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| Europe |
| A Fixer-Upper, Hitler's 'Wolfs' Lair' For Rent In Poland |
| 2012-01-19 |
| Adolf Hitler's Wolf's Lair, an enormous fortified base in the quiet Polish countryside, has been put up for rent. Known locally as the Wolfsschanze, the 13-hectare site, situated in the Masurian woods near the town of Ketryn, is on the market for £90,000 a year. During the Second World War, the site, then part of Eastern Prussia, was used as a command post for Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. It housed more than 2,000 security personnel, as well as members of the Nazi high command, including Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann, Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl. The lease on the land, which is owned by the Polish Forestry Commission (PFC), has recently expired and new tenants are being sought. Reported by the Telegraph, Zenon Piotrowicz from the PFC said: "There is no way you can rebuild the bunkers." "We are concerned more about having the place made more attractive to tourists, including the renovation of the hotel and restaurant," he said. Though the Nazis dynamited most of the buildings as they retreated from the Red Army advance, the huge toppled concrete bunkers have become a popular tourist destination with more than 180,000 people visiting the shattered ruins each year. Built in 1941, the site was occupied by the Fuhrer for much of the Eastern Campaign, until its eventually evacuation at the end of the war. In 1944, the complex was the focal point of Operation Valkyrie, culminating in the failed assassination attempt on Hitler by Claus von Stauffenberg and a cabal of high-ranking conspirators. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |