Storm at Dachau
The living to honor the dead for the remainder.
Never Again!
Memorial at Dachau
Entrance at DachauToday we took a tour through Radius Tours to Dachau. Our guide was Robert. The tour started at the Bahnoff in Munich. We took the S2 subway to the city of Dachau, and then a bus to the camp. Robert came to Munich as an exchange student about 8 years ago from El Paso, Texas and never went home. Now he is an instructor, student, and tour guide for the last 4 years. The tour was five hours total, including over 3 hours on site at Dachau, and travel time there and back.
There is a new visitor center that the government is building outside the camp, but it is not completed yet. Robert explained the land is owned by the German federal government, and the city of Dachau makes no income from the memorial. There is no fee to enter the memorial. Dachau Concentration Camp since the war has been a thorn in the side of the citizens of Dachau, in 1947 the US government built a dirt berm around areas of the camp so it could not longer be seen. In 1955 the city of Dachau almost succeeded in having the camp torn down and dismantled, but because the ashes of the unknown prisoners that died there are interred there they were unable to because it is considered a war grave and protected by treaty as such.
The original entry and administrative building is intact, and that is our point of entry into the memorial. Through the gate with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work makes you free) on the iron gate. Robert explained this was one of many 'jokes' by the SS. While a few were set free from this camp before 1938, 1939 brought the war and none were ever set free again except through death.
The tour started by going through the administrative building and explaining in detail how a person was processed through the building. It really made you feel the terror that so many people felt. To imagine being a free person one day, and then arrested without any provocation, and taken to a camp and stripped of your identity, your papers, your clothes, your hair, and out into a labor camp with no hope of any recourse. No judicial system, no one to reach out to, nothing you can do. This happened to increasing groups of people of the years. Then being feed a diet of only 400 calories a day while you worked, wasting away.
This was all possible by the German government passing a law that removed the citizens bill of rights, and gave total power to the Chancellor. If this law had not been passed, or if the people had revolted over losing their rights, this may never have happened. Perhaps there is a lesson that we should be learning from this.
The administrative building is full of memorial items and displays and it is emotional to work your way through the building. There is also a 30 minute movie that plays in different languages at different times throughout the day. The movie has actual video of the camp and the history.
After the memorial building tour we headed out to the barracks buildings. Two of the barracks have been rebuilt so you have a feeling of what they were like. The outlines of the other barrack buildings are now marked with an outline of blocks filled with gravel and stone, so it is possible to tell where the buildings once stood. Many of the original guard towers still stand, as well as the much of the perimeter fence system. This system consited of a 'no entry' area, followed by a sloaped concrete ditch over 8 feet deep. Once in the ditch there is no way to climb out. After the ditch, there is a row of electrified coiled barbed wire. Followed by a 10 foot high fence of more electified barbed wire. Looking over all of this were numerous guard towers that looked right down the line of the ditches. Escape was virtually impossible. Robert pointed out that the wall in Berlin during the cold war was modeled after this system. That wall was designed and built by ex members of the SS who were now working for the secret police in East Germany. They modified the design slightly by adding a final wall behind the barbed wire fence, and the addition of mine fields on both sides.
In the rear of the field are now religious memorials that have been built. There is also a nunery that now resides on the site. They pray daily to help remove the pain from the site. I really don't believe that this will ever be possible.
Lastly we went to the gas chamber and crematory buildings. The gas chamber was never used at Dachau as it was never considered a "Death Camp", but the crematory was used. Dachau was the first, and model test camp for the entire concentration camp system. So everything was tried here first, including the first crematory. The original is preserverd and still there. In the larger crematory is an example of an 'improved' crematory with chambers that were better designed for mass usage. These are original also.
As we were leaving the site a very large storm that had been developing during the day finally came to a head. It developed into a very large dark clouds and started moving over Dachau. The wind was howling and it became cool, then started to rain. We just made it back to the bus when it started. We were back at the S-Bahn station waiting for our train back to Munich when it started to rain harder. We were under cover now so it was just nice to watch the rain and know we did not have to go out into it. We thought of the many people who stood out in weather like this day after day with no hope.
Well, we made it back to Munich and then back to our apartment. We went out and got some roasted chicken (See Funny Things) and came back to the apartment to eat, and have a large beer!
