You've Seen the Movie, Now Read the List

Researchers at a state library in Sydney, Australia have found a copy of Schindler's famous list. While there is no single, original list, this copy has special significance. The list was found among the papers of Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark. Before Keneally wrote this book, Oskar Schindler's heroic story was largely unknown. The book and the story then inspired Steven Spielberg's famous movie. Keneally carried this 13-page copy of the list as he went about doing research for the book. He obtained this copy of a carbon-copy from Leopold Pfefferberg, number 173 on the list, who encouraged Keneally to tell Schindler's story. The carbon copy was produced along with the original in 1944 or 1945, during which time several copies were typed up. Carbon copies were created since the originals were submitted to Nazi officials.

Search JewishGen's transcription of the list for free using either the search engine on JewishGen.org or the search engine on Ancestry.com. Using advanced search capability on JewishGen requires a monetary contribution. Using the free search on Ancestry.com requires registration. Any old account will do: a current subscription, an expired subscription, or a vanilla registration. To register, no credit card is required, but you will need to provide an e-mail address. Alternately, an expired subscription works just fine.

For more information, see

• "Schindler's Lists" - Explanatory article on JewishGen.
• "Real Schindler's list uncovered" - Sun (United Kingdom) newspaper article.
• "Heritage Collection, 2009" - Digital copies of the newly discovered copy at the website of the State Library New South Wales.
• Schlindler's List - Thomas Keneally's book, now published under the same name as the famous movie. This Google Books copy is a limited preview.

Credit Dick Eastman and his article for alerting me to this story.

Author Thomas Keneally, right, and researcher Dr Olwen Pryke examine his old copy of Schindler's list.