact, Goeth is only using the partisans as a pretext so that he can once again get permission to take summary action against prisoners as he pleases.

Schindler senses Goeth is also worried about Chilowicz, his Jewish camp police chief who knows the black market well. If Chilowicz is transferred to another camp, he could use his knowledge of Goeth’s black market rackets to cause trouble. Goeth gets an aide to approach Chilowicz and pretend to offer an escape deal, which Chilowicz accepts because he’s uneasy too. In fact, however, Goeth has arranged it so that Chilowicz will be caught, and now that he has a justification, he executes Chilowicz and several of his companions.

Goeth writes reports about how he put down a growing insurgency in Płaszów. As he’s drafting the report, he accuses his typist Pemper of being involved with the Chilowicz “escape” plan. Pemper replies that his pants leg is unsewn and that he couldn’t possibly pass on the outside with that sort of clothing. This answer seems to satisfy Goeth—for the time being.

As Pemper is leaving, however, Goeth asks him to leave an extra blank space below the list of insurgents. He suspects the space is for his own name. After debating what to do for a long time, he finally completes the letter with the space. As it turns out, however, the space is for an old man who is rumored to have hidden a large cache of diamonds somewhere outside the camp. Goeth asks the old man for the location of the diamonds in exchange for his life, then executes him anyway.