(JTA) — Adolf Hitler’s birthplace in Austria will be torn down and a new building with no connection to the Nazi leader will be built in its place.
The plan was announced by the country’s Interior Ministry. The plan still has to be written into legislation and passed by Austria’s Parliament, the Associated Press reported. Such a vote should take place before the end of the calendar year, and likely would be a formality, according to the news service.
The Austrian government has initiated formal legal procedures to dispossess the home in the German border town of Braunau from its owners in an attempt to prevent the site from becoming a shrine to the neo-Nazi community.
Gerlinde Pommer’s family has owned the house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, for more than a century. The town has tried for decades to purchase the building.
The ministry had rented the home for decades and sublet it to charitable organizations. The house, which draws neo-Nazi visitors, especially on the anniversary of Hitler’s birth, has stood empty for more than five years after the owner refused to authorize needed renovations.
The building is listed as a historical landmark, though Hitler’s name does not appear on it.
