– The OD were Jewish policemen tasked by Nazis with overseeing local Jewish ghetto communities. Though some acted as buffers between the Jews and the Nazis, particularly as World War II went on, they became stricter.
OD Quotes in Schindler’s List
The Schindler’s List quotes below are all either spoken by OD or refer to OD. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 10
Quotes
The councilmen of Artur Rosenzweig’s Judenrat, who still saw themselves as guardians of the breath and health and bread ration of the internees of the ghetto, impressed upon the Jewish ghetto police that they were also public servants. They tended to sign up young men of compassion and some education. Though at SS headquarters the OD was regarded as just another auxiliary police force which would take orders like any police force, that was not the picture most OD men lived by in the summer of ’41.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Schindler’s List LitChart as a printable PDF.
OD Term Timeline in Schindler’s List
The timeline below shows where the term OD appears in Schindler’s List. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 10
In the summer of 1941, the Judenrat enlist men into the OD, the Jewish ghetto police, by trying to portray the role as one of public service....
(full context)
...ghetto will encourage the Germans to go away faster. Even as a member of the OD, however, Pfefferberg continues to be involved in the smuggling of black-market goods. He is helped...
(full context)
As the OD becomes increasingly controlled by the SS (and therefore more repressive), Pfefferberg starts looking for a...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...his workers are suffering in the ghetto. Nazis are directing men like Spira (in the OD) to put together longer and longer lists, getting rid of children and the elderly in...
(full context)
Chapter 16
...to hide, she figures she may as well go outside. She is stopped by an OD boy whom her son knows. He tells her to hide under some stairs and that...
(full context)
...uneasy, because he knows he could’ve been there. The resisters also arrange for two of OD chief Spira’s lieutenants to be killed by Gestapo. Others, however, take on different forms of...
(full context)
Chapter 17
Mordecai Wulkan is a jeweler who is visited one night by one of Spira’s OD. He’s told that the SS urgently need four jewelers. Wulkan is taken to the SS...
(full context)
Chapter 21
...for last alive in the ghetto is Wulkan, the jeweler. He tries to bribe an OD officer with a diamond he’s been concealing, saying he’ll go anywhere, but he’d prefer if...
(full context)
Some OD men help the Wulkans hide under paperwork and bundles of clothing. From their hiding place,...
(full context)