Schindler’s Czech factory moves closer to becoming museum

Oskar Schindler’s former factory in the Czech Republic will be declared a listed monument by the country, the Oskar-Schindler Foundation said.

The foundation took over the management of the dilapidated building in the village of Brnenec in August. It plans to restore the building and turn it into a Holocaust memorial by 2019, the German news agency dpa reported last week.

The listed monument status means the building cannot be sold or altered, and is earmarked for preservation.

Schindler, who died in 1974, was a German industrialist and Nazi spy whose story became famous through Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Oscar-winning film “Schindler’s List.” By saving Jews he employed in his ammunition factory, the businessman defied the Nazi regime and saved some 1,200 lives. He had written down the names of the people to be protected on a list.

The site of the factory, near the former concentration camp in Brnenec, has been open to visitors since 2010. As the only remaining Nazi concentration camp site in the country, it is one of the best-known buildings in the Czech Republic, said Jaroslav Novak, the head of the foundation.

The organization believes the memorial would attract more visitors to the region.

Plans to turn the factory into a museum have been ongoing since at least 2012.

Another former Schindler factory in Krakow has been turned into a museum and attracts tourists to the Polish city.