Auschwitz survivor Branko Lustig, one of the producers of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List," presented his Academy Award from the film to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Wednesday. Lustig said that the trophy had finally found its rightful resting place, NBC News reported.
Lustig, 83, was born in Croatia and survived the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps before they were liberated when he was 12 years old. He was reunited with his mother at the end of the war, but many family members, including his father, were killed during the war.
"Schindler's List" told the true story of German industrialist and Nazi Party member Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The producer also won an Oscar for his role in making the 2000 film "Gladiator," which starred Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix.
"I'm very honored, I feel this is a good place for the Oscar," Lustig told Reuters before the ceremony in Jerusalem, which was also attended by Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. "I'm not parting with it," Lustig said. "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," he said.
