Dachau: Concentration Camp

Disturbing does not quite capture the concentration camp at Dachau.

We arrived at Dachau in the morning around 10pm. Before you actually go into the concentration camp, there is an information building out front.  We went in to see how much the tour would cost (if it would cost anything) but found out that the next available tour wasn’t for another 2 hours.  We decided we did not need a tour leader, because the entire concentration camp is filled with information boards in all locations that you can read and learn about what happened (you can see this from my pictures on facebook). So we began walking into the concentration camp.

When stepping through the gates into the concentration camp, I did not realize how much of an effect it was going to have on me. The very first thing you saw was a huge open area. In the open area, the Nazis would gather all of the prisoners for morning roll call or just for punishment activities.  Almost everyday, the prisoners would be forced to stand in lines for hours. Just standing.  If a prisoner could not stand for that long and collapsed, the prisoner would be hanged (hanged up my his wrists for hours).

After walking through the open courtyard area, we walked through the barracks area.  There were dozens and dozens of barracks back in the 40s, but the concentration camp only kept 2 standing.  Inside the barracks was where the prisoners slept. Seeing the wooden bunk beds was… I can’t come up with words. After reading some of the postings, we also learned that certain barracks were used for certain medical experiments.  Barracks 3 5 and 7 were all used for experimentations on prisoners (malaria, hypothermia, twins). It was quite disturbing.

The most disturbing of the entire experience, though, was going to the extermination house, the gas chambers. It was quite cruel the way they made these gas chambers seemed like shower rooms. Basically, they made the prisoners believe that they had been lucky enough to win the lottery of being able to shower. In the first room, the prisoners were informed they were taking the shower. The next room was where they took off their clothes. The third room was that “shower” area… which was really the gas chamber. The fourth room was for incinerating the dead bodies. I literally walked through every single room, and my chills and goose-bumps never went away the whole time I was there.

The whole concentration camp felt so unreal. Just walking on the ground made me think of hundreds of prisoners that walked on the same ground.

FACTS

Currently, a convent and a church holds regular service ON THE CONCENTRATION CAMP. Even though it was a very strange concept for me… I guess in a way it is nice to see good being used in a place that such tragedy took place.

Dachau was primarily used as a labor camp, not an execution camp like Auschwitz