A copy of the original "Schindler's List," the list of employees German industrialist Oskar Schindler saved during World War II, was found in a library in Sydney, Australia. The document previously belonged to Australian author Thomas Keneally, who used it to write his best-selling novel.
The document was discovered when employees at the New South Wales State Library went through boxes containing Keneally's photographs, manuscripts and news clippings, which the library purchased many years ago. One of the library's curators described it as "an incredibly moving piece of history," saying just looking at the list makes one think of the many lives that were saved. He said although the book only refers to one list, Schindler actually compiled several in his effort to persuade Nazi bureaucrats not to send the workers at his factory to death camps.
Keneally said he was pleased the document was found. In an interview with a reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald he said he received the yellowing carbon-copy document from one of the survivors listed on it, who had encouraged him to set the story down in writing. He recalled carrying the list in a briefcase as he traveled the world researching the book. "I'm very glad the list has ended up at the State Library," he said. The library recently put the historical document on display.
Considered "one of the most powerful documents of the 20th century," the list was typed out hurriedly on April 18, 1945 and signed by Schindler. It contained the names and nationalities of 801 Jews.
Keneally obtained the list in 1980 when he walked into a Beverly Hills shop owned by Leopold Pfefferberg, number 173 on the list, and one of the 1,200 men, women and children Schindler saved from deportation. Most of them were employed at his factory.
At the start of the war a card-carrying Nazi, Schindler, whose views gradually parted with those of his brutal colleagues, was later recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Gentile. Although his character was controversial and two Jews claimed he crudely took over their businesses and was a Nazi who changed his ways to prepare an alibi in the event of a German defeat, Schindler did provide his Jewish employees humane conditions and risked his own life to save them from certain death. When he first came to Israel for a visit in 1962 hundreds of people he had saved received him at the airport with their family members.
