Editing Strength Through Joy (section)

=== Wartime activities ===
[[File:Fo30141711030011 Kranselag på soldathjemmet i Stavern 1941-05-01 (NTBs krigsarkiv, Riksarkivet).jpg|thumb|A KdF construction located within [[Norway]]]]
KdF formed 'troop-care units' (''Truppenbetreuung'') in 1935, and after the [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939 the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda created the 'Caring for the Troops' department of KdF, with Goebbels appointing [[Hans Hinkel]] as its head. The equivalent of the United States' [[United Service Organizations|USO]], the troop-care units utilized portable stages and civilian performers such as musicians and actors, hiring them for up to 100 Reichsmarks per day. Many of the hired performers had little experience or were considered third-rate. By the end of 1941 it had become a massive program, as troop-care units had staged over 300,000 performances across every theater of war, including Africa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baranowski |first=Shelley |title=Strength Through Joy: Consumerism and Mass Tourism in the Third Reich |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-521-83352-3 |pages=203–205}}</ref>

Hinkel described the units in official propaganda as equally essential as the [[Wehrmacht]], stating that soldiers and artists had a special bond through their allegiance to Hitler, and were "an essential part of modern war and human leadership in National Socialist [[Pan-Germanism|Greater Germany]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinweis |first=Alan E. |title=Art, Ideology, & Economics in Nazi Germany |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-8078-2104-7 |pages=149–151}}</ref> Seeking also to ensure the heightened physical and mental health of troops, other forms of light KdF entertainment were made available such as art exhibitions and sports. Entertainment by troop-care units was not exclusive to the Wehrmacht, as they were also tasked to put on shows for SS guards in concentration camps and 'Ethnic Germans' living in occupied territory.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Timpe |first=Julia |title=Nazi-Organized Recreation and Entertainment in the Third Reich. |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-137-53193-3 |page=142}}</ref> Germany's troop-care units remain a lightly researched topic.

Several KdF cruise ships were requisitioned into the [[Kriegsmarine]] and converted to serve as hospital ships. The ''Robert Ley'' was requisitioned in August 1939 and converted to serve as a hospital ship after only six months of operation. The ship would be converted several times to serve different purposes throughout World War II and was bombed by the [[Royal Air Force]] in the port of Hamburg on 9 March 1945 where the wreckage remained afloat until June 1947, when it was towed to the UK and scrapped. The ''MV Wilhelm Gustloff,'' requisitioned in September 1939, was designated as ''Lazarettschiff D'' and converted to serve as a hospital ship. In November 1940, medical equipment was removed from the ship and it was converted to serve as a barracks ship. Tasked with transporting civilians and military personnel during [[Operation Hannibal]], the ''Lazarettschiff D'' was sunk on 30 January 1945 while returning to Germany from [[Prussia]], killing an estimated 9,934.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Memorial to the Wilhelm Gustloff |url=https://www.feldgrau.com/WW2-Germany-Wilhelm-Gustloff-Cruise-Liner/ |access-date=24 April 2022 |website=Feldgrau|date=4 August 2020 }}</ref> It was one of the deadliest [[List of maritime disasters in World War II|maritime disasters in history]].