Lets explore the best things to do in Le Havre: 1. The port is the busiest in France and will excite those interested by trade and commerce from the 16th to the 21st century. His efforts have now been rewarded with UNESCO status, and you don’t have to be into modern architecture to love the clean lines and boldness of the city’s public spaces and monuments. Le Havre looked to the future and hired the modernist Auguste Perret, a mentor of Le Corbusier, to rebuild the centre following the destruction of the Second World War. Unless documents prove otherwise, I see Villa Winter simply as one family's dream to escape a cold and angry Europe.Īs I get more documents translated, I'll be sure to post anything that might be of interest.If you want to get the most out of Le Havre you have to come ready to experience somewhere that differs from a normal, picturesque French city. How would you hide the tailings for a u-boat base? Also, the vast amount of earth that would have to be moved, and the concrete that would have had to be poured would certainly be in evidence today.in that climate, a small hole dug 50 years ago might still be visible. I would guess Hitler had no thoughts of a Plan-B until the Red Army crossed the Oder River.Īlso, these islands are basically porous volcanic rock, so they are filled with caves and eroded pools. Winter arrived in the Canaries before the Nazis came to power and the Canaries really had little strategic value. I realize that there is a lot of conjecture about U-boats and secret Nazi plastic surgery labs.but keep in mind, this villa was pretty much completed a year before Hitler invaded Austria. One family story passed down to me is that my grandmother actually helped select a piano that was to be shipped to the villa from Berlin. My understanding was that they were from an old shipping family in Hamburg. I have never seen Winter positively identified as a Nazi party member. Winter had also attempted to reforest a part of the island, but this failed. If you notice in some of the pictures there are semi-circlular volcanic berms built into the hillside.those are for growing grapes, you can see these all over the island of Lanzarote. While many details are yet to emerge from our archives, I have been told on numerous times that the Winter family had dreamed of an escape to warmer climates. Perhaps the guards at the villa were simply to protect his privacy. This apparently had a profound effect on Winter, and he nearly died of sorrow. Fritz also lived in Gran Canaria after the war, but I understand Gustav junior, a private pilot, lost his life in a plane crash in Europe. One was named Gustav like the father and the other was named Fritz. This was when the road from the airport to Arrecife was two lanes and there were mostly dirt roads in Pte del Carmen. He was also a pilot, and I recall flying in his Skymaster from Las Palmas to Lanzarote as a small boy. I do not know if they stayed at the villa.Īs a side note, My uncle was actually one of the early developers of tourist infrastructure on Lanzarote and Fuertaventura in the 60s and 70s, and I believe it was Winter who helped him get his start. In fact, I have in my possession a letter sent to my mother in 1960 describing the time spent on Jandia. My grandmother was very friendly with the Winter family, and my uncle, now deceased, spent lots of time with the man he called "Oncle Gustavo". The large tower at Villa Winter was intended for a secret Nazi laser.
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