Dachau

"Work makes you free":  the infamous Nazi lie on the entrance gate

I had been putting off a visit to Dachau, although I knew I needed to see it.  When Anne arrived at the end of June, and agreed to accompany me, it was time.  The weather also seemed fitting, with ominous black clouds hanging low over the site of such former horrors.

If you don't know about Dachau, I will simply include here a  quote from the official Dachau memorial foundation website (where you can learn much more, especially in the virtual tour section).
 "On March 22, 1933, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reich Chancellor, a concentration camp for political prisoners was set up in Dachau. This camp served as a model for all later concentration camps and as a "school of violence" for the SS men under whose command it stood. In the twelve years of its existence over 200,000 persons from all over Europe were imprisoned here and in the numerous subsidary camps. 41,500 were murdered. On April 29 1945, American troops liberated the survivors."
Dachau is located just 10 miles northwest of  Munich.

The Maintenance building, behind "roll-call square"

"Roll-call in November 1938". Drawing by Karl Freund,
17.12.1938.  © KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau

The main museum exhibition documenting the history of the camp is in the Maintenance building, where arriving prisoners were brutally registered by being stripped naked, shaved, shunted through showers, and given ill-fitting striped prison uniforms.  That building lies behind the "roll-call square", where thousands of prisoners were forced to stand at attention every morning and evening, no matter how weak or sick, in order to be counted.  Often this lasted hours if the numbers didn't match the SS records or if prisoners were forced to receive or watch brutal punishments.


I'm not sure I have the words, or the stomach, to write more here about what I learned and read in the museum.  It's good though that these memorials are there for people to remember what can happen when fanaticism and political power go unchecked.

"Roll-call square" and the reconstructions of two of the 34 prisoner barracks

The foundations of the original barracks.

Part of the "shunt room" where new prisoners were registered.

The "shower" room, where rough shaving, de-lousing, and showers took place.
Note the historical picture on glass is placed such that you can see the same
view from then as now.
The room is also notorious for the "pole hanging" torture/punishment, and
you can see where the beams used for this were attached to the pillars
(and the beams themselves in the historical picture.)

Replica of the barrack beds for prisoners.  Near the end of
the war at least 4 prisoners shared a slot meant for 1 person.

Photo origin unclear, but copied
from here.

The ovens for burning the dead.

  

   from the German Federal Archives
and copied from here 

Much has been written about the evil and atrocities in the Nazi concentration and extermination camps.  I especially remember reading "Night" by Elie Wiesel which affected me deeply.  It is unspeakable, how horrifically human beings can treat each other.

The memorial sculpture, by Nandor Glid, is very effective.  It looms over the International Memorial between the
Maintenance Building (now museum) and roll-call square.