Schindlers List For sale

The only privately-held copy of a list that Oskar Schindler drew up of Jews to be saved from Hitler's concentration camps is on sale for £1.45m.

The list compiled by Mr Schindler and the accountant Itzhak Stern is dated April 18, 1945, and 13 pages long.

It was made famous in the Hollywood movie Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg and contains the names of 801 men, along with their occupations and birthdates.

"It's the only one remaining in private hands," said historic document sales specialist Gary Zimet.

Mr Zimet, who runs the collector's website MomentsInTime.com, said it was "arguably the most important World War II document".

Mr Schindler was a German businessman with a reputation for mistresses, bribery and boozing.

He followed the Nazis into Poland, hoping to make a fortune using cheap Jewish labour there.

But after witnessing a raid in which Jews were hoarded off to be killed in work and death camps, he began to look for ways to save potential victims.

He made his money but spent it all risking his life to save Jewish people and he died penniless.

The list is being sold on a "first come, first served" basis - rather than at auction - on behalf of an anonymous seller.

There were seven different versions of the list and only four others are known to have survived, according to Mr Zimet.

One is in the US Holocaust Museum, one at the German federal archives in Koblenz, and two others are kept at the Yad Vashem museum in Israel, he said.