Tomorrow we are picking up our rental car, going shopping for some food and supplies, and then on to Nymphenburg palace grounds. When we get back from that we are going to go to one of the beer halls for dinner and of course.....some beer!
Mark and Pat
There is a new visitor center that the government is building outside the camp, but it is not completed yet. Robert explained the land is owned by the German federal government, and the city of Dachau makes no income from the memorial. There is no fee to enter the memorial. Dachau Concentration Camp since the war has been a thorn in the side of the citizens of Dachau, in 1947 the US government built a dirt berm around areas of the camp so it could not longer be seen. In 1955 the city of Dachau almost succeeded in having the camp torn down and dismantled, but because the ashes of the unknown prisoners that died there are interred there they were unable to because it is considered a war grave and protected by treaty as such.
The original entry and administrative building is intact, and that is our point of entry into the memorial. Through the gate with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work makes you free) on the iron gate. Robert explained this was one of many 'jokes' by the SS. While a few were set free from this camp before 1938, 1939 brought the war and none were ever set free again except through death.
The tour started by going through the administrative building and explaining in detail how a person was processed through the building. It really made you feel the terror that so many people felt. To imagine being a free person one day, and then arrested without any provocation, and taken to a camp and stripped of your identity, your papers, your clothes, your hair, and out into a labor camp with no hope of any recourse. No judicial system, no one to reach out to, nothing you can do. This happened to increasing groups of people of the years. Then being feed a diet of only 400 calories a day while you worked, wasting away.
This was all possible by the German government passing a law that removed the citizens bill of rights, and gave total power to the Chancellor. If this law had not been passed, or if the people had revolted over losing their rights, this may never have happened. Perhaps there is a lesson that we should be learning from this.
The administrative building is full of memorial items and displays and it is emotional to work your way through the building. There is also a 30 minute movie that plays in different languages at different times throughout the day. The movie has actual video of the camp and the history.
After the memorial building tour we headed out to the barracks buildings. Two of the barracks have been rebuilt so you have a feeling of what they were like. The outlines of the other barrack buildings are now marked with an outline of blocks filled with gravel and stone, so it is possible to tell where the buildings once stood. Many of the original guard towers still stand, as well as the much of the perimeter fence system. This system consited of a 'no entry' area, followed by a sloaped concrete ditch over 8 feet deep. Once in the ditch there is no way to climb out. After the ditch, there is a row of electrified coiled barbed wire. Followed by a 10 foot high fence of more electified barbed wire. Looking over all of this were numerous guard towers that looked right down the line of the ditches. Escape was virtually impossible. Robert pointed out that the wall in Berlin during the cold war was modeled after this system. That wall was designed and built by ex members of the SS who were now working for the secret police in East Germany. They modified the design slightly by adding a final wall behind the barbed wire fence, and the addition of mine fields on both sides.
In the rear of the field are now religious memorials that have been built. There is also a nunery that now resides on the site. They pray daily to help remove the pain from the site. I really don't believe that this will ever be possible.
Lastly we went to the gas chamber and crematory buildings. The gas chamber was never used at Dachau as it was never considered a "Death Camp", but the crematory was used. Dachau was the first, and model test camp for the entire concentration camp system. So everything was tried here first, including the first crematory. The original is preserverd and still there. In the larger crematory is an example of an 'improved' crematory with chambers that were better designed for mass usage. These are original also.
As we were leaving the site a very large storm that had been developing during the day finally came to a head. It developed into a very large dark clouds and started moving over Dachau. The wind was howling and it became cool, then started to rain. We just made it back to the bus when it started. We were back at the S-Bahn station waiting for our train back to Munich when it started to rain harder. We were under cover now so it was just nice to watch the rain and know we did not have to go out into it. We thought of the many people who stood out in weather like this day after day with no hope.
Well, we made it back to Munich and then back to our apartment. We went out and got some roasted chicken (See Funny Things) and came back to the apartment to eat, and have a large beer!
Tomorrow we are picking up our rental car, going shopping for some food and supplies, and then on to Nymphenburg palace grounds. When we get back from that we are going to go to one of the beer halls for dinner and of course.....some beer!
Mark and Pat
1 comment:
Hey,
Wow, this was a really powerful story. It must have been difficult to shake the place off after you left. How eerie that a bad storm moved in like that. Adds to the creepiness. Almost like the place is still haunted. I'm sure that added to the heaviness of the day.
Love,
Gina, Kady & Belle
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