Oskar Schindler (center)
Oskar Schindler (center)Reuters

A factory in the Czech Republic once used by Oskar Schindler could be made into a Holocaust memorial, the German news agency dpa reports.

The site was bought by the Endowment Fund Memorial of Shoah and Oskar Schindler, according to the report. The Czech foundation is now looking at ways to finance the project, which includes restoring the dilapidated building in the eastern Czech village of Brnenec.

"Our main goal is to restore the building and the surrounding area back to its original historical condition, including the watch towers and the hospital," foundation head Jaroslav Novak was quoted as saying.

Novak added that he was optimistic that the group would receive public funding for the project, since the renovated building could become a tourist magnet.

Schindler is credited with saving the lives of some 1,200 Jews employed in his factories during World War II. He died in anonymity in Germany in 1974 at the age of 66.

The industrialist's story was the focal point of director Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film "Schindler's List" in 1993.

Recently, a letter written by Schindler to his bookkeeper Itzhak Stern was put up for sale online on the website MomentsinTime.com, which deals in rare original autographs and historical documents.

It was put up for sale by a descendant of Stern, who composed the list of Jews that Schindler saved by calling them essential to the running of his factory.

The two-page letter, which is type-written in German and can be viewed on the website where it is a featured item, is from 1963, and deals with the industrialists' finances.

"If I think in retrospect, that a year ago I was with you and full of optimism towards the future, and now/today I have to carry the effects of the last year, I sometimes ask myself if it’s even worth living," Schindler writes in the letter which discusses the "desperate situation" of his finances.

Schindler attempted to start several businesses after World War II, all of which failed, leaving him bankrupt.