189: Hitler’s Yacht
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
The elite end of the German Navy was the submarine corps. Those who served on subs during World War II were the best paid, the best fed, the smartest, the toughest, eleven hundred submarines. They sunk twenty-eight hundred Allied ships. And of the German subs, the deadwist were the type nine subs. You will have the sound room and the radio room to the right of that. We're going to go into our officers' quarters and into the kitchen, where these two have already opted to cook for us today. Come on in, watch ahead. One of these subs, the U-505, has been on permanent display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry since the 1950s. It's stuffy and it's hot and it's unbelievably cramped. I'll check this out. This is the kitchen for fifty-nine guys. From the point of view of the Nazi government that built this sub, this right here is pretty much a worst-case scenario. Little black and brown-skinned children, climbing through one of the most powerful machines with destruction, pointing and laughing, being interviewed by a Jewish reporter who has not entirely lost that pestering nasal Jewish equality that was ever so annoying back in the fatherland. That is pretty much not the way they wanted the war to come out. Little American kids, thinking that they could have served on this boat. If I was on board, I would like to be the captain for all that ships. I want to be the captain. I want to be the captain. I want to be the person that walks around and check the round-o boat. I want to be the captain. I want to carry the three-dose and put them in a thing and shoot them off. Now, believe it or not, we've just walked from our back part of our boat all the way up to the front. Are there any questions yet? Yeah, how come if this was a German you go, how come most of the stuff's in English, not German? Do you speak German? No. See, they're making it easier to help you. In fact, this kid is on to something. There are not many German words. There are no swastikas on board. No reminders of Nazis at all, in fact. They thought that these are bunk beds where slept men who wanted to kill us, who sunk seven Allied ships themselves, who fought for the notion of an Aryan homeland and a master race, these unpleasant thoughts, they are not encouraged. And, you know, maybe that is for the best. Because I think if the museum would play up the evil Nazi angle, these are the dishes that the evil men ate from. This is their evil silverware. I think what they would lose in dignity. You can be sure they would gain dozens of times over in attendance. And how do I know this is true? Because, my friend, I heard the story of Hitler's yacht. Fable, if you will. A modern fable. Of what happens when the free market, the media, the World War II buffs, the neo-Nazis, and the Jews all collide over a huge Nazi tourist trap. We have devoted our entire program today to this story. Kind of an amazing story. Elise Spiegel has spent months investigating Hitler's yacht. A craft whose original name was the Ostwind. For this hour, she will be our guide. Here's Elise. There are things that we know, and there are things that we don't know. We know that Hitler ordered it built in 1936, and that it cost a small fortune, close to $250,000. We know that it was completed in 1939, that each cabin was finished in a different fine wood, and that its sale, over 40 feet long, was made of a rare Egyptian linen.
Transcription truncated.