The Descent into Hell and other Dachau, Germany Things to Do Tips

The entrance to Dachau is through a tree-lined walkway lined with multiple enlarged photographic images depicting life and death in the camps. Image 1 lies across from the bus stop, image 2 depicts the imprisoned welcoming the liberating American soldiers of the 42nd Rainbow Division commanded by Brig. General Henning Linden on 29 April, 1945. There are numerous other photographs well worthy of attention along the way.

Image 3 depicts the SS Officer's quarters from a distance, formerly a part of the abandoned munitions factory. It cannot be accessed today as it houses the offices of the Bavarian Rapid Response Police Unit.

Best seen from the entrance walkway is the tower in Image 4. These towers housed SS soldiers armed with machine guns against escape attempts.

Perhaps most interesting and just to the left of the main walkway is Image 5. This is all that remains of the railway and loading dock for the Dachau camp. The tour guides mention that the prisoners arrived at this dock on their way into the prison, but the narrow gauge track and dock was used almost exclusively for supplies and was too small to handle the regular train cars with the prisoners. Instead, the prisoners were forced to march from the Dachau main station several kilometers distant. Near the end of the war, as decreasing coal supplies and an increased number of deaths exceeded the capacity of the camp incinerators, cars were loaded with corpses from this dock and shunted onto railway sidings nearby. It is stated that the liberating forces found 30 rail cars filled with rotting corpses near the camp.

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This phrase will be associated with the Nazi movement for eternity, appearing at the entrance to multiple concentration and extermination camps. "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" might have been more appropriate. Nazi lore attributes the phrase to Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels to convince the world that the camps were made for rehabilitation of opponents of the state, but neither Goebbels or his party were smart enough to originate it. Today we think of Arbeit Macht Frei as a cynical Nazi joke - offering false promise to the condemned. Still others attribute it to Rudolf Hoess, Birkenau commandant, who was personally responsible for the deaths of more people than anyone else in the Nazi hierarchy, and who believed menial work helped him through his imprisonment during the Weimar period.

The truth is far more complex. A German nationalist author used "Arbeit Macht Frei" as the title for an 1872 novel, and the phrase was adopted by the Weimar government in 1928 to advance their public works policy to alleviate unemployment. The Nazis simply stole the phrase for use on their camps. Theodore Eicke, the first Dachau commandant and father of the concentration camp system, mandated its use on all camp entrances (although not all complied). As Dachau was a Class I camp, rehabilitation and release was the stated mission. The phrase was - believe it or not - intended to indicate that "self-sacrifice in the form of endless labor brings spiritual freedom".

The entrance gate at Dachau today is used by almost 900,000 visitors annually. It is the original gate built by a prisoner named Karl Roder. During camp use, the entire gate opened from top to bottom to allow vehicles or prisoners to enter. The inner gate used today was remote controlled from inside the gatehouse and opened to the outside. Today the gate can be opened or closed for photographic purposes by visitors and opens toward the inside of the camp. The terror induced by this gate and its slogan must affect all who pass through it.

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According to the master plan of Theodore Eicke, two rows of barracks were built in Dachau, 17 on each side of the main camp road, for a total of 34. On one side, the front two barracks were used over time as a canteen, a camp orderly room, a library, and training rooms. On the other side, the first two barracks housed the sick bay and the experimental quarters, where inhumane clincal trials were carried out on prisoners. The original plans called for 90 occupants in each barrack, divided into two apartments of 45 apiece. Early on, the typical barrack housed 200 or twice specifications, but by the end of the war perhaps 1500-2000 in inconceivably crowded quarters. One special building was reserved for priests who opposed the Nazi movement. The original buildings were destroyed in 1965 because of their poor condition but the cement foundations remain to show how close the barracks were. Two replicas have been reconstructed from original plans to illustrate the interiors accurately. Words are difficult to describe the conditions of life here from the huge numbers crammed into these small buildings one on top of the other (images 2,3 ) especially as the war neared its end. The close concentration of the foundations was a most striking images for me - thousands of starving sick prisoners in such close suffocating confinement - a memory not easily forgotten.

Each building measured 110 x 11 yards, with 17 lined up on each side of the main road which was only 330 yards long and 33 yards wide. Do the math - the buildings were one on top of the other as the accompanying images suggest.

