The Museum of Survivors was officially opened on Saturday in the former factory of Oskar Schindler, who saved over 1,200 Jews during World War II, in Brnenec near Svitavy, Milan Sudoma, manager of the Schindler’s Ark project, told CTK.
The factory in Brnenec, run by businessman Schindler, produced ammunition and became a branch camp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp during the war.
In addition to a tour of the site, the opening on Saturday allowed visitors to view two exhibitions in the museum that will be open only exceptionally for the time being. “It won’t be open every day yet. It will be designated for tours for several days during this year,” Sudoma said.
For the opening ceremony, a permanent exhibition, Starting at Zero, previously housed in Brno’s UNESCO-listed Villa Tugendhat, was installed in one of the factory’s halls. It features works by female designers of the Bauhaus art school. The pioneers of the avant-garde faced the challenge of rebuilding their position in the professional world after the rise of Nazism and had to start from scratch. The exhibition brings together a unique collection of artworks in the form of textiles, prints and ceramics.
Another exhibition shows life in a concentration camp and focuses on the Holocaust survivors. Its panels display period photographs, documents and information. Besides, period items, such as suitcases and a motorcycle, are displayed in glass cases. Audiovisual presentations complement the display.
The opening of the museum was accompanied by musical performances and a demonstration of the Low-Beer textile collection.
Thomas Keneally, the author of the famous book about Oscar Schindler on which the Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List is based, was originally to attend the opening of the museum, but he eventually cancelled his participation due to his health. However, his daughter handed over part of her father’s manuscript to the museum.
The factory in Brnenec was founded as a paper mill, then served as a wool spinning mill, which the owner, Isaac Low-Beer, gradually rebuilt into a major textile mill. After the Nazi invasion of Poland, Schindler acquired a former Jewish enamel factory in Krakow, and hired Jews from the Krakow ghetto to work there because it was cheaper. However, the ghetto was liquidated and its inhabitants were either murdered or deported to the concentration camp in Plaszow.
When it was decided that all the prisoners would be transferred to the Auschwitz extermination camp, Schindler used bribes and contacts to get not only his employees, but also their families transferred to his next enterprise, the ammunition factory in Brnenec. He thus saved some 1,200 Polish Jews from death. After the war, he received many awards, but was unsuccessful in his business activities. He died in Germany in 1974 , and is buried in Israel.
The textile factory in Brnenec was operated by the Vitka company after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. When it ended up in insolvency in 2004, it was bought by Bustrex and renamed Vitka Textiles. In 2011, it went bankrupt, the production was halted and the site has been abandoned since then.
The Ark Foundation of the Low-Beer and Schindler families bought the property in 2018. Some of the buildings are heritage listed. The foundation wants to renovate them and create spaces for educational activities, exhibitions and large workshops for craft production. The site is also to include a residential area.
