Dachau concentration camp

When we were in Munich for Easter break we decided to embrace the German history and visit one of the few concentration camps still in existence. Dachau was the first concentration camp established by the coalition government of the National Socialist Party (Nazi Party). I have to warn you that many of these images are disturbing and the fact is that this facility alone probably facilitated in the killings of fifty thousand people, but only around twenty thousand have been recorded.

It was very erie to see the town as we walked to the concentration camp. There were walls around the camp that housed the Nazi soldiers and across the street there was a preschool. It was amazing to see that life goes on even after such traumatic events throughout history.

The camp was built in 1933 and was a prototype for other concentration camps. The original camp was not very large and would only house a couple of thousand people. In 1938, the camp expanded and the devastation ensued. In 1945, the camp was liberated by British and American forces. The camp was laid out with a rail station that led to the entrance of the camp.

The entrance gate is made of iron and carries the words "Arebeit Macht Frei" meaning "Through work one will be free". This was the philosophy set forth by the Nazi's towards the prisoners.

The fence around the facility had three layers of fences and ditches. The first and last sets of fences were made of barbwire and the middle fence was an electric fence. In addition to the fences, there were many guard towers and soldiers patrolling the entire area. A memorial was built just for prisoners that committed suicide by jumping into the electric fences around the facility.

The living conditions for the prisoners were subpar as you can imagine. From 1933 until 1938 every prisoner had a bed and a little living quarter. This was mostly due to the fact that this facility was originally made for incarceration of German nationals detained for political reasons. After 1938, when the Nazi's started making this a camp for all prisoners, overcrowding took place which led to disease and death. The bed's had to be made at the start of every day perfectly. That means that the beds were in rows of ten and the sheets were striped and all had to line up perfectly. The pillows and the creases between the pillow and the bed had to be uniform between all ten beds. If this was not done, prisoners were torched or killed.

This brings me to the final part of the Dachau concentration camp, the crematorium. Originally they had a smaller crematorium that had two ovens side by side. There were a reported 11,000 people that were cremated in that smaller building. This small building was not able to handle the capacity after 1938, so they expanded and built an even bigger facility. This new operation had four cremation ovens, a gas chamber, and other rooms that the prisoners were made to believe were showers. This was very ugly and really took my breath away. I have never seen such a horrific site in my life. They showed pictures of the building in operation with pillows of black smoke coming out of the chimney. It was unreported how many people actually died in the gas chamber, but that had to be the one room that really got to me. The following pictures are of the crematorium and the gas chambers. The other pictures that follow show that same facility in operation. Very Sad...

Inside the crematorium at Dachau

The gas chamber

In 1945, a few moments before the camp prisoners were set free, the Nazi soldiers turned over the camp to the Americans. Some of the American soldiers were so upset and angry they killed several of the Nazi soldiers and let some of the prisoners do the same, in what was later named the Dachau massacre. Over thirty thousand prisoners were set free that day along with some smaller camps in the surrounding areas.

Traveling to Dachau had a huge impact on me. I have several more pictures that I can share later with you.