Nearing the end of his journey in As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me (orig.: So weit die Füße tragen), when Clemens is in Kazakhstan, he is recognized as a German by a man named Igor who invites him into his house and agrees to help him with his escape, eventually organizing a passport for him.
Given that Igor introduced himself as an exiled Polish Jew and told of his brothers having been killed by the Germans, Clemens wonders why he helps him then, even more so since he still seems a bit bitter about the fate of his brothers and his reaction to Clemens' standard excuse of "we didn't know" seems rather unconvinced. Yet he goes out of his way to help Clemens and when asked again, still evades the answer of why he does so:
Clemens: Why do you do this for me?
Igor: Do you have a bad conscience for not helping a Jew? That you have to arrange with yourself.
But when he is visited by Kamenev and interrogated about Clemens, he first evades his questions but then suddenly falls down and dies, clinging to his heart as if he had a heart attack or something. When Kamenev goes to look after him he says his last words:
Yes, I helped him. And I would do it again. I would help anyone, do you understand?
So while it seems he just got over his possible anger and helped Clemens out of a genuine kindness and will to help other people, I wonder if his motives are maybe drawn out a bit clearer in the base novel (if actually part of it, given that the movie doesn't seem follow it too thoroughly anyway)?
But the even more burning question is, what actually happened to him? Why did he suddenly die during the conversation with Kamenev? Was he ill (though that would be quite a coincidental time for dying) or did he poison himself (but why then?)? Is this clarified any further in the novel (or maybe in a longer movie version, since I watched a 2 hour version while there also seems to be a 2.5 hour version)?