Itzhak Stern

Itzahak Stern was the accountant and business partner of Oskar Schindler in the 1993 Steven Spielberg modern classic Schindler's List. He is based off the real person of the same name, however, his role in the movie also acts as a composite for some other real-life people including Mietek Pemper, who worked as Amon Göth's assistant/spy for Schindler.
He is portrayed by Ben Kingsley, who also played Trevor Slattery in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and voiced Prince Frederick in Freddie as F.R.O.7 along with Bagheera in Disney's The Jungle Book (2016 film). 
== Biography ==
In the early days of World War II, Germany had begun evicting their Jewish population from their homes and into ghettos, a policy that also extended to the newly occupied Poland. One of said Jews was the respected accountant, Itzhak Stern, who was moved to the Krakow ghetto. While there, he joined the Judenrat, a Jewish council made up of 24 elected officials who had the responsibility of carrying out orders for the new regime like drawing up lists for work details, work, and housing. They also dealt with complaints from fellow residents, which, considering Krakow's nature, was likely in abundance. It was there he first came into contact with Oskar Schindler. 
Schindler was looking to open a new factory to take advantage of the sudden changes that rose up as a result of the war, along with the increasing demands for inventory to contribute towards the German efforts. To do that, he first needed the money to start the business and someone to manage the finances which led to him seeking out Stern's assistance as he had been involved with several successful business ventures in the past along with having contacts with multiple Jewish investors. Understanding that Schindler's business pursuits could actually be taken advantage of to employ the at-risk population in Krakow, went on board with it and convinced some investors he knew to hear Schindler out. Eventually, Schindler was able to convince the investors to offer him the funds for his factory and it soon became open to customers. 
Due to the labor being cheap, Schindler hired Jews almost exclusively. With this, Stern spread the word to the residents of Krakow that Schindler was looking for new workers and informed them they needed to obtain a Blauschine form to prove they were essential workers, even forging some for the workers he didn't believe would be considered essential by the Nazis. This included a teacher and a writer. 
The factory proved to be quite prosperous during the war, with Stern managing the finances while Schindler showed little interest in the actual figures of the business, only hearing Stern's opinion. During one of their conversations, Stern invited a one-armed metal press operator who wanted to thank Schindler personally into the office. Although Schindler retained his usual affability with the man, he warned Stern not to surprise him like that again and questioned the man's value to the company due to his amputation, in which Stern simply claimed he was "very skilled". Stern watched that very man get shot by an SS officer while all the Jews in Krakow were forced to shovel snow. 
One day, Stern forgot his work card and was taken by the SS to be transferred to Auschwitz, a Polish death camp. Luckily, Schindler was able to arrive in time to have him removed from the train mere minutes before it departed, worrying about the state of his business without his accountant. However, what came next would not be much better with the arrival of Amon Göth and the subsequent liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. It was there Itzhak witnessed great bloodshed from the SS officers working under Göth, and even Oskar Schindler was equally as horrified by the sight. Later on, Oskar was able to convince Göth to allow him to set up a sub-camp where he could keep some of his workers and continue his business. He made efforts to get Stern on the list, but ultimately had to leave him in the camp, doing his best the ensure Stern received special treatment and promising to visit him regularly. 
While in the labor camp, Sterne noticed there were several Jews who were specific targets of Göth and there was a massive risk of them being murdered by him at some point. Seeing this, he would regularly ask Schindler if he could add said people to the list, and he would generally be permitted to do so as Schindler didn't mind who worked in the factory as long as the money was still coming in. This included a Rabbi who had barely escaped execution on dumb luck, and a boy amongst a group accused of stealing a chicken who only survived because he humored Göth by accusing an already dead Jew of the theft. Schindler was not ignorant of Stern's intentions and later confronted him about it after Regina Pearlman had begged Schindler to transfer her parents to his factory where they would be safe, exclaiming that hiring Jews in his factory solely out of compassion was dangerous. Stern tried to convince Schindler to add them to the list by telling him a story of how Göth shot 25 Jews out of anger after one escaped, and he succeeded in appealing to Schindler's humanity, with Schindler telling him Regina's parents' names and asking him to add them to the list. 
Eventually, Germany demanded that all workers in the Krakow labor camp be transferred to Auschwitz, something Stern was forced to organize (including his own transfer). Schindler talked to Göth and actively tried to ensure Stern would get preferential treatment, however, Stern did not believe he would survive there and decided to have a drink with Schindler then instead of waiting for the war to possibly end in his lifetime. After this encounter, Schindler decided he was going to attempt to save as many lives as he could by bribing Göth and setting up a new factory, and Göth asked him to provide a list of all the workers he considered essential to it. Stern was the one to write the list, but he was unaware the list was made to save lives as opposed to drawing in profit and only realized when the list was finished, expressing great shock at Schindler's nobility. 
With one close call of the female workers almost being sent to their deaths in Auschwitz in an error, the process proved to be successful. Stern continued to run Schindler's business, expressing confusion at Schindler's wish to purchase shells and passing them off as his own (which was actually a small contribution he wished to make to end the war). Eventually, Schindler ran out of money, but he was still able to keep his factory running until Germany was defeated by the Allies. There, Schindler made a speech where he declared he would be fleeing the factory due to being pursued as a war criminal and credited Stern as a great contributor in saving everyone there. Before he left, Stern personally handed him a ring provided by the workers and embraced Schindler when he broke down in tears believing he should have saved more, attempting to tell him that generations would still be alive because of him. 
At the end of the movie, Stern is shown waiting outside the factory with his fellow workers as a Soviet soldier declares them to be liberated. He conversed with the soldier on where to go, and the soldier recommended not going East or West due to antisemitism, and instead heading to a nearby town. The final shot shows him amongst a crowd of workers walking to said destination. 
== Personality ==
In stark contrast to the charismatic and sociable Oskar Schindler, Stern is a relatively quiet and reserved individual who generally prefers to keep to himself unless necessary not to do so. He can also sometimes come off as cold in his demeanor, as shown when he refused to drink with Schindler in the early operations of their business when Schindler was showing him genuine gratitude. However, quite like Schindler, Stern is truly a good person beneath it all, even at the start of the movie when he specifically had Schindler hire workers who were at risk. He also comes to understand that Schindler is a man of conscience as well and by the end of the movie the two have a close friendship that borders on brotherhood.
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