Brnenec, East Bohemia, Oct 20 (CTK) – The Czech Culture Ministry has granted the cultural heritage status to the former concentration camp buildings in Brnenec, a locality known from Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List, the ministry spokeswoman Simona Cigankova told CTK on Thursday.
Schindler’s List is a story of Oskar Schindler (1908-1974), an entrepreneur who saved more than 1,000 Jews, mainly Polish, during World War Two by employing them in his factory in Brnenec.
The Czech Endowment Fund Memorial of Shoah and Oskar Schindler wants to turn the former factory and concentration camp into a memorial to the Holocaust victims.
The current owner of the complex has reportedly promised to provide a part of it for the fund and the local self-rule authority also supports the project.
The Fund board head, Jaroslav Novak, told CTK that they have asked Culture Minister Daniel Herman to declare the former concentration camp site a national cultural heritage sight.
“It is a uniquely preserved Nazi concentration camp on the Czech territory,” Novak said.
He said the Brnenec camp is the world best-known Czech heritage sight, owing to Spielberg’s famous film.
Novak previously said the revitalisation of the dilapidated building has a big economic potential in addition to the cultural-historical importance.
“The goal is to build a true copy of the complex on the original bases of the concentration camp, including watchtowers and the factory area, the hospital and the camp with prisoners,” he said earlier this year.
An exhibition on Schindler’s life and the fates of some prisoners is to be part of the project.
The fund would like the memorial to be a place for excursions as well as exhibitions and conferences. It also plans to publish books, make documentaries and films on the Holocaust.
Schindler’s life is also to be mapped by an educational trail.
Many consider Schindler, born in nearby Svitavy, a controversial person because he was also a member of the Nazi Party and the German military intelligence.
