WWII GERMAN KDF Strength through Joy NS = Gemeinschaft aged armband

WWII GERMAN KDF NS = Gemeinschaft aged armband.  Kraft durch Freude (German for Strength through Joy, abbreviated KdF) was a large state-operated leisure organization in Nazi Germany. It was a part of the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF), the national German labor organization at that time. Set up as a tool to promote the advantages of National Socialism to the people, it soon became the world’s largest tourism operator of the 1930’s.

KdF was supposed to bridge the class divide by making middle-class leisure activities available to the masses. This was underscored by having cruises with passengers of mixed classes and having them, regardless of social status, draw lots for allocation of cabins.

Another less ideological goal was to boost the German economy by stimulating the tourist industry out of its slump from the 1920’s. It was quite successful up until the outbreak of World War II. By 1934, over two million Germans had participated in a KdF trip; by 1939 the reported numbers lay around 25 million people. With the outbreak of war in 1939, the organization was mothballed, and several projects, such as the massive Prora holiday resort, were never completed.