Austrian house where Hitler was born to house charity agency

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FILE - This Sept. 27, 2012 file picture shows an exterior view of Adolf Hitler\'s birth house, front, in Braunau am Inn, Austria. Austrian government officials have decided Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016, against tearing down the house where Hitler was born and said it will instead be redesigned and used to house a charitable organization. (AP Photo / Kerstin Joensson, file)

VIENNA – Austrian government officials have decided to transform the home where Adolf Hitler was born into a base for a charity, not tear down the property as some demanded.

Thursday’s decision comes a day after lawmakers overwhelmingly approved an Interior Ministry bill to dispossess the owner, who had refused to sell the empty building in Braunau am Inn, a town on Austria’s border with Germany.

Provincial governor Josef Puehringer says destroying the structure would have fueled accusations of “tearing down a piece of burdensome history.”

Instead, officials want to remodel the property’s facade to eliminate its draw as a shrine for admirers of the Nazi dictator, who was born in the house in 1889.

Puehringer says the house will be offered to an agency running a workshop for disabled people.

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