Saving
Schindler's Ark
Making a Museum of Survivors in the heart of Europe. Where 1,200 Jews on Schindler's List were saved — and where history still breathes.
"Schindler's Ark was stolen by the Nazis in 1938. Reclaimed by history in 2025. We were there."KINOVISION — Documentary Team
A Museum of Survivors
Schindler's Ark is the former Löw-Beer textile factory in Brněnec — a concentration camp where 1,200 Jews on Schindler's List were saved, as depicted in Steven Spielberg's film. Stolen by the Nazis from the Low-Beer family in 1938, it became the site of one of history's most extraordinary acts of human defiance.
After decades as a communist-era factory — producing cloth for the Queen of England's guards, working for IKEA and Škoda — the building collapsed in 2008. The Low-Beer family consolidated the ruined complex in 2019 and, in partnership with the local community, formed the Arks Foundation.
Together they co-designed a project for a Museum of Survivors — implementing testimony, iWALK, and permanent digital learning in the unique place where the events occurred. KINOVISION was there to document it all.
"My grandfather Walter Low-Beer woke up one day, and was standing on a new line, which had just cut Czechoslovakia in two, Europe in two, and the Jewish world into pieces..."
From "The Arks: the Low-Beer story behind Schindler's List and Villa Tugendhat"Where Europe Was Cut in Two
The Munich Agreement of 1938 drew a new border along the stream that ran through the factory. Walter Low-Beer — short, athletic, Jewish — faced an oncoming battalion of Nazi soldiers on the other side of the bridge.
He stood his ground. He told the soldiers they could go no further — to phone Berlin and check their orders. That is how he held up the Nazi invasion of this part of Czechoslovakia for three full days.
The factory was then seized by the Nazis and became the unique concentration camp where Oskar Schindler saved 1,200 Jewish lives. Today it stands as a monument to those who stood up to discrimination — and survived.
Watch the Story Unfold
The Site — Brněnec
Museum of Survivors — Renovated
President Petr Pavel visits the Museum of Survivors, Brněnec
A Story Worth Saving.
The Museum of Survivors is being built — co-designed with school students from 5 countries. Visit the Arks Foundation to learn how you can help.