The 10.000 bedroom Nazi Hotel that was never used

Stretching for over three miles along the white sandy beach on Germany’s Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, lies the world’s biggest hotel with 10,000 bedrooms all facing the sea. But for 70 years since it was built, no holiday maker has ever stayed there. This is hotel Prora, a massive building complex built between 1936 and 1939 by the Nazis as part of their “Strength through Joy” (“Kraft durch Freude,” KdF) programme. The aim was to provide leisure activities for German workers and spread Nazi propaganda. Locals call Prora the Colossus because of its monumental structure.
Prora lies on an extensive bay between the Sassnitz and Binz regions, known as the Prorer Wiek, on the narrow heath (the Prora) which separates the lagoon of the Großer Jasmunder Bodden from the Baltic Sea. The complex consist of eight identical buildings that extend over a length of 4.5 kilometres and are roughly 150 metres from the beach. A workforce of 9,000 took three years to build it, starting in 1936, and the Nazis had long-term plans for four identical resorts, all with cinema, festival halls, swimming pools and a jetty where Strength Through Joy cruise ships would dock.
Hitler’s plans for Prora were ambitious. He wanted a gigantic sea resort, the “most mighty and large one to ever have existed”, holding 20,000 beds. All rooms were planned to overlook the sea, while corridors and sanitation are located on the land side. Each room of 5 by 2.5 metres was to have two beds, a wardrobe and a sink. There were communal toilets and showers and ballrooms on each floor. In the middle, a massive building was to be erected that could be converted into a military hospital in case of war.
War, indeed happened, before the building could be completed and Hitler’s priorities changed. He transferred the construction workers to build the V-Weapons plant at Peenemünde instead. During the Allied bombing campaign, many people from Hamburg took refuge in one of the housing blocks, and later refugees from the east of Germany were housed there. By the end of the war, these buildings housed female auxiliary personnel for the Luftwaffe. After the war, Prora was used as a military outpost for the East German army. After German reunification in 1990, part of it was used by the Military Technical School of the Bundeswehr and later to house asylum seekers from the Balkans.
Today, the whole place is still pretty much deserted except for a few blocks that has been repurposed for other uses. In 2011, one block was converted into a 400-bed youth hostel and the plan now is to turn Prora into a modern holiday resort with 300 beds that includes tennis courts and swimming pool and a small shopping center.

Toy Faire 2013 Nuremberg

Nuremberg International Toy Fair 2013 Friday 1 February to Wednesday 6 February 2013 11 days from now Exhibition Centre Nuremberg, Nürnberg, Germany

The Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair Nürnberg is the largest international trade fair for toys and games hold annually since 1949.
On the fair taking place for six days each year about 2,700 exhibitors from about 60 countries are presenting their novelties.

In 2011, 79.000 trade visitors and purchasers came for the fair, 54% of them were international visitors. The fair is organized by “Spielwarenmesse eG”; a marketing and trade fair service provider based in Nuremberg, Germany.

Only trade visitors associated with the toy business, journalists and invited guests are admitted.

Last Jap to surrender

In March of 1974, some 29 years after the official end of World War II, Hiroo Onoda, a former Japanese Army intelligence officer, walks out of the jungle of Lubang Island in the Philippines, where he was finally relieved of duty. He handed over his sword (hanging from his hip in photo), his rifle, ammunition and several hand grenades. Onoda had been sent to Lubang Island in December of 1944 to join an existing group of soldiers and hamper any enemy attacks. Allied forces overtook the island just a few months later, capturing or killing all but Onoda and three other Japanese soldiers. The four ran into the hills and began a decades-long insurgency extending well past the end of the war. Several times they found or were handed leaflets notifying them that the war had ended, but they refused to believe it. In 1950, one of the soldiers turned himself in to Philippine authorities. By 1972, Onoda's two other compatriots were dead, killed during guerrilla activities, leaving Onoda alone. In 1974, Onoda met a Japanese college dropout, Norio Suzuki, who was traveling the world, and through their friendship, Onoda's former commanding officer was located and flew to Lubang Island to formally relieve Onoda of duty, and bring him home to Japan. Over the years, the small group had killed some 30 Filipinos in various attacks, but Onoda ended up going free, after he received a pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos.

