Oskar Schindler, page 75
Several days later, Page wrote Oskar about the film and other matters. He told him that their lawyer [Glovin] was working on a contract with a movie producer and that the terms of this contract “will be good” for him. Page said that the producer thought the “film must be monumental” and wanted Gregory Peck to play the role of Oskar.19 It is difficult to tell from the extensive correspondence between Page and Schindler in the summer of 1964 how much Oskar knew about the details of the film deal. He told Dr. Moshe Bejski about the project and Bejski suggested that he use the testimony he had compiled during the May 2, 1962, banquet in Tel Aviv to help with the script development. Bejski thought that the testimony of the individual Schindler Jews at the banquet was “good material.” He added that he would write Page separately about the film contract.20
But Oskar had a lot more on his mind at this time than just the film. He was still having to deal with the bankruptcy court over his failed stone-and-cement business and was also working with the Schindler Jews in Israel who were trying to convince the West German government to grant Oskar an honorary pension. Oskar was in bad shape financially and unable to work because of his heart problems. In fact, in August, he checked himself into a sanatorium in Bad Wildungen to recover from his heart attack. He had planned to stay ten days but instead was there for a month. He hoped to use his time in the sanatorium to work on the synopsis for the film.21
Several weeks after Oskar got out of the sanatorium, Gosch flew him to London, where they spent time with Irving Glovin discussing the film. Oskar later wrote Page that he believed he had found a new friend in Gosch. Schindler was particularly pleased to discover that Gosch spoke fluent Spanish, which meant the two of them could converse without a translator.
He also liked Glovin, whom he considered an “iron-hard, clever attorney.” Oskar was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of money they thought he might make on the film. And though Oskar was personally interested in the financial aspects of the film, he told Gosch that he should make arrangements to cover Page’s business losses while he was away from his leather shop in Beverly Hills. It was not that he did not trust Gosch, Oskar wrote Page, but “the burnt child shies away from fire,” a reference to his own recent financial and business difficulties. This was, he explained, perhaps his “last chance to prepare for the evening of [his] life.” The only thing he asked of Page, who was Oskar’s sole representative in the film negotiations in California, was that he be honest and open with him throughout the project’s development.22
When Gosch met with Oskar in London, he told him that he had close ties with Cardinal Joseph Francis Spellman of New York and to Democrats close to U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. This impressed Oskar, who thought such contacts would help when it came time to promote the film. Such recognition, Schindler wrote Page, whether it be “from the government of Israel, the Pope in Rome, or the President in Washington, is a slap in the face for the highest local authorities [in West Germany], who for years took notice of articles [about Schindler] in the press, but have not officially offered . . . a solid piece of dry bread until today.”23
In a different letter on the same day, Oskar asked Page to arrange for a power of attorney document in Page or Glovin’s name for Emilie. Once he received this document, which was to be in English, Schindler would send it to Stern in Israel, who in turn would send it to Walter Pollack for Emi-lie to sign in Buenos Aires. He went on to explain that he had told Gosch that he should consider paying Emilie $10,000 for her film rights, although this amount could be less depending on what Gosch had to pay Schindler Jews for the rights to their stories. Oskar added that Gosch had promised to “transfer a considerable sum as advance for expenses . . . within the next few days” to cover his costs for doing preliminary research, travel, and interviews for the film.24
