Janeway: All right, you guys! Let's go! Move out of there.
Melendez: Blow it out your ass, motherfucker.
Old Lady on 47th Street: I know that man. It can't be... Szell? Szell. Szell! Szell! Szell! My God! Stop him! Szell! Stop Szell! It's Szell. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel is here. Oh my God, stop him. Stop him. Der Weisse Engel! Der Weisse Engel. He has to be stopped. My God! He gets away. Der Weisse Engel is here. Szell. Stop him! Der Weisse Engel... Oh please, help me. He's a beast. He's a murderer. You must stop him. Oh my God. There he goes! He's getting away.
Answer: The diamonds were "blood money" that were stolen at the expense of many Jewish lives during the holocaust and also resulted in Babe's brother, "Doc" being murdered. For that reason, Babe would not want them, nor would he allow others to profit from them. Szell needed to risk being recognized in New York in order to retrieve the entire cache of diamonds from the bank safe deposit box after his brother, Klaus, was killed. Klaus would retrieve as many diamonds as Szell needed to sell to support himself in South America. Once Klaus was dead, no-one else could gain access to them for Szell, or if they could, probably would have stolen them.
raywest ★