Schindler's List found in Sydney

Kyt · Apr 6, 2009

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Schindler's List found in Sydney

A list compiled by the German industrialist Oskar Schindler has been discovered by a researcher at a library in Australia.

Schindler's list helped hundreds of Jewish workers escape death in the Holocaust during World War II.

It was found in research notes which belonged to the Australian author of Schindler's Ark - the basis for the Oscar-winning film, Schindler's List.

The document was found at the New South Wales Library in Sydney.

There are 13 pages of fragile, yellowing paper, upon which are typed the names and nationalities of 801 Jewish people.

They are being described as some of the most powerful documents of the 20th Century.

Gas chambers

The list was hurriedly typed on 18 April 1945, in the closing days of World War II, and compiled by Oskar Schindler, a card-carrying Nazi.

Schindler ran a factory in Krakow, Poland, during the war, where he used Jewish labour.

Appalled by the conduct of the Nazis, he sought to persuade officials that his workers were vital to the war effort and should be spared from the death camps.

"It saved 801 men from the gas chambers... It's an incredibly moving piece of history," library co-curator Olwen Pryke said.

This Schindler's list was found sandwiched between research notes and German newspaper clippings gathered by Australian author Thomas Keneally.

Ms Pryke said neither the library nor the book dealer, from whom it bought the six boxes of material in 1996, realised the list was hidden among the documents.

Mr Keneally was handed the list almost 30 years ago in a shop in Los Angeles, by one of the people whom Schindler helped - Leopold Pfefferberg, Jewish worker 173 on the list.

Mr Pfefferberg wanted the novelist to write Schindler's story.
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liverpool annie · Apr 6, 2009

Theres two lists ...... both genuine by the looks of it .... wonderful !!

In the Autumn of 1999 a suitcase belonging to Schindler was discovered, containing over 7,000 photographs and documents, including the list of Schindler's Jewish workers. The document, on his enamelware factory's letterhead, had been provided to the SS stating that the named workers were "essential" employees. Friends of Schindler found the suitcase in the attic of a house in Hildesheim, Germany, where he had been staying at the time of his death. The friends took the suitcase to Stuttgart, where its discovery was reported by a newspaper, the Stuttgarter Zeitung. The contents of the suitcase; including the list of the names of those he had saved and the text of his farewell speech before leaving "his Jews" in 1945, are now at the Holocaust Museum of Yad Vashem in Israel
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In early April, 2009, a second list was discovered at the New South Wales State Library by workers combing through boxes of materials collected by Keneally. The 13-page document, yellow and fragile, was filed between research notes and original newspaper clippings. This list, given to Keneally in 1980 by Leopold Pfefferberg, who was listed as worker number 173, differs slightly from the other list, but is nonetheless considered to be genuine and authentic. It is believed that several lists were made during the war as the protected population changed. This particular list, dated April 18, 1945, was given to Keneally by Pfefferberg when he was persuading Keneally to write Schindler's story. In the last months of the war, German Nazi camps stepped up their extermination efforts and this list is believed to have saved the lives of 801 people from death in the gas chambers. It was this list, taken with the surrounding events of the time, that inspired Keneally to write his novel
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Kitty · Apr 6, 2009

Oh that is absolutely wonderful

spidge · Apr 6, 2009

Marvellous what is still turning up!

Antipodean Andy · Apr 9, 2009

Makes sense that Thomas Keneally would have a copy.

Charlie Prenicolas · Nov 18, 2012

It's good to know that the documents listing the names of men and women who were saved by Oskar Schindler were saved from possible ruin. This should be preserved in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. or the Yad Vashem Museum in Israel. I read the novel made Thomas Keneally. It's an interesting book to read.

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Schindler's List found in Sydney

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