Oskar Schindler documents up for auction in US

Published August 8, 2013
A one-page letter in German dated August 22, 1944, signed by Oskar Schindler and sent from his enamelware factory in Krakow, Poland, where he employed more than 1,000 Jewish workers from a nearby Nazi concentration camp. — Photo Reuters
A one-page letter in German dated August 22, 1944, signed by Oskar Schindler and sent from his enamelware factory in Krakow, Poland, where he employed more than 1,000 Jewish workers from a nearby Nazi concentration camp. — Photo Reuters

BOSTON: A historically important letter from Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist whose efforts to save Jews from the Holocaust were made famous in the 1993 Oscar-winning film “Schindler's List,” is among the Schindler documents to be sold at New Hampshire auction house.

The one-page letter signed by Schindler was sent from his enamelware factory in Krakow, Poland, where he employed more than 1,000 Jewish workers from a nearby Nazi concentration camp, Bobby Livingston, vice president at RR Auction, said on Wednesday.

The letter, written in German and dated Aug. 22, 1944, was sent on behalf of one of Schindler's employees, Adam Dziedzic, who had “received a clearings contract for unloading and assembling war-necessary machinery and has been sent to Sudetengau.”

Schindler had been tipped off in the summer of 1944 that the Nazis planned to close factories unrelated to the war effort.

Through bribery and personal connections, he got permission to produce arms and move the factory and its workers to Brunnlitz, in Sudetenland, or Sudetengau, in what is now Czech Republic.

“This is the first document I have seen verifying this move and it is quite important because I thought it took him much longer to get such permission,” David Crowe, a Holocaust historian and Schindler biographer, said in a statement.

“Most importantly, if Oskar had not gotten such permission, there would have been no Schindler's List,” he said.

Schindler saved lives during World War Two by employing Jews in munitions and other factories he owned. The nine or 10 lists of employees he submitted to the Nazis became known collectively as “Schindler's list.”

A book on the subject, “Schindler's Ark,” by Australian author Thomas Keneally became the basis for the movie “Schindler's List,” directed by Steven Spielberg. It was a box office hit and won the Academy Award for best film.

The documents also include a medical transfer document that underscores Dziedzic's importance to Schindler and plans for part of Schindler's Krakow munitions factory, the auction house said. Behind the new building were living quarters for Jewish workers that served as a safe haven from the nearby Plaszow concentration camp, it said.

“We've never seen a war-dated Schindler document,” said Livingston, the auction house vice president. “It's exceptionally rare, and something of this importance we just never get.”

The auction ends Aug. 14. By Wednesday afternoon, online bids had reached nearly $21,000.

Opinion

Editorial

Closed doors
Updated 08 Jan, 2025

Closed doors

The nation’s fate has been decided through secret deals for too long, with the result that the citizenry has become increasingly alienated from the state.
Debt burden
08 Jan, 2025

Debt burden

THE federal government’s total debt stock soared by above 11pc year-over-year to Rs70.4tr at the end of November,...
GB power crisis
08 Jan, 2025

GB power crisis

MASS protests are not a novelty in Pakistan, and when the state refuses to listen through the available channels —...
Fragile peace
Updated 07 Jan, 2025

Fragile peace

Those who have lost loved ones, as well as those whose property has been destroyed in the clashes, must get justice.
Captive power cut
07 Jan, 2025

Captive power cut

THE IMF’s refusal to relax its demand for discontinuation of massively subsidised gas supplies to mostly...
National embarrassment
Updated 07 Jan, 2025

National embarrassment

The global eradication of polio is within reach and Pakistan has no excuse to remain an outlier.