Schindler's List Page #14

He fires. She crumples to the ground. He returns the gun to

his stunned inferior and, gesturing down at the body,

addresses the workers.

GOETH:

That's somebody who knew what they

were doing. That's somebody I needed.

(pause)

Take it down, re-pour it, rebuild

it, like she said.

He turns and walks away.

EXT. STABLES - DAWN

Stable boys lead two horses into the pre-dawn light. The

animals' hoofs shatter tufts of weeds like fingers of glass;

fog plumes from their nostrils.

EXT. PARK, CRACOW - DAWN

In addition to the exhaust from idling trucks and the curling

smoke from the Sonderkommando units' cigarettes, there is

excitement in the chilly pre-dawn air.

EXT. GHETTO - DAWN

An empty street. Rooftops against a lightening sky. A few of

the windows in the buildings are lighted, glowing amber; the

majority are still dark.

EXT. STABLES - DAWN

The stable boys hoist saddles onto the horses, cinch the

straps. Leaning against the hood of the Mercedes, Schindler

and Ingrid, in long hacking jackets, riding breeches and

boots, share cognac from his flask.

EXT. PARK, CRACOW - DAWN

Untersturmfuhrer Goeth, soon to be Commandant Goeth, stands

before the assembled troops with a flask of cognac in his

hand. He looks out over them proudly; they're good boys,

these, the best. He addresses them --

GOETH:

Today is history. The young will ask

with wonder about this day. Today is

history and you are a part of it.

EXT. PEACE SQUARE, GHETTO - DAWN

A fourteen year old kid hurries across to the square pulling

on his O.D. armband. Several others of the Jewish Ghetto

Police, Golberg among them, are already assembled there. The

clerks, the list makers, scissor open their folding tables,

set out their ink pads and stamps.

GOETH (V.O.)

When, elsewhere, they were footing

the blame for the Black Death,

Kazimierz the Great, so called, told

the Jews they could come to Cracow.

They came.

EXT. STABLES - DAWN

Ingrid climbs onto one of the horses, Schindler onto the

other. As the animals gallop away with their riders toward a

wood, the stable boys wave.

GOETH (V.O.)

They trundled their belongings into

this city, they settled, they took

hold, they prospered.

EXT. PARK, CRACOW - DAWN

The fresh young faces of the Sonderkommandos, listening to

their commander.

GOETH:

For six centuries, there has been a

Jewish Cracow.

EXT. WOODS - DAWN

The horses panting hard. Their hoofs hammering at the ground,

climbing a hill. Riding boots kicking at their flanks.

EXT. PARK, CRACOW - DAWN

The boots of Amon Goeth slowly pacing. He stops. Tight on

his face, smiling pleasantly.

GOETH:

By this weekend, those six centuries,

they're a rumor. They never happened.

Today is history.

EXT. HILLTOP CLEARING - DAWN

The galloping horses break through to a clearing high on a

hill. The riders pull in the reins and the hoofs rip at the

earth.

Schindler smiles at the view, the beauty of it with the sun

just coming up. From here, all of Cracow can be seen in

striking relief, like a model of a town.

He can see the Vistula, the river that separates the ghetto

from Kazimierz; Wawel Castle, from where the National

Socialist Party's Hans Frank rules the Government General of

Poland; beyond it, the center of town.

He begins to notice refinements: the walls that define the

ghetto; Peace Square, the assembly of men and boys. He notices

a line of trucks rolling east across the Kosciuscko Bridge,

and another across the bridge at Podgorze, a third along

Zablocie Street, all angling in on the ghetto like spokes to

a hub.

EXT. GHETTO - DAY

The wheels of the last truck clear the portals at Lwowska

Street and the Sonderkommandos jump down.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDINGS - DAWN

Families are routed from their apartments. An appeal to be

allowed to pack is answered with a rifle butt; an unannounced

move to a desk drawer is countered with a shot.

EXT. STREETS, GHETTO - DAWN

Spilling out of the buildings, they're herded into lines

without regard to family consideration; some other

unfathomable system is at work here. The wailing protests of

a woman to join her husband's line are abruptly cut off by a

short burst of gunfire.

EXT. HILLTOP - DAWN

From here, the action down below seems staged, unreal; the

rifle bursts no louder than caps. Dismounting, Schindler

moves closer to the edge of the hill, curious.

His attention is drawn to a small distant figure, all in

red, at the rear of one of the many columns.

EXT. STREET - DAWN

Small red shoes against a forest of gleaming black boots. A

Waffen SS man occasionally corrects the little girl's drift,

fraternally it seems, nudging her gently back in line with

the barrel of his rifle. A volley of shots echoes from up

the street.

EXT. HILLTOP - DAWN

Schindler watches as the girl slowly wanders away unnoticed

by the SS. Against the grays of the buildings and street

she's like a moving red target.

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