Nearly 1,000 Refugees to Be Housed at Ex-Nazi Training Center Before Winter

Ordensburg Vogelsang training center would accept nearly 1,000 refugees, according to Cologne district government spokeswoman.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Up to 1,000 asylum seekers in Germany are expected to be placed in a former Nazi training center in light of deteriorating seasonal weather conditions, British media reported Friday.

German media cited a Cologne district government spokeswoman as saying this week that the Ordensburg Vogelsang training center would accept nearly 1,000 refugees.

"Surely, surely we can find a place with less political baggage than this," the Daily Mail quoted FDP-Liberal party refugee policy spokesman Joachim Stamp as saying.

The nearly 60,000-square-yard Ordensburg Vogelsang was used by the German National Socialist party in 1936-39 to educate future Nazi leaders. The preserved former military training area was opened to the public in 2006.

Stamp speculated that news of a former Nazi facility being used to house asylum seekers "could cause any number of potential misunderstandings abroad."

The publication further contends that Vogelsang remains an attraction for neo-Nazis whom local keepers are instructed to refuse entrance, but who reportedly gather in forests outside the site to pay homage to their version of events surrounding Nazism and World War II.

The Cologne district government preempts accusations of refugees being quartered in Adolf Hitler’s former ideological training center, saying asylum seekers would be placed in empty buildings on the grounds, but not within the Vogelsang walls.