Schindler’s List

Schindler’s List

by

Thomas Keneally

Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg Character Analysis

Poldek Pfefferberg is a young Jewish man from Cracow and one of Oskar Schindler’s most trusted companions. According to author Thomas Keneally, Pfefferberg is also one of the driving forces who helped get Schindler’s List written in the first place. A confident 27-year-old when he first meets Schindler, Pfefferberg shows remarkable ingenuity, which he frequently uses to get himself out of trouble. After being captured by Nazis, he bluffs his way out of captivity by presenting an important-looking forged document. When Pfefferberg sees Oskar Schindler visiting his mother, Mina Pfefferberg, he nearly decides to shoot Oskar. Fortunately, he holds back, and when he finally has a chance to talk with Schindler, the two find they have a lot in common. Pfefferberg becomes Schindler’s black market runner, able to procure just about anything Schindler needs. When things take a turn for the worst and the ghetto in Cracow is liquidated, Pfefferberg is one of the last alive inside. He loses contact with his wife, Mila, and is apprehended in the street by Amon Goeth himself. Though Goeth has an opportunity to kill Pfefferberg, he spares him when Pfefferberg salutes and greets him (which amuses Goeth). Pfefferberg is almost overlooked for Schindler’s list but manages to make the cut after forming an unusual alliance with a cruel SS officer named Hans Schreiber. Pfefferberg is again separated from his wife when the female Schindler Jews are sent to Auschwitz. Ultimately, however, the Pfefferbergs make it out alive, a testament to how much luck and ingenuity were needed to survive as a Jew in Nazi-occupied territory. Long after the hanging of Amon Goeth, Pfefferberg continues to be haunted by Goeth in his dreams.

Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg Quotes in Schindler’s List

The Schindler’s List quotes below are all either spoken by Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg or refer to Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Virtue and Selflessness Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Within two minutes the men were chatting like friends. The pistol in Pfefferberg’s belt had now been relegated to the status of armament for some future, remote emergency. There was no doubt that Mrs. Pfefferberg was going to do the Schindler apartment, no expense spared, and when that was settled, Schindler mentioned that Leopold Pfefferberg might like to come around to the apartment to discuss other business. “There is the possibility that you can advise me on acquiring local merchandise,” Herr Schindler said. “For example, your very elegant blue shirt . . . I don’t know where to begin to look for that kind of thing myself.” His ingenuousness was a ploy, but Pfefferberg appreciated it. “The stores, as you know, are empty,” murmured Oskar like a hint.

Related Characters: Oskar Schindler (speaker), Itzhak Stern, Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg, Mina Pfefferberg
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

To call either of them a speech, however, is to demean their effect. what Oskar was instinctively attempting was to adjust reality, to alter the self-image of both the prisoners and the SS. Long before, with pertinacious certainty, he’d told a group of shift workers, Edith Liebgold among them, that they would last the war. He’d flourished the same gift for prophecy when he faced the women from Auschwitz, on their morning of arrival the previous November, and told them, “you’re safe now; you’re with me.” It can’t be ignored that in another age and condition, the Herr Direktor could have become a demagogue of the style of Huey Long of Louisiana or John Lang of Australia, whose gift was to convince the listeners that they and he were bonded together to avert by a whisker all the evil devised by other men.

Oskar’s birthday speech was delivered in German at night on the workshop floor to the assembled prisoners. An SS detachment had to be brought in to guard a gathering of that size, and the German civilian personnel were present as well. As Oskar began to speak, Poldek Pfefferberg felt the hairs on his lice stand to attention. He looked around at the mute faces of Schoenbrun and Fuchs, and of the SS men with their automatics. They will kill this man, he thought. And then everything will fall apart.

Related Characters: Oskar Schindler, Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg, Edith Liebgold
Related Symbols: Schindler’s Birthday
Page Number: 364
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Schindler’s List LitChart as a printable PDF.
Schindler’s List PDF

Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg Quotes in Schindler’s List

The Schindler’s List quotes below are all either spoken by Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg or refer to Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Virtue and Selflessness Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Within two minutes the men were chatting like friends. The pistol in Pfefferberg’s belt had now been relegated to the status of armament for some future, remote emergency. There was no doubt that Mrs. Pfefferberg was going to do the Schindler apartment, no expense spared, and when that was settled, Schindler mentioned that Leopold Pfefferberg might like to come around to the apartment to discuss other business. “There is the possibility that you can advise me on acquiring local merchandise,” Herr Schindler said. “For example, your very elegant blue shirt . . . I don’t know where to begin to look for that kind of thing myself.” His ingenuousness was a ploy, but Pfefferberg appreciated it. “The stores, as you know, are empty,” murmured Oskar like a hint.

Related Characters: Oskar Schindler (speaker), Itzhak Stern, Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg, Mina Pfefferberg
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

To call either of them a speech, however, is to demean their effect. what Oskar was instinctively attempting was to adjust reality, to alter the self-image of both the prisoners and the SS. Long before, with pertinacious certainty, he’d told a group of shift workers, Edith Liebgold among them, that they would last the war. He’d flourished the same gift for prophecy when he faced the women from Auschwitz, on their morning of arrival the previous November, and told them, “you’re safe now; you’re with me.” It can’t be ignored that in another age and condition, the Herr Direktor could have become a demagogue of the style of Huey Long of Louisiana or John Lang of Australia, whose gift was to convince the listeners that they and he were bonded together to avert by a whisker all the evil devised by other men.

Oskar’s birthday speech was delivered in German at night on the workshop floor to the assembled prisoners. An SS detachment had to be brought in to guard a gathering of that size, and the German civilian personnel were present as well. As Oskar began to speak, Poldek Pfefferberg felt the hairs on his lice stand to attention. He looked around at the mute faces of Schoenbrun and Fuchs, and of the SS men with their automatics. They will kill this man, he thought. And then everything will fall apart.

Related Characters: Oskar Schindler, Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg, Edith Liebgold
Related Symbols: Schindler’s Birthday
Page Number: 364
Explanation and Analysis: