Next year, the Museum of Survivors in Brněnec in the Svitavy region should be completed

Brněnec - The Archa Foundation - the Löw-Beer family and Oskar Schindler wants to complete the Museum of Survivors next year in the former Oskar Schindler factory in Brněnec. This year, people were able to visit it for the first time, and two exhibitions were displayed. Later, the foundation plans to continue with the restoration of other buildings, said the project's manager for Schindler's Ark, Milan Šudoma, to ČTK. During World War II, the Brněnec factory, led by entrepreneur Oskar Schindler, produced ammunition and became a sub-camp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. The premises and museum were visited today by the President of the Republic, Petr Pavel.

"There are three buildings that are heritage-protected. The building where the SS soldiers were stationed, and the actual building of Oskar Schindler's factory. The third is a small house where Schindler had his office, which is owned by the municipality. They have already applied for a grant to build an information center," said Šudoma.

All the buildings are in poor condition. According to Šudoma, it will first be necessary to save the historically most valuable part of the former factory, where prisoners worked on the lower floor and lived on the upper floors.

The museum is currently open only occasionally in a testing phase. It is mainly visited by schools, and interested individuals can walk through the entire complex. According to Šudoma, there is considerable interest, partly from abroad, but a promotional campaign will be necessary.

The Archa Foundation received a grant from the European Union, which will finance the operation of the museum, and the Pardubice Region promised additional funds. It is trying to raise money from sponsors, companies, and the Czech state as well as neighboring countries. "This is the only place in the Pardubice Region that has the potential to become world-famous. Everyone in the world knows Schindler's List; there is no other such place here," believes Šudoma.

The factory in Brněnec was established as a paper mill; it later served as a wool spinning mill, from which the then-owner Izák Löw-Beer built a significant textile factory. After the Nazi invasion of Poland, Schindler acquired a former Jewish enamel factory in Krakow, and because it was cheaper, he employed Jews from the Krakow ghetto. However, the ghetto was liquidated, and its residents were either murdered or deported to the concentration camp in Plaszow. When it was decided that all prisoners would be transferred to Auschwitz, Schindler, through bribes and contacts, managed to transfer not only his employees but also their families to his other enterprise, the ammunition factory in Brněnec, Moravia. Before his death, he saved about 1,200 Polish Jews. After the war, he struggled with business and became a recipient of many awards. He died in 1974 in Germany and is buried in Israel.

The textile manufacturing plant in Brněnec was operated by the company Vitka after 1989. When it went bankrupt in 2004, it was purchased by the company Bustrex and renamed Vitka Textiles. In 2011, it went bankrupt again, production was halted, and the premises have remained abandoned since then. The Archa Foundation - the Löw-Beer family and Oskar Schindler purchased it in 2018; some buildings are heritage-protected. The foundation aims to renovate them and create spaces for education, exhibitions, and large workshops for craftsmanship. The complex will also include a residential part.