WW2 Fuhrer Toys

A real little Hitler: The toy Fuhrer model that was made for German children to play with during World War Two

• Rare toy revealed by Jerry Beaulier on Antiques Roadshow in Scotland
• He was sent the toy by his father, U.S. Private Jerome Beaulier, at the end of World War Two

By Emma Clark
PUBLISHED: 11:58 GMT, 26 October 2012 | UPDATED: 15:22 GMT, 26 October 2012
A rare toy figure of Adolf Hitler made for German children to play with has been revealed by the son of a World War Two soldier for the first time.
The figure of the vicious dictator was part of a collection of toys U.S Private Jerome Beaulier bought at a toy shop in Germany at the end of the war in exchange for cigarettes and chocolate bars.
He posted them back to his five-year-old son Jerry, who received them in 1945 and has kept hold of them ever since.

The German toy shows Adolf Hitler figure seated in the front passenger seat of an army jeep alongside three German soldiers

The four-inch tall Hitler figure is seated in the front passenger seat of a German army jeep alongside three soldiers.
Other toys included in the set are an anti-aircraft gun, several field guns, another truck with a huge search light attached and a First World War German biplane.

 

More...

• 'The German people deserve to die': Hitler's rant on how he was deceived by 'everyone' during his last days in Berlin bunker
• Churchill 'opposed Nuremberg and wanted Nazi leaders executed or jailed without trial', extraordinary MI5 wartime diaries reveal

The original collection included six figures of Hitler but only one remains today as Pvt Beaulier destroyed the other five by taking pot-shots at them with an air-rifle.
His son, Lieutenant Commander Jerry Beaulier, 72, from St Andrews, Scotland, took them along to the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow when the programme visited his home town.

The Fuhrer pictured in 1944, a year before he was defeated in World War Two

He said: ‘Dad was a half-track driver in the war and had parked up in a town on the German-Austria border when he found the toy shop.
‘He sent them back to me in 1945 and I have had them since then.
‘I remember playing with them as a child and I got a great deal of pleasure out of them.
‘There were half-a-dozen Adolf Hitler figures to begin with.
‘After the war my dad used to have my uncle round and they would set the Hitler figures up and use them for shooting practice with their air guns. Mum would go mad.
‘My dad didn’t talk too much about the war and when he did it was usually light-hearted.
‘This one is the only Hitler figure I have left. I had another of him standing in a car doing the Nazi salute but dad shot it.’
Pvt Beaulier served in the 9th Armoured Division of the US Army from 1943 until the end of the war.
His son Lt Cdr Beaulier joined the US Navy and served as a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War.
He later moved to St Andrews where he lives today.
James Taylor, a researcher at the Imperial War Museum, said: ‘The toys reflected the time in Nazi society.

Jerry Beaulier, left wearing a white top, with expert Hilary Kay, right wearing a blue jacket, with his set of army toys on the Antique's Roadshow

Among the set was a German toy half track with toy soldiers and an AA gun

German toy's showing field guns and searchlights were part of the collection that the young Jerry Beaulier played with

‘Toys of Hitler were common in Germany back then, as well as other well-known figures in the Nazi regime.’
Hilary Kay, an expert from the Antiques Roadshow, said: ‘These toys show the military power of Germany leading up to the Second World War.
‘The figure of Hitler was quite normal and what a young German boy in 1934-5-6-7 leading up to the war, would have wanted.’

Weathering Techniques

http://ak-interactive.blogspot.com/

Impressive Works

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Baxter Models

Bax Mod is a South African model producer who have been going for 12 years, they have a small selection of models that may be of interest to you in both 1/35th and 1/72nd scale. This company has been brought to my attention as they have a 1/35th scale G6 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer in the works which is scheduled for an early 2013 release.

The G6 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer is one of the most powerful wheel mounted Self-Propelled Howitzer around. The G6 is produced in South Africa making Bax Mod ideally placed to produce a model of this Self-Propelled Howitzer. At the moment pictures are only available of a few mouldings but I am sure it is enough to peak your interest.