Copy of Schindler's list up for sale on eBay for $3 mn

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

Schindler's Factory, Kraków, Schidler's List installation via Wikimedia Commons

An original copy of the list of Jews Oskar Schindler saved from the Holocaust is up for sale on eBay, with the starting bid set at $3 million dollars, a Los Angeles auctioneer said Friday.

The 14-page typewritten list, bearing the names of 801 men, originated with the German industrialist's right-hand man Itzhak Stern, Gary Zimet of momentsintime.com told AFP.

"Stern's nephew (in Israel) sold it roughly three years ago to the current owner, who bought it as an investment," said Zimet, who declined to give details about the seller.

He added: "I don't anticipate any bidders until the last day -- or probably the last five or 10 minutes." Zimet and his partner Eric Gazin, who listed the document on his gazinauctions eBay page, opted to use the popular Internet auction site because of its global reach.

"This exceedingly rare original Schindler's List is the only one ever on the market," the eBay listing states. Others are in museums in Israel and the United States.

The auction is set to end on July 28 at 6:00 pm Los Angeles time (July 29 0100 GMT). Interested bidders are asked to provide information so they can be pre-screened.

Schindler is credited with saving the lives of some 1,200 Jews employed in his factories during World War II. He died in anonymity in Germany in 1974 at the age of 66.

His story was the focal point of film director Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning epic "Schindler's List" in 1993.