How many worries it caused me, how threatening the danger was, to think that I might lose my Jewish laborers, when you were kept away from the factory under various pretenses for days, in some cases even for weeks. Those of you who have worked with me from the beginning, through all these years, know how I made innumerable personal interventions after the closure of the ghetto, how I worked with the camp administration on your behalf in order to save you from deportation and liquidation, or how I managed to reverse orders that had already been given. Although it was already difficult to protect the limited rights of a Polish worker, to help him keep his business, protect him from being deported into the Reich, protect his property and preserve his modest belongings and assets – the difficulties of protecting Jewish laborers often seemed insurmountable. Many of you know the persecutions, harassment and obstacles that I had to overcome in order to keep my workers during these terrible years. If you have accusations to levy at anyone, do so with the proper authorities, because in the new Europe, there will be judges – incorruptible judges – who will hear your pleas. Leave the prosecutions and revenge to those who have been assigned to these matters. Nevertheless, I ask you to behave in a humane and just manner. The documents and records found in Dachau, Buchenwald and the other camps are the first pieces of evidence pointing to this monstrous destruction. The fact that millions of you, your parents, children and brothers, have been murdered, was not acceptable to thousands of Germans, and even today, there are millions of Germans who do not know the extent of these atrocities. The soldier on the front, like the common man, who does his duty everywhere, should not be held responsible for the actions of a few who also called themselves Germans. We must differentiate between guilt and duty. In his proclamation today, Montgomery has declared that we must deal with the defeated in a humane manner. This will minimize panic, the consequences of which would be unpredictable. The non-conditional surrender of the German armed forces has just been announced.Īs hundreds of thousands of privates of a broken army flood back along country roads into their homeland, after millions of victims have died in six years of mass murder, and as Europe attempts to return to peace and order, I would like to turn to all of you, those of you who have been with me throughout these many difficult years and have feared that this day would never come, to all of you, who in a few days will return to your destroyed, plundered homesteads, searching for survivors from your families – I appeal to all of you to strictly maintain order and discipline.

Schindler the real story