As plans for the film matured, Oskar became more excited about the project. In light of his financial difficulties, he wrote Walter Pollack that he saw it as an opportunity to achieve “a higher standard of living” both for himself and for Emilie. But Oskar was also concerned about Emilie’s ability to handle money, whether it be from the film or other sources. He had learned, for example, that Emilie had a boyfriend, Cascho Bosetti, who was thirty years her junior. Oskar, in a surprising bit of jealousy, described Bosetti as her “one-time peon and horse lackey.” Schindler was concerned that if Emilie received a large fee for her film rights, that would give the ten-member “family Bosetti illusions of grandeur.” Oskar added that he could have flown Emilie to London to meet Gosch. However, this would have cost $1,000 and that sum could be used to insure a “secure life for 1-2 years” for her as well as a vacation in the Mar de Plata, a seaside resort south of Buenos Aires. Oskar ended his letter to Pollack by asking him to serve as his trustee for Emilie over the next few months. Oskar would voice these concerns over and over again in letters to Pollack during the next few years. The odd thing about all this is that Oskar had just as much trouble handling money as his wife.25
According to Pollack, Oskar’s concerns about Emilie’s ability to handle money were well placed. He told him in a letter on October 19, 1964, that she had lost the Arg$4,000 ($27.78) that Traducion had recently given her as a Yom Kippur gift. Earlier that year, Pollack continued, she spent another Arg$100,000 ($694) that Traducion friends had given her to fence in her five acres of land. In a letter to Page in early 1965, Pollack explained that the land she had just fenced in did not even belong to her. What frustrated Pollack was that she promised to use the money only for emergencies. Moreover, Emilie had told him earlier that the land was already fenced. Pollack advised Oskar that the best thing to do with Emilie when it came to money was to give it to her in small portions. Otherwise, she would spend it all at once.26
On the same day that Pollack wrote Schindler in Frankfurt, Oskar sent Gosch and Page a telegram asking for more details about the film project. Page responded hurtfully the same day and asked him whether he was “serious” about the concerns he had raised in his telegram. Page, who almost always wrote Oskar in Polish, told him that he had spent fourteen years trying to get the film made and had knocked on “thousands of doors” to persuade someone to make a movie about Oskar. He considered Oskar his “best friend” and intended to do as much for him as Schindler had done for Page. People, he added, laughed at him because of his efforts to tell Schindler’s story. And when they did, he always told them that as long as he was alive he would “always try to do something for Oskar.” Page then told him that he was setting up an Oskar Schindler Fund that would last forever. He advised Oskar not to interfere in the film project because the professionals involved in developing it were preoccupied with the movie and “don’t like to be disturbed.” He advised Oskar to leave everything to Martin Gosch and promised to explain everything to him when they met in Paris in a few weeks. He also told Schindler to take care of himself: “Don’t drink and don’t smoke too much.” Page, who had been sending Oskar money almost every month, ended his letter by asking whether he needed money for underwear or clothes.27
Page included in his letter another letter of the same date from Irving Glovin, who told Oskar that work on the film project was “serious” but warned him to be patient because “nothing is certain until it is completed.” He said that a “fine writer” had been hired to write the screen play and that the writer would go with Gosch and Page when they traveled to Europe in November and December to do further research and look at possible film sites. Glovin said that he greatly admired what Oskar had done during the war, though he thought that Schindler’s story was more than simply a “war story” and that it “had the quality of greatness.” He also had the “deepest admiration and respect for the man who was responsible for preserving the life of . . . Paul [Page],” and the many others with him who were “now useful and productive human beings the world over.” Glovin said his firm would charge Schindler a small contingency fee of 10 percent but he would not make any money unless Oskar did. He reiterated that it was important for Oskar to “be patient” and keep his “own confidences.” He added that “big plans” were being made in his honor but warned Oskar that his interference in the film’s development could “complicate and perhaps destroy the project completely.” Glovin asked Schindler “to avoid further communication with Mr. Gosch” and not to talk with anyone about the film. He ended by advising Oskar to please be patient and “don’t complicate matters.”28
