A Sobering Visit to Dachau (Day 30 - GToE)

When I created my itinerary for my European trip, I knew that I wanted to visit a concentration camp in order to pay my respects for all the lives lost in the holocaust. The one that best fit my schedule was Dachau. A mere 20 minutes from my hostel via the S-Bahn, it is a sobering and moving visit.

First off, I need to rant about something. When I arrived at the memorial, I was expecting to walk through the iconic prisoner gate which bears the Nazi slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work sets you free") only to find out that it was stolen Nov 1-2, 2014! (Read about it here.) What kind of scum sucking, dirtbag, mother fucking asshole steals the gate from a Nazi concentration camp memorial site?! I want to hunt the little shits down and beat the living snot out of them. It's very reminiscent of  when some Neo-Nazis stole the Auschwitz sign in 2006. Assholes! Yeah, I'm a little angry.

First some background information: Dachau was the first concentration camp created by the Nazis and acted as a forerunner for the rest of the camps. Originally, Dachau was to house political opponents of the Nazis, but expanded to include other classes of people (i.e., Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, criminals, and prisoners of war). Opened in 1933 by Himmler, prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and terror detention including standing cells, floggings, the so-called tree or pole hanging, and standing at attention for extremely long periods. There were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands that are undocumented. On April 14, 1945, Himmler ordered the evacuation of the camp and the extermination of all inmates at Dachau, writing, "No prisoners shall be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive."  Built to house 3,000 prisoners, by the time the camp was liberated on April 28, 1945, there were 30,000 prisoners.

The memorial has a wealth of information about the camp. What was once the maintenance building has now been turned into a museum, which is broken down into several sections: before the war (1933-1938), early in the war (1939-1942), late in the war (1942-1945), and after the war (1945-1965). The most disturbing and moving portion for me was the section that tells of the medical experiments conducted at the camp. Additionally, there is a 22-minute documentary about the camp which brings tears to the eyes with its graphic images. I cried quite a few times during my visit. 

Upon leaving the museum, I walked through the "bunker", which was a cell block for prominent "special prisoners" such as failed Hitler assassins, German religious leaders, and politicians who challenged Nazism. This building was where some of the more brutal tortures took place, in addition to murders. 

I then toured the reconstructed barracks where the bulk of the prison population was housed. The conditions in these barracks got steadily worse as the years went on. Barracks which were to house 200 men would have 2,000 actually living in them. Cramped quarters, little food, and much disease wreaked havoc on the lives and caused many of the deaths that happened. The tour continued with viewing the religious memorials (Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and Russian Orthodox). 

Finally, I visited the camp crematorium. There are actually two camp crematoriums, which were used to burn the bodies of prisoners who had died or been killed. The old crematorium was unable to handle the amount of bodies that the camp had, so a new and bigger crematorium was built. The new crematorium also had a gas chamber, which worked on the same principles as the one in Auschwitz, and was disguised as a shower room, complete with fake shower heads. There is no evidence that the gas chamber was ever used for large scale murder of prisoners but that there may have been experimental deaths. Outside of the crematorium are memorials for the "unknown prisoners" and the ashes and executions of prisoners. 

My visit to Dachau will stay with me for awhile. It was one of the most moving and gut-wrenching sties that I have visited. If you ever find yourself in Munich, please go visit the memorial. 

Tonight, I'm on the 10pm train to Paris. Check out the rest of my Dachau photos on my GToE photo site.