Oskar Schindler was a German businessman who lived in Czechoslovakia. He joined the Nazi party in 1939, and moved to Krakow that year when Germany invaded Poland. There he ran two manufacturing companies and made money using cheap labor, Jews from the ghetto in Krakow.
When he witnessed the Germans taking and killing Jews, Oskar was moved to transfer the Jewish workers from his factory to a safer place. Using the factory as cover, he saved many Jews putting his own life in danger.
Oskar Schindler: I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don’t know. If I’d just… I could have got more.
Itzhak Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.
Oskar Schindler: If I’d made more money… I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I’d just…
Itzhak Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.
Oskar Schindler: I didn’t do enough!
Itzhak Stern: You did so much.
[Schindler looks at his car]Oskar Schindler: This car. Goeth would have bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people.
[removing Nazi pin from lapel]Oskar Schindler: This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this.
[sobbing]Oskar Schindler: I could have gotten one more person… and I didn’t! And I… I didn’t!
Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) in the movie Schindler’s List (1993).
Ultimately, Oskar Schindler saved nearly 1,200 Jews from which over 7,000 descendants are alive today. With all the injustice in the world today, you have to ask yourself this question. What’s a person worth to you?
To view the scene from the movie on YouTube, visit: