"Dachau, even the name evokes horror... " a Dachau Travel Page by mapakettle

I imagine there is more to Dachau, the town, than the concentration camp site itself. However, I admit I didn't experience much of it, and expect many visitors like myself are anxious not to linger too long afterwards. I apologize to the towns folk, because without your continued support, the Dachau Memorial would not be possible. Thank you...

We were visiting Munich, and while looking over the road map for other destinations, suddenly realized we were just over 10 km's from Dachau. Our initial intent was to spend only an hour, perhaps two, doing a quick walk through, and then leave. Instead, we spent hours walking about. I wasn't sure how I would react, having read so much about those forced to give up their freedoms, their rights, their dignity, and ultimately, their lives so many years ago. I didn't know what to expect, in fact, I think I really put very little thought into my expectations. I just had to experience it for myself. It was more than simple curiousity, I had to somehow feel...something.

The restoration has been done very tastefully. The horrors I expected to see weren't preserved in gory detail, in fact much had not been left intact after the liberation by the US troops. The bunkhouses are gone, leaving behind the original cement foundations, lined up in perfect order, reminiscent of a graveyard. As I stood in the exact spot where thousands upon thousands of inmates had paced over sixty years before, I could get a certain sense of the institution, a ghostly eerie-like feel, even though it was a bright sunny day. I could feel the despair right through to my bones.

Contrary to popular belief, the crematorium was used only to dispose of those who died through starvation, overwork, beatings, natural death, and the victims of medical experiments. The gas chambers were never actually put into use at Dachau. The inhabitants instead were transported to Hartheim, near Linz (Austria) where the extermination process took place.

The day we visited, the camp was overflowing with school children of all ages who had been bussed in for their annual class trip. Of course, kids being kids, they yelled, they screamed, used crude language, they laughed, they joked, they ate candy and chips, they played video games, they listened to music... they walked hand in hand as if on a date. They did what kids often do.

However, this was not the time, certainly not the place, for schoolyard antics. They did not show respect, nor did their chaperones appear to make much of an attempt to enlighten them on proper behaviour. They have either forgotten their history, or they had never been taught. Perhaps this field trip was simply the start. I can only hope so.

Once again I thank the townspeople of Dachau for your indulgence, and for one, I appreciate your efforts to keep the memory of these atrocities alive. May they 'never' be forgotten.

Website... http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/english/

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political prisoners occupied this portion

A bit of background first...

In May of 1913, a man by the name of Adolph Hitler decided to adopt the Bavarian capital of Munich as his new home, having left Vienna behind, arriving with one cardboard suitcase holding his meager possessions.

In the subsequent months, he supported himself by selling hand painted postcards of Munich to tourists and and the occasional business man. As an artist, he was reasonably accomplished, and this talent became his means of relaxation in later years.

He served as a volunteer in the German Army during the war years 1914-1918, and upon his release, joined a small right-wing group called the German Worker's Party. After a relatively short time, his ability to inflame others through speech brought him to assume leadership of the party, changing the name to The National Socialist German Workers Party. He had aspirations of greater glory even then, and between 1919 thru 1923, Hitler laid plans to seize power, but failed in a violent attempt in 1923.

Changing tactics, Hitler planned and schemed, and over a ten year span, he finally achieved his goal, becoming Chancellor of the German Reich, seizing power January 30, 1933.

In less than two months, Hitler established his first concentration camp, Dachau, under his newly appointed Munich Chief of Police, Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler, after only 11 days in office, announced that a previously abandoned WW1 munitions factory located in the neighbouring town of Dachau, would be used to house Communists, Social democrats, and Monarchists, known as the 'REICHSBANNER'. The systematic collection of political prisoners began immediately, and those unfortunates were initially taken into 'protective custody' and guarded temporarily by the Bavarian Police Force, until the SS took over on April 11, 1933.

The system employed in Dachau to rid the state of undesirables became the model for future camps, and the training center for the SS, whose recruits were indoctrinated into systematically employing newly learned methods of torture, humilation, and the elimination of political opponents.

By 1935, it became standard practice to incarcerate all prisoners condemmed by a court of law to Dachau or similar institutions. As time progressed, the camps were expanded to include not only criminals and political opponents to Hitler, but also Jews and gypsies who were considered racially inferior, clergymen who resisted the political coercion of the churches, and basically anyone as seen to be critical of the government in any fashion.

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barbed wire in no-man's-land

Daily life...

After World War 2 started, the ranks within Dachau swelled, and prisoners from every country Germany was at war with, were interned here. At one point, document show thirty various nationalities were contained within the barbed wire encampment.

As prisoners arrived, they were stripped naked of all their possessions, deloused, their heads were shaved, and then forced to wear striped pajamas. To allow for easy identification by the guards, each prisoner had a 'chevron' or inverted triangle sewn on their tunic, with various colours indicating the prisoners particular status. Red indicated the political prisoner, green the professional criminal, black work shy or asocial, violet the bible inquirer such as a priest, and a pink triangle meant the prisoner was a homosexual. Within each triangle, a corresponding letter to indicate their nationality was penned in, such as 'F' for Frenchman, 'P' for Polish etc. If a line appeared above the chevron, then it meant the prisoner was already serving a second sentence in the camp. This identification, coupled with the identity number issued upon arrival, was the start of their nameless existance. They ceased to exist in any other fashion.

Beatings were delivered daily by the brutal SS guards, chosen specifically for their special talents, and insults and derogatory remarks were common place, all intended to mold the prisoner, make them compliant to every order. They became part of the cheap labour that comprised the huge workforce utilized by the German war machine.

Long hours, hard labour, reduced rations, crowded conditions, poorly heated accomodation gradually wore the prisoners down. Penalty for work stoppage due to injury or sheer exhaustion meant additional hours of hard labour. Inability to work due to illness meant isolation, additional beatings, further reduced rations, and hours and hours spent shuffling about the parade grounds in extreme temperatures, either summer or winter. Return to the barracks was not permitted. Of course, death was eminent.

An average work day consisted of eleven hours hard labour, plus the long march to and from the work site. Prior to leaving the camp in the morning, the prisoners had to endure roll call on the parade grounds, and then go through the same process upon their return at night. This, coupled with any number of other requirements of daily camp life left precious few hours of sleep. Exhaustion was the main killer within the system, but never a concern to the SS management who were assigned the job of providing labour, as more inmates were arriving daily. In fact, the camp was designed to hold 5000 inhabitants, but in fact, after 1942, the population never dropped below 12,000.

The political prisoners were kept in cement barracks as seen in the picture above, containing a number of tiny cells. Each cell contained various numbers of prisoners, sharing equally in the 6x8 ft room. There was little to no heat, and due to the nature of their 'crime', they were allocated for a different type of treatment than the other inhabitants. This would include beatings of course, but also special methods of torture intended to test man's threshold of pain, and some were chosen to participate in medical experimentation.

For example, the SS doctors, under direct order of Heinrich Himmler, conducted medical experiments on prisoners by submersion in ice cold water for hours/days at a time in order to simulate a downed German flyer and measure survival times.

Another favourite experiment was to expose prisoners to various types of lice or flies, and under Dr. Claus Schilling, a well known researcher in tropical medicine, they examined various methods of immunization and the effectiveness against malaria and other diseases. They never had a shortage of 'available' guinea pigs to whom they could administer new drugs. Prisoners would often be injected with diffirent viruses, then watched with interest to see how quickly the disease spread throughout their bodies, noting in great detail each stage as it progressed.