Boston auction house also selling pass issued by Raoul Wallenberg.
By AMY SPIROA 'Schutz-pass' issued by Raoul Wallenberg in 1944(photo credit: RR AUCTION)
A range of personal items once belonging to Oskar Schindler - the German who saved more than 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust - will be up for auction this week. The items include a wristwatch, compass, medal, pens and a business card that were once owned by the businessman, who died in 1974.The items are set to be sold in auction this Wednesday by the Boston-based RR Auction. The items are being sold as one lot, and online bidding began at $2,500, but as of Monday stood at $23,000.The story of Schindler was made most famous by Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List, which recounted how the businessman protected the Jewish workers at his factory and saved them from being murdered by the Nazis.The lot includes a Longines wristwatch, two fountain pens in a case marked from 1957, a wooden business card listing Schindler as living in Frankfurt, a compass and a Sudetenland Medal dated 1938. The medal was awarded to Schindler for his work aiding the Nazis in their occupation of Czechoslovakia.A Nazi medal issued to Oskar Schindler (Credit: RR Auction)“It’s an amazing archive of Schindler's personal belongings,” said Bobby Livingston, the executive vice president of RR Auction. “Schindler continues to be highly sought-after among collectors.”The auction also includes a rare "Schutz-Pass," the document that Raoul Wallenberg issued during World War II to Hungarian Jews fleeing the Nazis. This document, dated September 15, 1944, was issued by the Swedish diplomat to a Hungarian Jew named Emil Tanzer.The auction also includes letters from Albert Einstein and Martin Buber, and signed photos of David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin.
