Oskar Schindler’s wristwatch, personal items top $46,000  

Longines wristwatch belonging to Oskar Schindler (left). RR Auction image

BOSTON – A small but remarkable collection of Oskar Schindler’s personal possessions sold for $46,303 at RR Auction on March 6.  according to Boston-based RR Auction. Absentee and Internet live bidding was available through LiveAuctioneers.

Schindler was a German industrialist credited with saving nearly 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories.

Schindler’s story was recounted in the 1982 novel Schindler’s Ark by Australian author Thomas Keneally and became the basis of Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List in 1993 that won seven Academy Awards.

Among the Schindler items included in the sale were his Longines wristwatch, a compass, a 1938 Sudetenland Medal, two fountain pens, and a business card.

The Longines wristwatch belonging to Oskar Schindler, featuring a white face with gold-tone hands and time markers, silver-tone case and black leather strap. The manufacturer of the watch confirmed that the serial number indicated it was invoiced on Dec. 17, 1956 to the company Perusset, which was at that time their agent for Argentina, where Schindler lived from 1949 to 1957.

The compass was manufactured by Bezard/Gotthilf Lufft and is said to have been used by Oskar Schindler and his wife, Emilie, while fleeing Russian troops and heading for American occupied territory in 1945. The compass is from the estate of Emilie Schindler.