Take one rotting hulk...
...a Nazi dictator, two conmen and a Jewish mayor...
...simmer for 60 years & mix in 3 countries...
…..then add a dash of celebrity obsession.
"HITLER'S YACHT"
A film by Martin Denning
Based on the NPR radio program by Alix Spiegel
THE STORY
The Ostwind was one of two yachts built by the
Nazi government after a poor German showing in the 1936
Olympic races. Even though it's original purpose was to
demonstrate German superiority in Olympic competition, the
Ostwind actually spent most of it's life in America, war
booty transported here by the US Navy in 1947.
But when it first arrived in this country it wasn't known
as Hitler's yacht at all. It became Hitler's yacht. The
Ostwind’s sister ship - the Nordwind - a boat, mind
you, (with an identical pedigree) - built at the same time,
by the same people, for the same purpose - has never been
known as Hitler's yacht. To this day it sails in Britain
under the name White Rose, a charter boat which inspires
no controversy, attracts no attention at all.
But here in America - sometime in the 1950’s - we
made the Ostwind into Hitler's yacht - then we sailed it,
cursed it, set it on fire, restored it, tried to put it
in a museum, stripped it to a skeleton, and finally, sailed
it into the Miami harbor and, as group of Holocaust survivors
stood witness on the deck of a boat near-by, sank it to
the bottom of the sea.
Text Copyright ©2003 Alix Spiegel and Martin Denning
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FAME, FACT
& FICTION
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 dollars.
We know that it was completed in 1939, that
each cabin was finished in a different fine wood, and that
it's sail, over 40 feet long, was made of a rare Egyptian
linen. We know that it's designer was Heinrich Gruber - the
most lauded naval architect of the time - and we know that
it's purpose was to demonstrate the superiority of the Aryan
race.
But we don't know, will never be able to
say with absolute certainty, whether or not Hitler ever actually
set foot on the Ostwind, or if this idea was just some twisted
collective fantasy perpetuated, for close half a century,
by celebrity crazed Americans.
Of course there were always rumors about the
Yacht, and some of those rumors were repeated so often that
it's difficult now to distinguish them from fact. One of the
rumors was that Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun used the
Ostwind for pleasure cruises. Another is that Hitler had an
extraordinary affection for the boat, that it was very important
to him, and that when he talked about it, he always refered
to it as
his "special lady."
Some still insist that Hitler's ghost continues
to haunt the decks, and that the boat was used as a brothel
by high ranking Nazi officials. Others say that the yacht
itself is cursed: that it will kill, maim or financially decimate
anyone unfortunate enough to own it.
Although no real evidence exists to support these testimonies,
the strange story of Hitler’s Yacht is, to the very
last detail, true.
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