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311

Oskar Schindler

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:40,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Oskar Schindler

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Auction Date:2014 Jan 15 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Historically important carbon or printed engineering plans in German that outline in great detail the specifics for Schindler's stamping factory at Emalia, on a large 44.5 x 27 sheet, dated November 15, 1943. These construction schematics show various angles of the exterior sides of the building as well as the foundation, T-joints, and supports. Plans bear a stamp to the lower right that reads, "Siemens-Bauunion G.m.b.H., Konstructionburo Krakau," endorsed below in an unknown hand. Framed to an overall size of 50 x 33. In well-preserved, fine condition, with intersecting storage folds and a few small chips and tears to the lower left (not affecting any diagrams). Lot is accompanied by a detailed report by historian David Crowe.

Schindler's enamelware manufacturing company had been operating at his Krakow plant, called 'Emalia,' for four years when he contracted with Siemens-Bauunion in the spring of 1943 to construct a large, hangar-style building to be used as a stamping facility—the building referenced and depicted in these plans. Constructing the stamping factory was part of Schindler’s larger idea to increase the size of his Jewish work force at Emalia, where he was also building a new sub-camp to house the growing number of Jewish workers. The stamping facility, which was the largest building at Emalia, became the centerpiece of the complex. Without the plans for it, Schindler would have been unable to convince Amon Goeth and the SS to allow him to continue building a separate sub-camp—Goeth, who ran the nearby Plaszow concentration camp, had an arrangement with Schindler that allowed him to employ the Jewish prisoners. While those detained at Plaszow were in constant fear for their lives under Goeth's sadistic reign, Schindler's complex offered a safe haven, where they had improved access to food and medicine, could worship freely, and did not need to live in terror. Consequently, if the famous Schindler’s lists of the fall of 1944 can be called 'the lists of life,' then the Siemens-Bauunion stamping factory can be called the 'factory of life,' since without it Schindler would not have been able to construct his sub-camp that ultimately housed 1000 Jewish workers.

Most attention to the story of Oskar Schindler centers on the preparation of his lists in the fall of 1944, which paved the way for the transfer of 1000 Jews from Plaszow to Schindler’s new factory in what is now the Czech Republic—however, the real essence of the Schindler story centers around the construction of the Siemens-Bauunion stamping factory and sub-camp at Emalia, where he began in earnest his efforts to save hundreds of Jews from death during the Holocaust. Oversized.
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