Amon Goeth quotes from Schindler's List (1993)

Amon Goeth

Today is history. Today will be remembered. Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today is history and you are part of it. Six hundred years ago when elsewhere they were footing the blame for the Black Death, Casimir the Great - so called - told the Jews they could come to Krakow. They came. They trundled their belongings into the city. They settled. They took hold. They prospered in business, science, education, the arts. With nothing they came and with nothing they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries are a rumor. They never happened. Today is history.

Amon Goeth

Make sure I see my cut from the factory owners in this camp. I'm leaving you to take care of my main accounts - the Schindler account. He wants his independence. I gave it to him. But independence costs money. This you understand? [Stern nods]...Don't forget who you are working for now.

Amon Goeth

I came to tell you that you really are a wonderful cook and a well-trained servant. I mean it. If you need a reference after the war, I'd be happy to give you one. It's kind of lonely down here, it seems, with everyone upstairs having such a good time. Does it? You can answer. 'What was the right answer?' That's-that's what you're thinking. 'What does he want to hear?' The truth, Helen, is always the right answer. Yes, you're right. Sometimes we're both lonely. Yes, I mean, I would like, so much, to reach out and touch you in your loneliness. What would that be like, I wonder? I mean, what would be wrong with that? I realize that you're not a person in the strictest sense of the word. Maybe you're right about that too. You know, maybe what's wrong isn't - it's not us - it's this. I mean, when they compare you to vermin and to rodents and to lice, I just, uh...You make a good point, a very good point. [He strokes her hair] Is this the face of a rat? Are these the eyes of a rat? 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' I feel for you, Helen. [He decides not to kiss her] No, I don't think so. You're a Jewish bitch. You nearly talked me into it, didn't you? [he beats her]

Amon Goeth

He likes women. He likes good-looking women. He sees a beautiful woman - he doesn't think. He has so many women. They love him, yeah, they love him. I mean, he's married, yeah, but... All right, she was Jewish, he shouldn't have done it, but you didn't see this girl. I saw this girl. This girl was, wuff, very good-looking. They cast a spell on you, you know, the Jews. When you work closely with them like I do, you see this. They have this power, it's like a virus. Some of my men are infected with this virus. They should be pitied, not punished. They should receive treatment, because this is as real as typhus. I see this all the time. It's a matter of money, hmm?

Amon Goeth

Heil Hitler. [The chair underneath is kicked out, and he is slowly strangled to death]

Reiter

The entire foundation has to be torn down and repoured. If not, there will be at least a subsidence at the southern end of the barracks. Subsidence, and then collapse.

Goeth

And you are an engineer?

Reiter

Yes. My name is Diana Reiter. I'm a graduate of Civil Engineering from the University of Milan.

Goeth

Ah, an educated Jew... like Karl Marx himself. Unterscharfuehrer!

Hujar

Jawohl?

Goeth

Shoot her.

Reiter

Herr Kommandant! I'm only trying to do my job!

Goeth

Ja, I'm doing mine.

Hujar

Sir, she's foreman of construction.

Goeth

I'm not going to have arguments with these people.

Goeth

No. Shoot her here, on my authority.

Reiter

It will take more than that...

Goeth

I'm sure you're right.

Goeth

Take it down, repour it, rebuild it, like she said.

I respectfully report I've been given orders to clear the bundles from the road so there will be no obstructions to the thoroughfare.

Goeth

Finish and join the lines, little Polish clicking soldier.

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.

Goeth

They're not gone. They're here.

Schindler

They're mine! Every day that goes by, I'm losing money. Every worker that is shot costs me money. I have to find somebody else. I have to train them.

Goeth

We're going to be making so much money, none of this is going to matter.

Schindler

It's bad business.

Goeth

Scherner told me something else about you.

Schindler

Yeah, what's that?

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 got to build the **** thing, getting the **** 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, twelve hundred kilograms of barbed wire, 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.

Schindler

Well, you know, you've been through it. You could make things easier for me. [Goeth shrugs] I'd be grateful.

Goeth

What I don't understand is that you've been working since I think what, about six this morning, yet such a small pile of hinges.