A week later, Martin Gosch wrote Schindler on an MGM letterhead to tell him of their planned research trip to Europe and plans to meet him in Paris from November 17–20. This would give Oskar a chance to meet Howard Koch, who would write the film script. Koch was considered one of Hollywood’s finest screenwriters and had coauthored scripts for Sergeant York (1941) and Casablanca (1942). He had also adapted H. G. Welles’s War of the Worlds for radio, which became the basis of Orson Welles’s terrifying national radio broadcast in October 1938. Koch’s 1943 script for Mission to Moscow got him into trouble with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950 and he was blacklisted. He lived in Europe for several years and returned to the United States in 1956, hoping to revive his writing career. Koch was to be paid $55,000 for the script for To the Last Hour, and its success would hopefully play a role in reviving his career.29
It is uncertain at this point, though, whether Oskar knew much about Koch. Before he departed for Europe, Gosch wrote Oskar and asked him to give him the names of Schindler Jews in Paris whom he could talk to while he was there. But Gosch said he wanted to spend most of his time in Paris tape recording his wartime memories. He added: “[I am] making some very important plans for you to receive world recognition for your efforts, in addition to the other compensations.” Page would tell him about other developments that should make life “much easier and more pleasant” for Oskar. Gosch ended by asking Oskar to control his “very excited and nervous enthusiasm,” and added, “We want you to be well and healthy and to enjoy a good life.”30
As Oskar began to plan for his meeting in Paris with Gosch, Page, and Koch, he wrote Moshe Bejski to ask him whether he could meet with the group in the French capital. Oskar had come to trust Dr. Bejski implicitly and, with the exception of Walter Pollack, wrote to him more frequently than to anyone else. Oskar respected Bejski’s judicious approach to his concerns and wanted him to be with him in Paris during the final negotiations on the film. He sent Bejski all the letters he had received from Gosch and Glovin and told him that Stern had advised him in a telegram that it was important “to hold out stubbornly” when it came to the contract discussions. Over the next few years, Oskar would become increasingly frustrated with the pace of the movie’s evolution and came to rely heavily on the advice of Dr. Bejski and the other prominent Schindler Jews in Israel for advice and direction regarding his role in its development.31
Unknown to Oskar, Gosch had contacted Bejski and Stern about a trip to Israel in late November to interview the Schindler Jews there. Dr. Bejski immediately wrote Oskar about these developments and told him that Stern had recently sent Page a telegram telling him that the Schindler Jews in Israel would need a copy of Emilie’s power of attorney before they would consider giving their testimony to Gosch. Bejski was a little surprised that Oskar was not coming with them to Israel and said that Page had written him earlier to warn him to deal “very carefully with MGM— in order not to ruin the whole thing.” Dr. Bejski evidently did not appreciate Page’s advice and instead warned Schindler to be careful with Gosch and MGM, particularly when it came to the type of film they might produce. Bejski said it was important that they “try to influence” the film by insuring that it was based on fact.32 It is uncertain whether Oskar received Dr. Bejski’s letter before he left for Paris.
In the meantime, Gosch was hard at work on the film. About two weeks before he left on his trip to meet with Oskar in Paris, he sent a memo to MGM’s Maurice Silverstein and Delbert Mann about selecting a film title. Gosch preferred The Third Face of War, which would highlight war’s third element such as Schindler’s efforts to save his Jews. He also was considering No Sound of Trumpets, The Man Who Dared, The Final Chapter, The Last Index, They Live Again, My Brother’s Keeper, and the one ultimately chosen, To the Last Hour.33
