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Fantastic Oskar Schindler Letter

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:10,000.00 USD Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Fantastic Oskar Schindler Letter
<Our item number 137001><B>Schindler, Oskar.</B> &#40;1908-1974&#41; German industrialist, Nazi party member, and war profiteer who spent his entire fortune and risked his life during World War II to save over 1200 Jews by employing them at his enamelware factory &#40;Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik&#41; in Kraków and protected them by bribing German officials. Today some 6,000 to 7,000 descendants of the Jews Schindler saved live in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. In 1949 Schindler emigrated to Argentina and bought a farm there, but he went bankrupt and in 1957, he left his wife in Argentina and moved back to Germany, where every subsequent business he tried also failed. He was saved from destitution by funds provided by some of his Schindlerjuden, the Jews he had saved, and by a small pension received from the West German government in 1968. In 1962, Oskar Schindler was declared a &#34;righteous Gentile,&#34; an honor awarded by Israel to non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust at great personal risk . He was the only former member of the Nazi party invited to plant a tree at Jerusalem&#39;s Yad Vashem memorial. When he died in 1974, Schindler was buried, as he had requested, in Jerusalem.<BR><BR>Typed letter signed &#40;&#34;Oskar&#34;&#41;, 3pp &#40;recto/verso/recto&#41;, on onionskin paper, Frankfurt am Main, 2 Jan. 1964. With six words and one correction in Schindler&#39;s hand, and parts of two sentences underlined for emphasis. Accompanied by an English translation. Very good; some uneven age yellowing. Addressed to &#34;Dear Hermann!&#34; Alfred Hermann was a Czech Jew born 19 May 1893. He was Prisoner Number 77135 and Number 747 on Schindler&#39;s List, where he was listed as an accountant.<BR><BR>Schindler discusses his life after the war and the physical and verbal abuse to which he was subjected because of the assistance he had given the Jews during the war. In part: <BR>&#34;As you learned from German television, Channel 2, Mr. Hilfert intends to visit you in N.Y…. He wants to make a feature about you and some of our friends for television and produce material for your article in New York Herald Tribune …It seems to be of no consequence that I’m present. On 12.30.1963, at an exhibition at Frankfurt’s Paulskirche honoring the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, I had a short conversation with Mr. Hilfert &#40;The exhibition coincides with the trial against Auschwitz guards in the City Hall next door.&#41;…. In your first article, and unfortunately I don&#39;t read English, it supposedly says that I was stoned on the streets of Frankfurt. This is untrue and must be based on a translation error …However, it is true that I was attacked with an iron rod in my factory by one of my workers. This happened in a suburb of Frankfurt in front of 10 witnesses, and I fell down the stairs into concrete blocks on the floor. The emphasis was not on the injuries I sustained but on the words that were spoken: <B>You dirty Jew. They forgot to gas you</B>. Half an hour later, I pre ssed charges with the Hanau police in front of witnesses, but nobody followed up on my complaint….The police did nothing, and even my lawyer…advised me to let it go. At this time, I had been receiving medical treatments…due to my cardiovascular problems, and I didn’t want to deal with this issue….I was boycotted and we experienced an unusually cold winter….This was a new enterprise, we had no reserve assets and finally we received an eviction notice.<BR><BR>I have to reject the notion that these events could turn me into a martyr or that they were caused by political intrigue against me….On the other hand, I cannot bear the notion that things beyond my control are being trivialized. And Mr. Hilfert was wrong when he stated that You dirty Jew. They forgot to gas you is a common saying in Frankfurt. <BR><BR>But I have to complain about a company I used to do business with. Witnesses were unavailable to Mr. Hilfert since they were sick or had been fired, but their attorney revealed himsel f as an &#39;old Nazi&#39; in front of witnesses. <B>He commented on my visit to Israel and on my support for Jews during the war by saying: &#39;Because of your behavior, I have an eye on you, Herr Schindler. I am an old Nazi.</B>&#39;….I informed my lawyer, and my co-owner, Herr von Wangenheim, about this incident. The result was that our business with them sunk to 10%. <BR><BR>After talking to me, Mr. Hilfert plans to find more witnesses to the assault on me and to my failed business. Today…my lawyer…informed me that he had told Mr. Hilfert, &#39;They didn’t beat Schindler to death. He’s still alive.&#39; This was only a small part of their conversation, and it might have been intended to be a compliment on my physical and mental strength, but it doesn’t help.<BR><BR>Dear Hermann, we have known each other now for 30 years, and unfortunately we’re getting older. We’ve always had the courage to face the truth, and it didn’t matter if personal, national or racial matters were involved. We have fought hard and honestly for our Golden Years, even though success was sometimes elusive. Therefore, I ask you to give the attached copy and newspaper article [not present] to your friend, the journalist, who was kind enough to publish your piece of writing. I want this gentleman to have an objective view of what happened. I want you, your family, and all of your friends to be healthy and successful, and I remain, as always, Yours, Oskar.&#34;<BR><BR>Our research shows that this is the first Oskar Schindler letter ever to appear at auction. <BR>Estimated Value &#36;20,000 - 30,000. <BR><BR>Our item number 137001<BR><IMAGES><P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="http://www.goldbergcoins.net/liveauction/49jpegs/137001.jpg"> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.goldbergcoins.net/liveauction/49jpegs/137001N2.jpg"> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.goldbergcoins.net/liveauction/49jpegs/137001N3.jpg"> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.goldbergcoins.net/liveauction/49jpegs/137001N4.jpg"> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.goldbergcoi ns.net/liveauction/49jpegs/137001N5.jpg"> </P></IMAGES>