Schindler’s List: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Prisoners begin competing to get their own space in Emalia. Dolek Horowitz is a purchasing officer in the camp who believes he has no chance himself but who hopes his wife and two children can be kept safe. He does, however, have the favor of Bosch, who is a drinking buddy of Goeth. Dolek’s son Richard goes out asking questions and finds out that Płaszów won’t be safe even for a privileged child like Richard. So, Dolek takes his case to Bosch, begging him to talk to Schindler. Somewhat to his surprise (since his wife and children have no experience working in enamelware), his request is fulfilled.

Compared to Płaszów, the Emalia camp is peaceful, with no permanent guards. The rotating groups of SS and Ukrainians on guard like the assignment because they get better food there than anywhere else. They aren’t allowed inside the camp itself, because Schindler makes angry calls to Scherner if that happens—but this suits the guards fine, because they don’t mind having an easy assignment.

Though Schindler’s workers put in long shifts, often 12 hours (in order to fulfill his war contracts), they are much better fed than the other camp prisoners, and none die of hunger, beatings, or overwork. Long after the war, Emalia’s residents will remember it as a paradise.

A dark-complexioned Jewish girl named Regina Perlman is living in Cracow with forged papers that say she is South American. Her parents, however, are in Płaszów, and she sneaks food and supplies in to them when she can. She hears about Schindler and decides she must get her parents into Emalia.

Regina Perlman goes to the camp disguised and meets Schindler. She is very beautiful, which Schindler and his secretary Klonowska (with whom Schindler is still having an affair) both notice, although Klonowska is used Schindler’s habits and doesn’t expect him to be loyal to her. Anxiously, Regina admits to Schindler that her Aryan papers are fake and that her parents are in the camp. Schindler, however, disappoints her by saying there’s nothing he can do—he only takes skilled workers. It’s only later that she realizes Schindler may have suspected her of being an agent trying to entrap him. Surprisingly, however, within a month her parents are part of a new group of 30 workers sent to Emalia.

A campaign starts in Płaszów to get Rabbi Menasha Levartov (who is posing as a metalworker) sent over to Emalia. Stern in particular had been one of his admirers. He tells Schindler about how, because of Levartov’s presence on camp, he had become a target of an attempted murder by Goeth.

With more than 30,000 people in his camp, Goeth makes it a priority to get rid of the early prisoners to make way for new ones, often rounding up people into two lines and marching one line away to the firing squads. At one point, Goeth asks Stern for 25 skilled metalworkers. Stern includes Levartov in the list of the skilled, which Goeth takes notice of. Still, Goeth is distracted when a boy in the unskilled line claims he is in fact a skilled worker—for speaking out, Goeth shoots him in the head.

A few days later, Goeth goes up to Levartov in the metalworks and asks for Levartov to demonstrate the process of making hinges. Levartov makes one in under a minute, then another. Goeth points out that at this rate, Levartov should have a much larger pile. He walks Levartov outside, taking out the same pistol he used to kill the boy earlier. But as he tries to shoot, Goeth’s pistol jams. Goeth curses, then pulls out a different pistol.

As Goeth is preparing to shoot, Levartov pleads that he was only behind on making hinges because his machine was being recalibrated and he was shoveling coal instead. Goeth hits him and simply abandons him, but both know that the matter isn’t resolved. Stern tells the whole matter to Schindler, who teases him: “Why the long story? There’s always room at Emalia for someone who can turn out a hinge in less than a minute.” Levartov and his wife arrive at Emalia in the summer of 1943. Schindler permits the rabbi to hold religious ceremonies, slipping him wine to use for them.