"Dachau" a Dachau Travel Page by asurfacing

"Dachau - the significance of this name will never be erased from German history. It stands for all concentration camps which the Nazis established in their territory."
(Eugen Kogon)

I think the visual of this mother with this child sitting there, pensive and condoling, said it all for me. I have been there twice, and i believe i still havent thoroughly been through the exhibition.

Dachau is the name of a Nazi concentration camp, constructed in a disused gunpowder factory and completed on March 21, 1933. Although Dachau was not the first Nazi prisoner camp, it was the first concentration-style camp after which all subsequent concentration camps were modelled. Together with the much larger Auschwitz, Dachau has come to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps to many people. The camp lies near the medieval town of Dachau, outside Munich.

Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp and served as a prototype and model for the others that followed.

In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau. Camp records list 130,000 persons killed in the camp, with thousands more who died due to the conditions in the camp.

It holds a significant place in public memory because it was the second camp to be liberated by British or American forces, and therefore it was one of the first places in which the West was exposed to the reality of Nazi brutality through firsthand journalist accounts and through newsreels. After the camp was surrendered to Allied forces, the troops were so horrified by conditions at the camp that they summarily shot many of the camp guards, in what is called the Dachau massacre.

The Jourhaus was the entrance and exit to the prisoners' camp. The prisoners had to pass through this gate to enter the camp for the first time on their arrival and then march through it daily on the way to the work details. In the recollections of the prisoners this gate house marked the border between the outside world and their imprisonment in the concentration camp.

This picture shows the watchtower above the main gate. Where many a shots were fired to kill...