Model of Oskar Schindler’s Gold Ring Donated by Australian Jeweler
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
SYDNEY (JTA) — A long-thought lost model used by grateful Jewish workers to create a gold ring for Oskar Schindler has been donated to the Melbourne Jewish Holocaust Centre, where it will go on display.
The model that lay in the Melbourne workshop of ring maker Jozef Gross for more than 50 years.
The ring-making was portrayed in Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” as having been made from gold sourced from prisoners’ teeth, according to the Holocaust center.
Schindler, the hero of Thomas Kenneally’s book “Schindler’s Ark” as well as the Oscar-winning film, was a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party who saved Jews by employing them in his factory and treating them humanely. He saved about 1,200 Jews.
At the end of the war Gross, a master jeweler, made the ring for Schindler, who lost it shortly after the war. The model came to Australia with Gross.
The jeweler was a very private person and chose not to share his story with the world, telling only his family and a few others about his war experiences. Importantly, however, Gross gave an in-depth description of the process used to make the ring to his Australian business partner. The model was discovered by Gross’ son, Louis, in a box, along with other jewelry-making paraphernalia after Gross died in 1997.
The model is one of the few physical objects remaining from Schindler’s factory.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
