Schindler’s wife upset at Spielberg’s letter bungle
THE wife of Oskar Schindler was sent a letter by Steven Spielberg mistaking her for someone her husband saved.
Emilie Schindler was married to the “Schindler’s List” hero who kept over 1,200 people out of Nazi death camps. She was later said to have felt ignored by the history books and the hit film in a very humiliating way.
Friends says she did not get fair credit for her “50/50” role in saving Jewish people from the Nazis and was left in poverty – not benefiting from the movie or book it was based on.
Unheard interviews she recorded in later life show how Steven Spielberg, who made the film Schindler’s List, once mistook who she was.
Emilie was invited by the director to bring her husband – seemingly not realising she was married to Oskar who died in 1974 – to shoot a scene.
Dated May 7, 1993, his letter says: “I will be travelling to Israel with my crew to film an epilogue scene at Oskar Schindler’s grave site. I would be deeply honoured if you would appear in the scene and allow me to include your important face in the film. You and your spouse are invited to come to Jerusalem as my guests.”
Friend and biographer Erika Rosenberg is auctioning the taped interviews about Emilie’s life which are expected to fetch up to £5,000. The letter is not part of the sale at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh.
Erika, 69, said: “This letter made Emilie very angry.”
The Schindlers, who ran a factory, were Nazi party members but helped save more than 1,200 Jewish lives by bribing SS officials. After the war the penniless pair fled to Argentina but later split. Emilie then lived on a small pension and died in 2001.
Erika said: “Their roles in saving the Jews could be split 50-50. But she was cut out of the film and the book in a very humiliating and offensive way.”