WILHELM GUSTLOFF PHOTO ALBUM AND BROCHURE GROUPING

WILHELM GUSTLOFF PHOTO ALBUM AND BROCHURE GROUPING

Great lot of three rare relics from the deadliest maritime disaster in history, including a small souvenir photo album from the WILHELM GUSTLOFF, 48pp. 9.75 x 7 in., illustrated with a printed image of the Gustloff and the name of the ship on the front cover, and containing 97 b/w photos of varying size showing the exterior and interior of the ship, with scenes from various locations, likely places visited during its cruises as part of the "Kraft durch Freude" ("Strength Through Joy") program. Shows slight soiling to the covers, else very good to fine. Sold with two separate slip of papers, likely all original, identifying many of the locations within the photographs, including 24 of the images from the ship's tourist destinations in Hamburg and 12 images of the ship's different rooms. WITH: Instruction booklet given to departing vacationers upon their disembarkation, dated May 19, 1939, bearing front an image of the Gustloff on the front cover and an image of the emblem of the KdF on the interior. One vertical crease, else fine. WITH: Itinerary booklet, dated May 14, 1939, containing a schedule for the vacationers on board, bearing a colored image of the vessel on the front cover. Fine. WILHELM GUSTLOFF was originally built for the "Kraft durch Freude" ("Strength Through Joy") program, through which the National Socialists sought to attract tourists from abroad and to promote the advantages of National Socialism to the people. At the outbreak of the war, however, she had been requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine, serving as a hospital ship in 1939 and 1940, and later torpedoed by a Soviet submarine while evacuating German troops and civilians from East Prussia, with the loss of more than 9,000 lives.