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The original Dachau inmates lived in the buildings of the abandoned munitions factory. By 1937-8 the new barracks had been built. Each contained a central sleeping room for 90 inmates in triple-tiered adjoined wooden bunks. On each side, communal living-dining areas and toilet facilities were intended for 45. Total estimated camp population was not intended to exceed approximately 3500. Included are images of the bunks and toilet facilities.

At no time were there less than double the number of intended occupants. After Kristallnacht, 10000 Jews were added to the Dachau population bringing the population over 15000. By war's end more than 30000 people were using facilities intended for one-tenth that number.

The Dachau visited today is a sterile recreation of a physical plant, with only two barracks. Walking through the barracks, my mind was drawn to conditions when these buildings were inhabited, one on top of the other literally. Hundreds of people forced to use the limited toilet facilities, 4 or 5 men sleeping head to foot in one bunk, with three bunks on top of each other. The dining room with up to several hundred people. The mass of humanity leaving twice a day for the outdoor roll call or for work details. The incredible dehumanizing crowding, the lack of sanitation, the smell of unwashed unclean bodies and excrement permeating these small buildings. Consider the summers at +30C and the winters at minus 20C.

Today the beds are empty as are the toilets, the walls barren, the bunks barren. Let your imagination conjure up the horrors of life in a Nazi camp particularly near the end of the war when typhus was rampant, heat not available, food supplies at less than starvation levels, absent medical care, work shifts were up to 13 hours a day and hope was absent. Spend a few minutes in the barracks building and reflect on the inhumanity evidenced here.

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How many visitors each day walk across this large cleared area in front of the barracks without realizing its significance. The assemblies on "Roll Call Place" were the most difficult and hated part of each inmate's day. Detailed roll calls counting each prisoner were carried out twice daily regardless of the elements and at best took an hour. If a prisoner was not accounted for, even if due to death overnight, the roll call continued for hours until exact. Those too sick to walk were carried, those who had given up the will to live as starvation and illness sapped their strength ( called Musselmans ) were dragged. Even the dead were brought to be counted. In extreme heat, cold, snow, rain the prisoners would stand motionless until released from formation after work assignments were announced.
This square was also the site of "minor punishments" such as standing motionless for hours for breaking certain regulations ( see Image 4 ), whippings, or just general beatings.
On occasion, execution by hanging was carried out on the square as well during roll call, gallows set on high platforms so that all could see. Unsuccessful escapees were paraded here before their executions for all to see.
Walking across the rough gravel and stone surface in good shoes, I reflected on the strength of character of those who stood here for hours with torn shoes, rags, or nothing at all on their feet despite their hunger and disease. Here on Appelplatz, another example of the sickness of the Nazi movement.

Please enlarge the images to see the rough surface of Appelplatz and imagine yourself in the picture.

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A long low building located behind the administration building today housing the Dachau Museum was the most feared place in the camp. A prison within a prison, its small single rooms were for "special care" prisoners, those singled out for Gestapo interrogation and torture. The interrogation rooms had hollow walls and double thickness doors to prevent the screams of the tortured from being heard. Most sent to the bunker were either high level enemies of the Nazi state or those condemned to death. Even for those released, confinement in the bunker was for protracted periods.

Included were twelve cells for the "standing punishment" - too small to sit or lie down in (70x70 cm), yet too large to rest the body vertically against a wall. Imprisonment here was more painful as it was usually proceeded by beating and whipping. The rooms were maintained in total darkness and only minimal rations were given every second or third day.

In the courtyard ( Image 4 ) behind the bunker, executions by hanging or firing squad were carried out. More bizarre punishments such as " pole hanging " also occured here. Pole hanging required twisting the arms behind the body and then hanging the body from the wrists with the potential for shoulder dislocation.

Visitors walk down the long narrow hallway and are allowed to look into but not enter the prison cells. Unless your guide is directly with you, it is difficult to appreciate the wall inscriptions written by or about the prisoners - we did not.

