Hitler Museum to Open in Ukraine

Ukraine is turning the remains of Hitler's Eastern Front military headquarters into a tourist attraction. 

The museum hopes to open on May 9, the anniversary of the Victory Day over Fascism.

"It's time to make the Wehrwolf headquarters a tourist destination, a memorial to the victims of facism," Mykola Djiga, head of the administration, tells a local news agency.

"This museum should remind us about the time that our people endured, their sacrifices and heroism. It should also show the face of the fascist enemy. We must show what enemy we had defeated," he continues.

The property, located about 7.5 miles north of Vinnytsia in the forests of central Ukraine, once consisted of about 20 wooden cottages and barracks, plus three bunkers. An estimated 6,000 Soviet war prisoners and others died at the site when it was used between 1942 and 1943.

In its prime, the site had a teahouse, barber shop, bathhouse, sauna, theater and swimming pool. There was also a large vegetable garden used to provide Hitler with a secure supply of food while he stayed on the grounds. Hitler himself only visited the site three times, but it is famous as the place where he gave his fateful decree to split his army group into two parts in a failed attempt to reach both Stalingrad and the Caucasus oil field simultaneously.

Stalin ordered the complex to be examined after the Nazis destroyed the site and abandoned the region, but no documentation was found. Russians sealed off any underground parts of the complex, meaning today only the swimming pool and concrete fragments remain visible on the site.

Ukraine may need some pointers in the tourism department: Back in December, the country opened the Cherynobyl Nuclear Power Plant -- site of the world's worst nuclear disaster -- to tourists.