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PhidippidesKeymaster
The Wolf's Lair in Poland has served a number of functions since its WWII days, but it was not preserved for its historical significance.
In 1945, the Germans, retreating from advancing Soviet forces, tried to blow up the buildings, with limited success. After the war, Poland opened the outpost to tourists, but did little to help educate those who visited, mainly displaying photographs of the headquarters from Hitler’s time there.The breakup of the Soviet bloc did not change much at the Wolf’s Lair. The newly liberated Polish state leased it to a private company called Wolf’s Nest.The company turned bunkers into a restaurant and a hotel, cleared some tourist trails of debris, and made the bunker that had belonged to Gen. Alfred Jodl — who was tried at Nuremberg and hanged — into an indoor shooting range.Over time, according to Jan Oldakowski, 40, a director of the popular Warsaw Uprising Museum, the Wolf’s Lair become a “grotesque Disneyland.” Aside from the restaurant and hotel, the site is in disrepair. Most of the bunkers are hidden beneath carpets of moss. The trails are in poor condition and are not handicapped accessible.
Restoring the Walls, and the History, at Hitler’s Wolf’s LairVlčí doupě [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], by Prochaine (Own work), from Wikimedia CommonsWilczy Szaniec 40 [CC-BY-SA-3.0-pl (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/pl/deed.en)], by Alfista33 (Own work), from Wikimedia Commons
scout1067ParticipantI find it amusing that the article mentions the site is not handicapped accessible. The site is historically significant, but so are hundreds of other sites that have not been preserved. I would not go out of my way to visit the place.
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