Schindler’s List producer Branko Lustig donated his Oscar to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. Photo: Catherine Chen via Flickr.com.

JNS.org – Auschwitz death camp survivor Branko Lustig, who was one of the producers of Steven Spielberg’s award-winning 1993 movie Schindler’s List, this week presented the Academy Award he had received for his work on the film to Israel’s Jerusalem-based Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.

“I’m very honored, I feel this is a good [resting place] for the Oscar,” Lustig told Reuters. “I’m not parting with it, I am leaving it to the nation, for generations to come. … All Yad Vashem’s visitors will see it, at my home there is only my wife and my daughter.”

The 83-year-old Lustig was born in Croatia and survived both the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. The award-donation ceremony was attended by Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who said the Oscar statue attained by Lustig is a “beacon of light” and a reminder of the sacrifices made by non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

“His decision to separate himself from the award which means so much to a producer, to a creator, and to send it to Yad Vashem for eternity is very meaningful,” said Yad Vashem’s chairman, Avner Shalev.