Dachau Concentration Camp

Since moving to Germany I've wanted to visit a concentration camp. It is just such an important part of global history, that I wanted to witness a small piece of it.

So, we did.

I get a knot in my stomach just going through the pictures.... and I'm certain the real experience was thousands of times worse than I can even imagine.

The original train tracks (platform is on the right) that prisoners would arrive on and gate that they would walk through with the cruel phrase:

"Work will make you free"

Since we didn't take the kids with us, we were able to do the audio tour. Here is Tamar in the roll-call part of the camp. She's facing two rebuilt barracks-- the rest were torn down and only their foundations are left.

Dachau was the first concentration camp opened (and the only one opened for the entire duration of WWII). It was originally opened for political prisoners, though it increasingly was filled with men accused of any manner of "offense" or "crime". The camp was a work, not death camp (though that certainly doesn't mean that men didn't die there... over 31 thousand are thought to have died there by illness, starvation, or other means). It did build gas chambers in the later years of the war, but there is no record of them ever being used. I won't say anymore. It all breaks my heart and I am humbled to have visited there.

Memorial

Another part of the memorial. I didn't realize before that they labeled prisoners based on their "offenses". Each uniform had colored triangles on them informing everyone what the charge was against them.

This room is part of where they processed new prisoners. They had a project set up in there that took a photo from when the building was in use and placed it in perspective of how the viewer was looking at the room now. Very cool.

*A happier version of a similar idea.

The beds changed over the years to accommodate more prisoners. This is the last phase-- as many in as small a space as possible.

Barrack foundations