German Hotel Holds Prison Parties In Former Nazi Work Camps

A German hotel is causing a furor by hosting jail-themed parties in cellars where the Nazis once imprisoned forced laborers.

The four-star Hotel Stadt Hameln, in the centre of the northern German city of Hamelin, has had a jail on its site since 1820, but the town really got its money's worth during World War II when the Nazi regime used the jail to imprison forced laborers.

Now the hotel is hoping to lock up a certain demographic with a "Prussian prison party package."

For $62, guests get a prison-striped T-shirt and the privilige of being ordered about by staff members in authentic prison officer uniforms. Upon entry, they are asked to drink a special "oral vaccine," and the guests of honor get locked up in special cells or even in the stocks, according to TheLocal.de.

Although the hotel's website details the history of the jail, there's no mention about its use by the Third Reich. That omission angers locals like historian Bernhard Gelderblom, who considers the parties "grotesque" and says that relatives of people who were held as prisoners in the building were, "outraged and find it tasteless."

A spokeswoman for the hotel tells the German magazine Der Spiegel that the complaints are much ado about nothing.

"We receive such letters from time to time," hotel manager Gabriele Güse said. "This hotel on this spot was the political will of the city of Hameln. We don't think that we are doing anything to damage or injure anyone with our hotel."

However, when she was asked why the hotel's homepage did not include even a mention of the Nazis' use of the building, she said, "I don't wish to comment."

Read more at TheLocal.de

Comments

[SaulBloodworth]

01:27 AM on 05/31/2011

I bet that 50 percent of the visitors will be Brits or Americans ... they are already flooding all the former Nazis bunkers and stuff now.

[AN2009]

02:39 AM on 05/31/2011

Yeah, with the other 50 percent from China, Singapore, Iran, and other authoritarian countries.

[inkhosi]

08:41 PM on 05/30/2011

Unbelievable. Just goes to show how completely callous and insensitive some people are.

[AN2009]

03:22 AM on 05/31/2011

This kind of behavior isn't very surprising. Look at how callous popular culture can be these days around the world. In the US, all you have to do is turn on the TV. Reality shows and partisan programs are the best examples. For years, people tuned into American Idol to watch Simon Cowell viciously ridicule the efforts and dreams of aspiring singers while others tuned in to listen to Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck spew forth their venom.

[inkhosi]

04:22 AM on 05/31/2011

That's an on-point analysis. There is a paucity of class in today's society. Though I am young I truly do believe common decency becomes less and less common with the progression of time.

[KMBerger]

07:46 PM on 05/30/2011

This is pretty disgusting and vulgar about as bad as Prince Harry dressing up in a Nazi uniform. Shows little sensitivity and respect to victims of the egregious crimes committed by the Nazis. Guess I'm not visiting Germany in the near future. And I've been to Hameln as a teenager. Shameful.

[inkhosi]

08:41 PM on 05/30/2011

Arguably worse than Harry's Halloween costume.

[J T K]

04:50 PM on 05/27/2011

Don't you mean they're causing a fuhrer?

Too soon?

[TMitch2011]

09:16 PM on 05/27/2011

My thought exactly. ;)

[gevan]

04:38 PM on 05/26/2011

Is anyone surprised that the Germans, or any other nations' citizens, show lapses in taste when it come to vacation time?

[healthanalyst]

01:49 AM on 05/27/2011

Its got to be all the catchy march music.....

and for the record, Bolivia uses the Panzer march for their armored divisions from the Nazi era..

[J T K]

04:51 PM on 05/27/2011

I blame 99 luftbaloons

[zeke1312]

10:29 AM on 05/28/2011

For the record, a German military officer (retired I believe) was invited by Bolivia in the early 1900s to develop their military, hence the German influence over military marching music, *not* Nazi influence.