Lewartow

Herr Kommandant, I beg to report that my heap of hinges was so unsatisfactory because the machines were being re-calibrated this morning. I was put onto shoveling coal.
Goeth slams the gun into Lewartow's head]

Goeth

You know, I look at you. I watch you. You're not a drunk. That's, that's real control. Control is power. That's power.

Schindler

Is that why they fear us?

Goeth

We have the **** power to kill, that's why they fear us.

Schindler

They fear us because we have the power to kill arbitrarily. A man commits a crime, he should know better. We have him killed and we feel pretty good about it. Or we kill him ourselves and we feel even better. That's not power, though, that's justice. That's different than power. Power is when we have every justification to kill - and we don't.

Goeth

You think that's power.

Schindler

That's what the emperors had. A man stole something, he's brought in before the emperor, he throws himself down on the ground, he begs for mercy, he knows he's going to die. And the emperor pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go.

Goeth

I think you are drunk.

Schindler

That's power, Amon. That is power. [gestures toward Goeth as a merciful emperor] Amon, the Good.

Goeth

I pardon you.

Schindler

What do you say we get your fire hoses out here and hose down the cars? Indulge me.

Goeth

This is really cruel, Oskar, you're giving them hope. You shouldn't do that. That's cruel.

Goeth

You want these people?

Schindler

These people, my people, I want my people.

Goeth

Who are you, Moses? Come on, what is this? Where's the money in this, where's the scam?

Schindler

It's good business.

Goeth

Yeah, it's 'good business' in your opinion. Look, you've got to move them, the equipment, everything to Czechoslovakia, pay for all that and build another camp. It doesn't make any sense...You're not telling me something.

Schindler

It's good for me. I know them, I'm familiar with them, I don't have to train them. It's good for you. I'll compensate you...It's good for the Army. You know what I'm going to make?...Artillery shells...tank shells. They need that, everybody's happy.

Goeth

Everyone's happy except me. You're probably scamming me somehow. If I'm making a hundred, you've got to be making three. And if you admit to making three, then it's four, actually. But how?

Schindler

I just told you.

Goeth

Yeah, you did, but you didn't. Yeah, all right, don't tell me, I'll go along with it. It's just irritating I can't work it out.

Schindler

Look, all you have to do is tell me what it's worth to you. What's a person worth to you?

Goeth

No, no, no, no. What's one worth to you?

Schindler

I'll never find a maid as well-trained as her in Brinnlitz. They're all country girls...She's just going to Auschwitz # 2 anyway. What difference does this make?

Goeth

She's not going to Auschwitz. I'd never do that to her. No, I want her to come back to Vienna with me. I want her to come work for me there. I want to grow up old with her.

Schindler

Are you mad? Amon, you can't take her to Vienna with you.

Goeth

No, of course I can't. That's what I'd like to do. What I can do, if I'm any sort of a man, is the next most merciful thing. I should take her into the woods and shoot her painlessly in the back of the head...What is it you said for a natural twenty-one? Fourteen thousand, eight hundred?

Goeth

Oskar, there's a clerical error here at the bottom of the last page.

Schindler

No, there's one more name I want to put there. I'll never find a maid as well trained as her at Brinnlitz. They are all country girls.

Goeth

No. No.

Schindler

One hand of twenty-one. If you win, I pay you 7,400 Reichsmarks. Hit a natural and I make it 14,800. If I win, the girl goes on my list.

Goeth

I can't wager Helen in a card game.

Schindler

Why not?

Goeth

Wouldn't be right.

Schindler

She's going to Auschwitz Number Two anyway. What difference does it make?

Goeth

She's not going to Auschwitz. I'd never do that to her. No, I want her to come back to Vienna with me. I want her to come to work for me there. I want to grow old with her.

Schindler

Are you mad? Amon, you can't take her to Vienna with you.

Goeth

No, of course I can't. That's what I'd like to do. What I can do, if I'm any sort of a man, is the next most merciful thing. I should take her into the woods and shoot her painlessly in the back of the head. What was it you said for a natural 21? Was it 14,800?