SYDNEY — Australian researchers sifting papers belonging to the author of “Schindler’s List” discovered a yellowing roll of 801 men saved from the Holocaust by the German industrialist — the copy the writer used to bring the story to the world’s attention, a curator said Monday.
The 13-page document is a copy of one of Os kar Schindler’s compilations of names that eventually included 1,100 men and women he saved by employing them in his factories in World War II Germany.
“It’s the list Tom used when writing ‘Schindler’s Ark,’ and that really brought Schindler’s actions to the attention of the world,” said State Library of New South Wales co-curator Olwen Pryke, referring to the book’s author, Thomas Keneally.
“It is a copy of a copy, but it’s a moving document, regardless,” said Pryke, who stumbled upon the pages late last year. “When you look at it, you think of the lives that were saved.”
Keneally’s book, also published as “Schind ler’s List,” was made into an Oscar-winning film by Steven Spielberg in 1993.
Keneally sold his research, files and notes on the book to a manuscript dealer, who sold them to the library in 1996.
Keneally was given the copy of the list by Leopold Pfefferberg, No. 173 on Schindler’s list, in a chance meeting in 1980, and was urged by the survivor to write about Schindler.
The list will be on display at the library and on its website beginning today.
