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August 10, 1973 - Image 9

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1973-08-10

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

. Friday, August 10, 1973

THE SUMMER DAILY-

Page Nine.

Hitler's 'lair' a tourist attraction

By NICHOLAS LILLITOS
Associated Press Writer
WVOLF'S LAIR, Poland (M -
Tourists are flocking here in re-
cord numbers this summer to
visit the spot where an assassin's
homb almost killed Adolf Hitler.
Cunningly concealed deep in a
forest in northeastern Poland,
miles from anywhere, lies this
huge concrete bunker complex-
Hitler's military headquarters.
IT WAS FROM here as tens of
thousands of German troops fell
on the nearby Russian front, that
Hitler conducted the war. He
mapped out his operations from
the safety of a concrete bunker,
so monolothic in structure, that
even today it juts from the
ground like some Egyptian tomb.
Closely located around Hitler's
bunker were similar ones for his
top henchmen.
To ensure their safety, a bat-
talion of soldiers stood guard in-
side the camp. It was also sur-
rounded by a mine death strip,
12 miles long by 450 feet wide.
HITLER IN FACT felt so safe
that he called his headquarters
"the Wolf's Lair."
But on July 20, 1944, a hot and
humid day, Hitler and his aides
decided to hold a map confer-
ence not inside the bunkers but
in the comparative freshness of a
wooden hut.
Present were Hitler, Wilhelm
Keitel, chief of the high com-
mand of the armed forces, and
other top generals.
Also in attendance was a cer-
tain colonel, Klaus von Stauffen-
berg, who walked in carrying a

black leather briefcase. Inside it
was a time bomb.
VON STAUFFENBERG placed
the case under the map reading
table and then made a hasty ex-
cuse to leave.
The bomb went off at 12:42
p.m. Some aides were killed, the
map room was almost complete-
ly wrecked but Hitler survived
wvith only minor injuries.
Amidst all the confusion von
Stauffenberg managed to drive
out past the camp sentries wav-
ing "special papers."
LATER THAT DAY, however,
he w.as arrested and shot. His fel-
low military conspirators were
also executed.
Today only the outside struc-
tures of the Nazi leaders' bunk-
The bomb went off
... but Hitler survived
with only minor injur-
ies.
ers remain. They were all blown
up by German army engineers as
the Russian advance drew closer.
Hitler himself left here in No-
vember 1944, only to die five
months later in another bunker
in Berlin.
A visitor to the Wolf's Lair can
still see the lengths Nazi plan-

ners took to conceal Hitler's
bunker.
ITS UPPER structure reaches
over 40 feet high, all of it solid
concrete. Its roof is covered with
tons of earth from which grew a
giant blanket of grass and a doz-
en or so trees.
They're still growing today and
from the air would look the same
as the rest of the surrounding
forest undergrowth.
The nearest town is Ketrzyn
which before the war was part
of Germany and known by the
name, Restenburg. Now in Po-
land it has a population of 20,-
000-all of them Poles.
"WE'RE EXPECTING a record
200,000 tourists to visit us this
year," said one Ketrzyn offi-
cial. "Most of them don't stay
for more than a day because
they're just passing through to
see Hitler's headquarters."
Of the total number the official
said he believed 15,000 would be
foreign tourists-most of them
from Communist East Germany.
THE RED-BRICKED movie
house where Hitler watched a
film of the executions of the mili-
tary conspirators is now in ruins.
And the headquarter's garage
has been converted by the Poles
into a big cafe and restaurant.
Polish and East German child-
ren can be seen walking side by
side investigating the ghostly
nooks and crannies. Others find
it an ideal place for playing war
games.
It's not exactly what Hitler in-
tended, but as one Pole put it:
"That's an awful lot of concrete
for a playpen."

Gruesome Houston Murder scene
Houston police detectives uncover multiple dead bodies at a
southwest Houston rental storage space yesterday that had been
turned into a massive gravesite. A 17-year-old youth who said
he had killed the mass murderer led the police to the scene.
2nd HIT WEEK! 1

Cinema II
TONIGHT ONLY
CASABILANCA
HUMPHREY BOGART SYDNEY GREENSTREET
INGRID BERGMAN PETER LORRE
Rick, the most famous of saloonkeepers, turns underground diplomat
in romantic Morocco. Romance supplied by Ms. Bergman.
AUDITORIUM A, ANGELL HALL FRIDAY, AUG. 10 7:30 & 9:30 $1.00
SATURDAY NIGHT: Costa Gavras' Sleeping Car Murder

www

gFr

The

(

Summer
]Daily,
OFFICE HOURS
Circulation Dept. . . 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
classified Dept. . . 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

'1

"HALLELUJAH!
THERE IS GOOD
NEWS TONIGHT
BECAUSE THERE
IS A GOOD MOVIE,
A MOVIE FILLED
WITH WHAT
IT TAKES.
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WILL MAKE
YOU FEEL GOOD
ALL OVER
WHEN IT'S
ALL OVER."
-Gene Shoot, NBC-TV
"TATUM O'NEAL
HAS AN
EXPRESSIVE FACE
AND A NATURAL
ACTING TALENT
THAT COULD
EARN HER AN
ACADEMY
AWARD!"
-Vernon Scott, U.P.I.

"'PAPER MOON'
MARKS PETER
BOGDANOVICH AS
THE MOST INTER-
ESTING YOUNG
AMERICAN
DIRECTOR!
TATUM O'NEAL
WILL BE THE
YOUNGEST AC-
TRESS IN HISTORY
TO WIN AN
ACADEMY
AWARD!"
-Jon Landau,
Rolling Stone
in A Pe d no nt RProduct.o -
'PAPER MOON
Adnrducng TaumONe~asAddis
Baud o h ne,br,,,Adele Iloy
PyJe ai Brtown

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