Many Germans and American civilians here expressed dismay today at the opening of a “Hitler museum” by U.S. military authorities at the late fuehrer’s Berchestgaden retreat in the Bavarian Alps. The museum, intended to acquaint American servicemen and their families with the history of the Hitler era, was established in the labyrinthine bunkers under the former Hitler villa, now a hotel.
U.S. military spokesmen defended the museum as “strictly historical.” But Germans have taken a dim view of the display and American civilian authorities said they would look into the situation immediately. An official of the West German Ministry of Justice said the museum was a “lapse of taste” but conceded that as an historic exhibit it did not violate German laws against the display of Nazi symbols. A local newspaper, the Berchtesgaden Anzelger, expressed fear that the museum “will probably create a new Upper Salzburg Hitler hurly-burly.”
Berchtesgaden, on a peak overlooking the Austrian frontier, was Hitler’s favorite hide-out when he was at the peak of his power. He received Nazi leaders and foreign dignitaries there, among the latter the late British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain at a fateful meeting that led to the Munich Pact.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
