Schindler’s List goes up for auction on eBay: Bidding starts at $3million for historic document containing names of Jews saved from the Nazis

The auction has a $3 million reserve price, but sellers expect millions more
The documents can only be picked up locally in Israel ‘for security’
Online reaction to the auction has been less than positive

By Ryan Gorman Daily Mail PUBLISHED: 19 July 2013

Collectors have put ‘Schindler’s List’ up for auction on eBay and are asking for millions.

Normally used to buy collectible dolls and unlocked cell phones, the online auction site is now listing one of four known original copies of ‘Schindler’s List,’ at a reserve price of $3 million and not everyone is thrilled.

The reserve price is high, but the sellers are hoping for millions more when the auction ends.

For sale: Collectors have put an original copy of ‘Schindler’s List’ up for auction on eBay

The only copy ever to be sold on the open market, according to the New York Post, is being sold by Gary Zimet and Eric Gazin. The two are collectors from California with a penchant for headline-grabbing auctions through their company Auction Cause.

Calling the document ‘a piece of history that has inspired many,’ the listing says the two men guarantee the list’s authenticity – it was sourced from Itzhak Stern, Schindler’s accountant played by Ben Kingsley in the award-winning film.

Hero: Oskar Schindler speaks about saving lives during the Holocaust in this 1963 photo

Gazin told the Post they chose ‘the world’s marketplace’ because ‘there are billionaires using the site, wealthy celebrities’ the two collectors hope to earn at least $5 million from when the auction ends after 10 days.

‘Using eBay offers the widest audience and the most opportunity to bid, as opposed to a traditional auction house,’ Garvin added in comments to Mail Online.

The other three known copies are in museums – with two in Israel and one in the United States Holocaust Museum – and that is where many believe this copy should also go.

‘Donate it to a museum,’ said one Twitter user. ‘Surely this should be donated to a museum,’ said another, echoing the sentiments of several people across the internet.

Nightmarish: A young man checks numbers tattooed on the arms of Jewish Polish prisoners coming from the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp

They made it into a movie: Actors Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley on the set of Schindler’s List

Several others expressed unhappiness with the auction, one person even tweeted ‘if you’re still wondering about the world you live in… Schindler’s list is being sold on e-bay [SIC]. Say no more.’

All bidders must be pre-qualified, with the winner to pay a $10,000 deposit via PayPal and work out how to send the rest offline, according to the listing. The screed will not be delivered an can only be picked up locally – in Israel.

Genocide: A dead prisoner, one of over 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust, lies in a train carriage near Dachau concentration camp in May 1945

Terrible death: A prisoner dying of dysentry at the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald

The list is being sold by a private owner, Garvin told Mail Online, declining to disclose their identity.

Explaining that he understands why people believe the list belongs on display in a museum instead of for sale online, Garvin said that many people with collections of ‘fantastic items’ choose to share those items with a greater audience.

‘It would not surprise me if it ends up in a museum… I think that would be fantastic,’ said Garvin.

Doomed: Prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp, one of many across Europe responsible for the near-extermination of European Jews by the Nazi regime

With the owner located in Israel, the document is only available for local pick up, Garvin said. This is done both ‘for security’ and to give the winning bidder the opportunity to inspect the document and make sure they are getting the real deal before the funds are moved from an escrow account.

The list originated from German Industrialist Oskar Schindler. During World War II, Schindler made it his mission to keep his Jewish employees from oppression and death at the hands of the Nazis.

Schindler even bribed officials with cash and lavish gifts to keep them away.

Extermination: A prisoner at the Dachau concentration camp, where over 30,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust

Over six million Jews were persecuted, tortured and murdered at concentration camps across Europe as part of the ‘Final Solution’ by the Nazi regime by the end of World War II, according to the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum, with victims included Gypsies, the disabled, Poles, Russians and others. The dead ranged in age from babies to the elderly.

His efforts were adopted into both a book and movie, the latter of which starred Liam Neeson and won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and a best actor nod for Neeson.

Previous auctions staged by Auction Cause include a date with Scarlett Johansson – the $19 million reserve was not met, a selling of the Harry Reid/Rush Limbaugh letter which fetched $2.1 million and a $200,000 David and Victoria Beckham cocktail reception