'I wrote Schindler's List'

In 1980, Australian author Thomas Keneally stumbled across the story of Oskar Schindler while buying a briefcase in Beverly Hills, in the USA.

The owner of the shop, a Polish Jew called Leopold Pfefferberg, told Thomas that a Nazi party member had saved him, his wife and many others from the Holocaust, by employing them in his enamel factory.

Thomas tells Rachel Naylor why Oskar was such a compelling subject, full of contradictions, and why he believes his book has lasting appeal.

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(Photo: Thomas Keneally at his home in Bilgola Beach, Australia, in 1981. Credit: Martin James Brannan/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)