On Wednesday, June 3, our group traveled to Dachau Concentration Camp. This was the first concentration camp the Nazis established in WWII. It is close to Munich, only about an hour train ride away. It was not a death (or extermination) camp, although many deaths did occur there. This camp became a model for the other camps the Nazis built. They also had a training ground and other things at this location, right next to the camp. The whole thing was a kind of complex for different things going on during the war. After the war, the Allies used this camp to hold SS soldiers while they waited for their trials.
Dachau is a difficult place to visit. While they claim they did not gas people and actively exterminate prisoners, many, many of them died here. The memorial site consists of a couple reconstructed barracks, the crematorium buildings, the large maintenance building which now holds the main museum and many memorials and churches. There is also the large area used for daily role call.
This is the “maintainence building” which contained the kitchen, baths, laundry and workshops. The prisoners built it themselves. Now is the main museum.
This picture showed that on the roof of the building was written the message,
“There is a path to freedom. It’s milestones are obedience, honest, cleanliness, sobriety, hard work, discipline, sacrifice, truthfulness, love of thy Fatherland.”
The gate to the camp also holds a message: “Arbeit Macht Frei” - “Works Makes Free”.
Roll Call grounds - this was often the site of punishment. Prisoners were made to stand for hours, in all weather, no matter their health. The buildings in the back are the two barracks that have been reconstructed. There were 34 barracks buildings, all in two long rows behind these first two.
This sculpture is in front of the maintenance building. I never heard the explanation, but I assumed it was some memorial of some sort.
The cement blocks mark out the locations of the other barrack buildings. The trees line the center road between the two rows of barracks down the center of the camp.
Inside the barracks
Washroom inside the barracks
Toilets inside the barracks
The museum said this was the kind of locker that was assigned to prisoners. In this one on display were the four items of clothing given to each prisoner: shoes, pants, jacket and hat. I read that the hat was important because prisoners were required to take it off at times to show respect.
These items were actual items used by prisoners. The museum said that “possessing a plate, cup or spoon was vital to the prisoners’ survival. They often marked them with a personal sign.”
They did have a few things on display that they had taken from prisoners upon arrival and had survived. These suspenders, leather pouch and cross pendent belonged to the man in the photo: Fritz Dressel. Here is what was written about him: “A Communist Party member of the Bavarian Landtag, Fritz Dressel, was tortured to death three days after his internment in the Dachau concentration camp on May 4, 1933. The SS administrative office sent Dressel’s clothing…to his wife Dora. As a keepsake, she made an etui (leacher pouch) out of the lederhosen. In the pocket of the lederhosen was a chain with a cross pendant which Dressel had received for his confirmation.”
These personal details and connections to real life biographies of people were very moving.
This is the main crematorium building, also called “Barrack X”.
This was a room right next to the furnace room. Reports from the American soldiers that liberated the camp said that this room (and another right next to it) were full of naked, dead bodies piled to the ceiling, waiting to be cremated.
The ovens. They would also hang people here - so that transport to the ovens was quick.
There were several memorials and chapels on the grounds of the camp. The whole thing is very tastefully and honestly done. Once again, the Germans have done an amazing job of honestly documenting the ugly parts of their history. They seem committed to the principle of honesty in order to prevent a repeat of the past.
Personal Note
Since this is officially my blog, I simply must make a comment here about my own reaction in light of current political events. I follow a historian and political commentator on social media, Heather Cox Richardson. She does a wonderful job of condensing the news of the day - all backed by references and documented sources - and putting them in a historical context and explaining the political relevance of so many things happening with the current Trump administration and political climate.
She insists that the “detention centers” all over America right now are really concentration camps. I would agree. People who are “undesirable” to the current governmental power have been rounded up and locked up. They have been denied their legal rights to fight back and are also being denied proper health care and many other basic rights. Government officials at many levels who have requested access to at least some of these centers to check on the people inside have been kept out and even pepper sprayed. I’m sure some of the individuals inside are criminals, as the administration claims. But I’m also sure that the majority are not. When the government changes its immigration rules so many times that it creates “criminals” because it makes it impossible to follow all the rules, then the government is the criminal, not the people it accuses.
Except for Native Americans, all of the people in the USA are immigrants. I simply cannot condemn them for wanting a better life when my ancestors did the exact same thing. Furthermore, my faith in Jesus tells me to love the foreigner, the outsider and show mercy and grace to those in need. (Leviticus 19:33-34, Matthew 25:35)
For me, whenever we visit a WWII or Nazi site on this trip, I am reminded again that I need to speak up and not let history repeat itself. It was not that long ago that an entire nation was led astray and convinced to support a man who pursued his own policies and interests while murdering millions. We cannot allow this to happen again.
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