Sunk as Holocaust Symbol, Hitler Yacht Poses Problem
A yacht built for Adolf Hitler and sunk by cheering Holocaust survivors with great fanfare off the coast June 4 to commemorate the “Voyage of the Damned” was dropped in the wrong spot and is obstructing a shallow shipping lane.
The 85-foot Ostwind was supposed to be sunk in 250 feet of water several miles off shore, near where the ocean liner St. Louis, carrying Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, was turned back by American officials in 1939.
For reasons not immediately clear, the yacht was instead sunk a mile away and is resting in 25 feet of water on a reef, the Coast Guard said today.
“They didn’t even come close,” complained Susan Markely, an administrator with Dade County’s environmental department.
“It was truly an incredible, incredible historic event, and suddenly--boom!--somebody made a mistake,” said Mayor Abe Resnick, a Holocaust survivor and a sponsor of the event.
The Army Corps of Engineers said that if the Ostwind is not moved--or cut to pieces--by June 22, the government will remove it and bill the city.
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