The film begins in Krakow, Poland just after the collapse of the Polish army and at the beginning of the German occupation. Oskar Schindler, a womanizer arrives in the city looking to open a factory in order to profit from the war. Since the Jews are no longer permitted to own businesses, Oskar obtains a factory from a Jewish man named Itzhak Stern, and appoints him as his accountant and manager. The two form a strange relationship, Oskar taking advantage of Stern's talent, and Stern distrusting but obediently following Schindler's orders. Schindler gets the rich Jews from the ghetto to invest in the factory and he uses Jews to work for him since they cost him little.
             Through the black market, Schindler obtains numerous delicacies such as liquor and chocolate for the German officers and sends them large gift baskets that place him in their good favor. Schindler spent his days entertaining the Nazis and his many women, while leaving the work of running the factory to Itzhak's very capable hands.
             Whenever he did meet with Stern, the intelligent manager would feed him little stories of how the Jews were being treated. Though at first he took these stories with a grain of salt, Schindler began to feel more and more impacted and would make small moves that showed that inside the seemingly callous man, was a compassionate and caring individual.
             Schindler's factory became a haven for the Jews among all of the chaos. The word quickly spread that in Schindler's factory, nobody died. Schindler himself was apparently unaware of this fact until one day, a young Jewish woman disguised herself, and went to ask Schindler to please hire her parents who were at a labor camp. He was appalled by this request and fearful of what could happen to him. His angry outburst scared the poor girl out of his office, but a few days later she rejoiced when she saw her parents being shepherded into his factory by German officials.
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