London, Friday, July
6, 2001
[Pictures
added by this website: Hitler and
Himmler; Hitler, von Puttkamer,
Below.]
Nazis'
Alpine retreat to be converted into
luxury hotel
FROM GAL AVIAN, BERLIN
ANDREAS NACHAMA, the
former head of the Berlin Jewish
community, has welcomed a decision,
after years of debate, to build a
luxury hotel in Obersalzberg, Bavaria,
on the site of Adolf Hitler's
Alpine command centre.
He said the project would make it
unlikely that the site would become a
magnet for neo-Nazis.
Building by a sub-contractor for the
Bavarian State Bank is due to start
this month on a 140-bed
Intercontinental hotel.
The £23-million project is
expected to take three years. The
hotel, which will include a golf
course, will replace the former holiday
mansion of Nazi general Hermann
Göring, head of the German Air
Force.
Hitler's nearby residence,
"Berghof," was destroyed in 1945, but
his "Eagle's Nest" mountain-top retreat
and bunker still exist and are open to
visitors.
After the
Second World War, the house and the
surrounding area were used by the US
Army. In 1997, they were handed over
to Bavarian state authorities, who
have been struggling to find a
proper use for the site ever
since.
As a historian, Mr Nachama served as
an advisor on the establishment of a
museum in Obersalzberg which opened in
1999 and documents the area's Nazi
past.
It
now attracts more than 100,000 visitors
each year. It includes part of the
bunker system where Hitler, Göring
and other senior Nazis
spent the final
years of the war, as well as
films and audio recordings reminding
visitors of Nazi atrocities and the
death camps.
Bavarian Finance Minister Kurt
Falthauser said the American-based
Intercontinental group, which will own
the hotel, had committed itself not to
allow any "Nazi tourism" in the
area.
"The more luxurious the hotel, the
better the chances of preventing such
unwanted tourists," Mr Nachama said
this week. "We can be sure that no
skinhead will run such a hotel. "I am
100-per-cent convinced that this hotel
management will prevent vendors from
selling Third Reich souvenirs," he
added.
"The hotel is also only 200 metres
from the museum, which is visible from
the hotel terrace. The hotel managers
could place a sign recalling the past
of the building, but because of the
neighbouring documentation centre, that
is not really necessary."
Jewish
heirs
would get proceeds from
resale.
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