Gentiles ; WJC)

Is Auschwitz the wrong place to film a movie? The World Jewish Congress and a Canadian group of survivors say yes; Marvin Hier of the Wiesenthal Center says no. Steven Spielberg says, "Roll 'em."

Spielberg plans to spend three production days at Auschwitz while shooting a feature adaptation of Australian author Thomas Keneally's 1982 novel, "Schindler's List." It will star Irish actor Liam Neesom, Oscar-winning Ben Kingsley, and several Israelis in supporting roles. The book is based on the exploits of a German businessman who saved 1,300 Jews during World War II on the pretext that they were laborers in his factory.

WJC leaders say they object to an emerging pattern of "desecration of the death camp" by filmmakers, and are seeking to stop Spielberg. They have criticized him for bypassing the international council overseeing the Auschwitz State Museum by applying directly to the Polish Ministry of Culture for permission to use the location.

Another protest has come from the Auschwitz Awareness Society, a Canadian organization of Jewish and Catholic survivors of the camp which wants a ban on all commercial filming there. "Mr. Spielberg, a Jew himself, must be aware of concerns about the dignity of the biggest Jewish cemetery in the world," said Sigmund Sobolewski, the group's 68-year-old co-director, a Catholic.

Jerry Molen, one of the film's producers, says that Spielberg is "nonplused" by the objections. Only a brief part of the 75-day production schedule would be spent at Auschwitz, said Molen, and there would be no attempt to recreate the crematoria.

Adapting the book for screen, said Molen, has been a decade-long passion for Spielberg. And to ensure that the subject be treated "with the utmost respect and dignity," Spielberg hired Auschwitz survivor Branko Lustig as a co-producer. This has won over Rabbi Hier, dean of the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

As associate producer and first assistant director on the 1988 TV adaptation of Herman Wouk's "War and Remembrance," Lustig was responsible for location work at Auschwitz, winning widespread acclaim for painstaking authenticity. And in preparation for "Schindler's List," says Hier, "Branko spent hours and hours in our library… The WJC's objections are non-starters. There isn't anything Branko would do that would reflect insensitivity to the Holocaust."