LEGAL BATTLE OVER SCHNDLER’S LIST AUCTION

IT helped saved the lives of 1,200 Jews doomed to be executed in Nazi gas chambers.
But now the original Schindler’s List is to be controversially auctioned off for almost £2million – sparking an international legal battle.
The List of 1,200 Jews, which was produced by German industrialists Oskar and Emilie Schindler, was the inspiration behind the 1993 award-winning Hollywood movie.
schindler list 467x295 Schindlers List goes on sale for $2.2million

But an heiress of the Schindlers, Erika Rosenberg, says it should be in a museum and is trying to block the sale of the historic wartime documents.
She said: “Oskar and Emilie died poor and they desired that these documents be displayed in museums. It is very sad to see this List be commercialised for millions of dollars. This legal fight is not for money but for social justice.” The List, which was found in a loft in Hildesheim in northern Germany in 1999, had been housed in the Yad Vashem memorial museum to the Holocaust in Israel.
But US memorabilia dealer Gary Zimet – who’s selling it on his site momentsintime.com – claimed it “belongs to Itzhak Stern, the accountant who worked for Schindler and died in 1969 in Israel”.
According to reports, an auction for the List was suspended in 2010 after a lawsuit was taken out by Erika, 60.
But she lost her battle and her lawyer is now studying the possibility of appealing to an international court.
The Schindlers – who employed the 1,200 Jews in their factories to save them from storm troopers – moved to Buenos Aires in 1949. Oskar returned in 1957 to Germany, where he died in 1974.
Oskar Schindler. Original copy of Schindler's list to be sold at auctionDaughter of Germans who fled to Argentina in 1940, Erika met Emilie in 1990 in the Argentine capital.
Childless Emilie died in 2001 in Germany and chose Erika as one of her five heiresses.


But an heiress of the Schindlers, Erika Rosenberg, says it should be in a museum and is trying to block the sale of the historic wartime documents.
She said: “Oskar and Emilie died poor and they desired that these documents be displayed in museums. It is very sad to see this List be commercialised for millions of dollars. This legal fight is not for money but for social justice.” The List, which was found in a loft in Hildesheim in northern Germany in 1999, had been housed in the Yad Vashem memorial museum to the Holocaust in Israel.
But US memorabilia dealer Gary Zimet – who’s selling it on his site momentsintime.com – claimed it “belongs to Itzhak Stern, the accountant who worked for Schindler and died in 1969 in Israel”.
According to reports, an auction for the List was suspended in 2010 after a lawsuit was taken out by Erika, 60.
But she lost her battle and her lawyer is now studying the possibility of appealing to an international court.
The Schindlers – who employed the 1,200 Jews in their factories to save them from storm troopers – moved to Buenos Aires in 1949. Oskar returned in 1957 to Germany, where he died in 1974.
Daughter of Germans who fled to Argentina in 1940, Erika met Emilie in 1990 in the Argentine capital.
Childless Emilie died in 2001 in Germany and chose Erika as one of her five heiresses.

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