Gosch was also desperately trying to get Gregory Peck to play the role of Oskar Schindler in the film. In a November 9 letter to the character actor Syl Lamont, who was close to Peck and had worked with him in several films, Gosch discussed the importance of the film, and called the role of Oskar Schindler “a great tour de force.” He discussed the honors he planned for Schindler, including a special Humanities Medal to be awarded by Congress and President Johnson. He noted that Readers Digest and Life Magazine intended to publish extended articles on Schindler. Gosch, possibly in an effort to draw Lamont more deeply into the project and entice him to influence Peck, said there would be seven or eight important costarring roles in the movie. Normally, Gosch told Lamont, actors of Peck’s stature wanted to read a script before they committed to a film. But given its special nature, Gosch hoped that Peck would consider the thirty-six-page preliminary analysis of the film, “The Oskar Schindler Story,” sufficient to make a decision. He added that he had met with Schindler in London in September, and that Oskar was “enormously impressed with the shadings of the character which Greg brought to ‘Mockingbird [To Kill a Mockingbird].’” Schindler thought that Peck, of all that period’s film actors, best resembled the way he was “as a human being inside.” Gosch added that 92 percent of the Schindler Jews he had interviewed agreed with the choice of Peck for the role of Oskar Schindler. From Gosch’s perspective, Gregory Peck had “the same warm regard for the humanities of life which are so clearly evidenced by the things that Schindler did at great danger and sacrifice to himself.”34
Gosch, Koch, and Page’s research trip abroad took place from November 11 to December 8. Gosch and Koch followed this up with a trip to Poland to explore film sites. They began their interviews in New York on November 14, where they spoke with Rabbi Menashe Levertov (Lewer-tow), Edith Wertheim, Pauline Boyman, Ryszard Horowitz, Alex Rosner, Frances Spira, Lewis Fagin, and Roman Ginter. They flew to Paris where they met Oskar on November 18 and did an extensive series of interviews with him. This was followed by a trip to Vienna, where they interviewed Raimund Titsch, the manager of Julius Madritsch’s sewing factories in the Kraków ghetto and Płaszów, and Regina Bankier, the wife of Abraham Bankier. From there they flew to Tel Aviv, where they interviewed Itzhak Stern, Josef and Rebeka Bau, Helen Hirsch Horowitz, one of Göth’s two Jewish maids, Dr. Moshe Bejski, Mr. and Mrs. Yanuk Sternberg, Israeli Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau, and Dr. Steinberg, a physician at one of the factories next to Emalia in Kraków. Afterwards, Jakob Stern-berg wrote Oskar and told him that Gosch only talked in “vague contours” about the film. Like Dr. Bejski, Sternberg was worried about the film’s accuracy. Using background documents and notes supplied to them by Oskar, Page, Dr. Bejski, and others, Gosch, Koch, and Page gathered the most complete body of testimony about Schindler up to that time. The transcript of these interviews, as well as Gosch and Koch’s post interview notes, which are in the Delbert Mann Papers at Vanderbilt University, provided Thomas Keneally and Steven Spielberg with some of their most poignant stories.
Oskar never said much about the meetings with Gosch, Page, and Koch, but did express some frustration over the new contract he signed with MGM while he was in Paris. Before he left for Paris, Oskar asked Schindler Jew Henry Orbach for advice on the proposed contract, which Gosch had recently sent him. Orbach suggested that they go to see Robert J. Fiore, an American lawyer in Frankfurt. Orbach, a prominent diamond trader to whom Ian Fleming devoted a full chapter in his only non-fiction work, The Diamond Smugglers, had used Fiore to do some work for him in New York. Oskar wanted Fiore’s advice on “the form and enforceability” of his contract with Gosch. Since Oskar knew little English, Orbach served as translator during the discussion.35 Fiore, who received Germany’s highest civilian award, the Order of Merit, in 2003, told Oskar “that the contract would be a binding legal document and he could look forward to receiving at least $50,000.” Orbach explained that Schindler was having some financial problems and was concerned that his creditors in Germany would get his film advance if it was transferred to a German bank. Fiore suggested that Oskar have the money deposited in a US dollar account at the Chase Manhattan Bank where the US military deposited its funds. German officials, Fiore went on, “rarely scrutinized” accounts at Chase Manhattan.36 Mr. Fiore met Oskar only once more, when he dropped by to give him photos of Amon Göth during his trial in Kraków in 1946. At the time, Fiore knew little about Oskar Schindler. Orbach later told him that Oskar was a hero, but “not here in Germany, Mr. Fiore, they don’t want to know about him.” After Emilie’s death in 2001, her heir, Erika Rosenberg, approached Fiore about filing a lawsuit against Steven Spielberg for 5 percent of the profits of Schindler’s List. Mr. Fiore respectfully declined the offer.37
