Schindler's List Page #17

SCHINDLER:

I'd be grateful.

There's the word Goeth was waiting to hear.

EXT. D.E.F. SUBCAMP SITE - DAY

An SS surveyor, with even paces, measures a distance of the

bare field adjacent to the factory. He sticks a little flag

into the ground.

EXT. D.E.F. SUBCAMP SITE - DAY

A watchtower, half-erected, the little flag still in the

ground. Laborers hammer at it while others roll out barbed

wire fencing. A surveyor supervises the placement of a post

and carefully measures its heights; it has to be nine feet,

exactly.

At a folding table in the middle of the field, Schindler

signs checks made out to the Construction Office, Plaszow --

requisitioning more lumber, cement and hardware.

EXT. CONSTRUCTION OFFICE, PLASZOW - DAY

Plaszow prisoners load the requisitioned building supplies --

the lumber, cement and hardware -- onto trucks.

EXT/INT. WAREHOUSE, CRACOW - DAY

The trucks parked not at Schindler's sub-camp, but at the

loading dock of Goeth's private warehouse in Cracow. Inside

the building can be glimpsed all kinds of Plaszow goods:

clothes, food, construction equipment, furniture.

Checkbook laid out on the hood of his Mercedes, Schindler

pays for the requested materials a second time -- this time

with a check made out to Amon Goeth personally -- and hands

it over to his bagman, Hujar.

EXT. D.E.F. SUBCAMP FIELD - DAY

Some SS architects groan over a set of blueprints. Schindler

and an SS officer walk by.

SS OFFICER:

You have the Poles beat the Czechs,

you have the Czechs beat the Poles,

that way everybody stays in line.

SCHINDLER:

All I have is Jews.

He shrugs, Too bad, what're you going to do? The SS guy has

to think. Yeah, that's a problem. Two huge leashed dogs yank

another SS man across their path.

EXT. D.E.F. - DAY

As five hundred Plaszow prisoners are marched back onto the

grounds of D.E.F., any hope they may have had of a more

lenient environment is quickly dashed. The place -- completed --

looks like a fortress: barbed-wire, towers, SS guards and

dogs.

INT. D.E.F. FACTORY - DAY

Where once they glimpsed the not too threatening figure of

Oskar Schindler strolling through the factory, the workers

who dare glance up now find armed guards moving past. And

further up, behind the wall of windows, Schindler moving

around, entertaining SS officer.

INT. GOETH'S VILLA - NIGHT

The Rosner brothers in evening clothes, Leo on accordion,

Henry on violin, playing a Strauss melody, trying to keep it

muted, inoffensive. Few of the guests pay attention, which

is fine with them. An SS officer chats with Schindler.

LEO JOHN:

-- she's seventy years old, she's

been there forever -- they bomb her

house. Everything's gone. The

furniture, everything.

SCHINDLER:

(well aware the man

is lying)

Thank God she wasn't there.

Schindler, with yet another girl on his arm, endures the

officer's lies while sweeping the room with his eyes.

LEO JOHN:

I was thinking maybe you could help

her out. Some plates and mugs, some

stew pots, I don't know. Say half a

gross of everything?

Schindler looks at him for the first time, knowingly.

SCHINDLER:

She run an orphanage, your aunt?

LEO JOHN:

She's old. What she can't use maybe

she can sell.

Schindler's girl excuses herself to get a drink.

SCHINDLER:

You want it sent directly to her or

through you?

LEO JOHN:

Through me, I think. I'd like to

enclose a card.

Schindler nods, Done. Both watch his date across the room

getting a drink. As usual, she's the best-looking on there.

LEO JOHN:

Your wife must be a saint.

Whatever tolerance Schindler's had up to this point with

John leaves his face; the looks he gives him now is pure

contempt.

SCHINDLER:

She is.

INT. GOETH'S VILLA - LATER - NIGHT

Goeth's girl tonight, a Pole, eighteen, nineteen, places a

hand on Schindler's sleeve. They're at the important end of

the large table with Goeth, along with Czurda and Leo John

and their girlfriends.

GOETH'S GIRL

You're not a soldier?

SCHINDLER:

No, dear.

CZURDA:

There's a picture. Private Schindler?

Blanket around his shoulders over in

Kharkov?

Everyone laughs.

GOETH:

Happened to what's his name -- up in

Warsaw -- and he was bigger than

you, Oskar.

CZURDA:

Toebbens.

GOETH:

Happened to Toebbens. Almost. Himmler

goes up to Warsaw, tells the armament

guys, "Get the f***ing Jews out of

Toebbens' factory and put Toebbens

in the army," and -- "and sent him

to the Front." I mean, the Front.

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