Adolf Hitler's 3-mile-long Nazi getaway is now a luxury resort - here are 6 insane facts about it

In the early 2000s, several German developers fought for the initial rights to revive Prora.

In 2006, Germany's federal agency for real estate bought Block 5, which contained the hostel.

The hostel opened in 2011.

"The photos cannot physically do it justice," Moorhouse said. "It's too big." By all accounts, it would have been one of the most impressive structures in the world.

Hitler's megalomania — a trait shared by many dictators — was also manifested in his plan for the Festival Hall. The Nazi leader commissioned architect Erich Putlitz to design it.

The hall would contain two wave pools and theaters for movies and live performance.

While the Nazi police state was in development, the overarching German vision was a hopeful one, Moorhouse told Business Insider. "And this," he said, "is where something like Prora comes in."

Each room would measure 16 feet by 8.2 feet and include two beds, a sink, and a dresser.

Historian and tour guide Roger Moorhouse told Business Insider that Prora was intended as the carrot to the stick of the Gestapo — a pacifying gesture to get the German people on Hitler's side.

At the time, Germany was still enmeshed in the concept of "people's community," or volksgemeinschaft, from World War I. It was a sense that Germans stood united, no matter what.