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The largest building in Dachau camp is the former Services Building, the center of camp activities. On its roof was the slogan - "There is a way to freedom. Its milestones are obedience, diligence, honesty, order, cleanliness, soberness, truthfulness, spirit of sacrifice, and patriotism." Today the building houses the Dachau Museum. A 20 minute documentary film is shown throughout the day, alternating German and English language versions, and is remarkable. Before entering the theatre, check out the exhibits of photos and documents, all labelled in 2 languages as well. They describe the camp history, living conditions, forced labor, punishments, and the categories of prisoners. Some depict the stories of individual inmates. One section is devoted to the rise of Naziism and a brief history of concentration camps ( first used in South Africa during the Boer wars - how strange that our tour guide was South African ). At the entrance to the exhibits is a striking sculpture ( Image 1 ) showing a line of prisoners, one fallen, others stumbling, all weak and starving. So far I cannot find out much about it on the Internet. It is a breathtaking work - summarizes the inhumanity of the camp system far more eloquently than mere words.

NOTE - This building houses the only public bathrooms on the Dachau camp.

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The Protestant Memorial, the Church of Reconciliation, was dedicated in 1967 based on plans by the German architect Helmut Striffler. His concept was to make everything about the church the exact opposite of the Nazi ideals of tradition and utter orderliness. The modern architecture is opposite to the classicism favored by the Nazis and the gravel enclosing the church similarly opposite classic beauty.
The chapel is below ground level and both the stairs and church follow curved and rounded designs, so opposite to the strict parallelism favored by the Nazis ( eg, the exact orientation of the bunkers ). Inside, the simple interior includes cold stone pews, four white flowers, and a simple candle.

The Catholic Church of the Mortal Agony of Christ (also translated at Christ's Mortal Fear) occupies the central position among the religious monuments. Most of the prisoners in Dachau over time, and certainly at the end of the war, were Catholic and mostly Polish resistance fighters and Russian Orthodox including a large number of priests. It was built in 1960 on the plans of German architect Joseph Wiedemann. It is a circular building 40 ft high and wide, with the front of the chapel open to the weather and through which a simple altar can be seen. It is covered with rocks from a nearby river. Rather than a cross, twisted iron bars at the top of the open front dominate the facade, called the Crown of Thorns. In 1961 a bell tower was added, to the left as the church is faced, with the cross atop a bell which appears inverted.

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The Jewish Memorial was designed by Herman Zvi Guttmann, a Frankfurt architect, and dedicated in 1967. It occupies the site of the disinfection hut, Himmler's rabbit hutches, and a post-war restaurant in the northeast corner of the camp. Unlike the other two memorials, it is not used for religious services.
The exterior of the building is lava with a wide slightly tapered walkway sloping to a room six feet below ground level, grave level. Here an iron fence has been constructed to resemble barbed wire. It is open to the elements both in the front and at the apex of the roof where a Menorah is located.
The interior walls are covered with 70 candle holders for the 70 elders of Moses. There are several plaques, of which the most eloquent simply says "Yizkor" --- remember. There are no pews, just the floor and the walls. Through the ceiling hole, one can see the Menorah, intended as a sign of hope.

The memorials are all gated, and some are locked even during the day. Each offers an interpretation of the terror of Nazi Germany and the hope for the future. The underground level of the Protestant and Jewish rooms have variously been interpreted as indicating depth and despair before hope and also the hiding places of many later imprisoned here.

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The International Monument at the Dachau Memorial Site lies between the museum and the Appelplatz, designed by Yugoslav sculptor Glid Nandor. Born in Yugoslavia in 1924, he passed WWII in a concentration camp and lost his family at Auschwitz in 1944. His monuments are central to several former concentration camps as well as at Yad Vashem. Yugoslavia's foremost 20th Century sculptor, he died in 1997.
The Dachau memorial measures 50 x 300 ft. The centerpiece is a dark bronze sculpture measuring 52 ft long by 20 ft high with a depth of 4 ft. It is reached by a jagged ramp rather than a straight path meant to symbolize the jagged route to peace, tolerance, and understanding. At the entrance is a cornerstone placed in 1956The sculpture is bounded on the left by cement poles similar to those used for the barbed wire enclosure of the camp.
On the right three chain links are united by bars showing the unity of prisoners, most political. Emblazoned on this sculpture are triangles in the colors worn by the prisoners to describe their reason for incarceration. Far to the left, fronted by a granite block containing the ashes of Dachau victims, the words " Never Again" are written in 5 languages. This granite urn was placed in 1967 at the time of the opening of the Jewish Memorial Building.

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