'Schindler's List' up for auction
Well-heeled eBay bidders have a chance to buy a piece of Holocaust history. “Schindler’s List”—the actual list of names, not the 1993 movie of the same name—is up for auction on eBay.
The list is named for German businessman Oskar Schindler, who compiled the 801 names of workers he deemed essential for his enamel factory, thus sparing them from concentration camps.
Only four original lists are known to exist, including the one up for auction that is described as 14 onion-skin pages long. But owning such an extraordinary piece of history will come at a whopping cost: The starting price is $3 million.
California collectors Gary Zimet and Eric Gazin, who are running the auction, told the New York Post they hope it goes to $5 million. The auction, which started on Wednesday and ends July 28, had no bids as of late Friday morning.
"Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of history that has inspired many on the difference one person can make in the face of great danger,” the auction site reads.
The site adds, "This exceedingly rare original Schindler’s List is the only one ever on the market. It emanates from the family of Itzhak Stern, Schindler’s accountant and right hand man (played by Ben Kingsley in the Academy Award-winning film). There are 3 others known which are in institutional hands. It is 14 pages in length and lists 801 male names, dated April 18, 1945. It is guaranteed authentic."
“We decided to sell the list on eBay because it has over 100 million worldwide members, and this is a global story,” Gazin, president of AuctionCause.com, told the Post.“There are billionaires using the site, wealthy celebrities. We like the platform.”
“The list was typed out by Itzhak Stern, and this version was sold by Stern’s nephew, Nathan Stern, to a collector, who now wishes to sell it.The winning bidder—who will have to pay $10,000 down payment and then pay up within a week—will receive an affidavit from Stern testifying to its authenticity," according to the Post.
A copy of the list also can be seen for free at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
