Hammonia Allgemeine Versicherungs-Aktien-Gesellschaft in Hamburg – General Insurance Company in Hamburg. Certificate No. 23932 – An early insurance certificate from the “Hammonia” insurance company for a motor vehicle owned by Oskar Schindler, dated September 8, 1928 – signed by the Righteous Among the Nations, Oskar Schindler.
The insurance certificate details the terms of the annual insurance – coverage for regular accidents of a motor vehicle owned by Oskar Schindler starting from September 1928 (when he was only 20 years old!). It outlines the insurance conditions regarding fire, theft, and conditional damages, as well as the terms of the deductible and other conditions. The details were filled out on a typewriter, and Oskar Schindler’s signature appears as the “policyholder.” The remaining pages list the policy conditions and the signatures of the insurance company representatives.
In his youth, Schindler was drawn to technical fields and enrolled in engineering studies at a vocational school. During his teenage years, he began working in various jobs, including selling agricultural equipment and cars. During this time, he purchased the car that was insured with the Hammonia insurance company mentioned above. By the 1930s, Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) owned several German companies, frequently changing his sources of income. Following the Great Depression, he even went bankrupt. With the outbreak of World War II and the German occupation of Poland in September 1939, Schindler moved to Kraków in search of business opportunities. In October, he took control of an enamelware factory in Zabłocie, near Kraków, where he employed about 1,200 Jewish workers during the war, saving them from death. Another rescue act by Schindler and his wife was their absorption of over 100 Jews who were transported by freight train from the Golleschau camp near Auschwitz. The Jews arrived in January 1945 in sealed wagons, after several weeks of travel, at the Zwittau train station. Due to their poor physical condition, other factories refused to accept them. To get them into his factory, Schindler bribed the train station manager. They were accepted into work despite suffering from severe hunger and being too weak to work effectively. Through this, Schindler saved them from certain death. Oskar Schindler is the most well-known Righteous Among the Nations associated with the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, with countless books written about him, as well as films depicting his story of saving Jews during the Holocaust. In 1962, during his visit to Israel, Yitzhak Stern said of him: “My brother, in the Hebrew language, there are three expressions, three degrees: man, gentleman, humane. I believe there is another degree: ‘Schindler.'”
See also Dynasty Auction 25, Item 143.
[12] Pages, full policy. Very good condition.
