Day Trip to Dachau

Today my son, Keenan (who is visiting from college), and I went to Munich, Germany for lunch at my favorite Thai Place, Manam.  It took about 2 hours to drive there and then we had to find parking, which is in itself a miracle...also, a note about Keenan's facial hair...he has chosen not to shave until he has to go back to University.  I sure wish he would because he is so handsome without it but what can you do? :)

Keenan waiting for his food.

All full!

After eating some of the best Thai food ever, we headed to Dachau, Germany.  Keenan and I both feel that since we are here in Germany, and my Mother is German from both sides of her family, it is important that we go and understand what happened in places like those.  Personally I feel it is one of the most important parts of history, the parts that should never be repeated and need to be looked at to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.

The walkway heading to the Concentration Camp.

I was moved and a little disturbed that there was so much beauty on the way to the camp.  It was a truly glorious day in Bavaria today and that, along with the quiet walk in, it all seemed somehow sadder.  So many people came to Dachau on a day like today...all this beauty around them and yet they were going to such an ugly place through no fault of their own.

 As we came up to the entrance, on one side we found the legend.  On the other side, a little ways away, we saw what was left of the train tracks that brought the prisoners to the camp.

What's left of the train tracks.

The entrance to Dachau Concentration Camp.

Arbeit macht frei "Work makes you free"

The Nandor Glid sculpture in front of the former Maintenance Building.

 There are many memorials around the grounds where atrocities once happened.  The sculpture in front of the Maintenance Building shows body like figures in the air above the dates the camp was open for.  Nandor Glid, the Yugoslavian sculptor was once a concentration camp prisoner himself.

This monument is a relief with triangles that are attached to a chain.  It is explained better in the Virtual Tour on the Dachau website, "This part of the monument recalls the triangle badges that marked every prisoner as of 1937.

The relief does not show either the black triangle that marked the so-called "asocials," the green triangle of the category of so-called "criminal prisoners" nor the pink triangle which homosexual prisoners had to wear. The monument had been created in 1968 on the instigation of the International Prisoner Committee that represented above all the former political prisoners. It honored all the categories of prisoners that were accepted as "recognized" persecuted groups after 1945 and this included solely those people who were persecuted for political, racial or religious reasons. The fate of the others, the so-called "forgotten victims," has only been a topic of research since the 1980s."

International Memorial

How Dachau is set up, you walk the same walk the prisoners were forced to do on their way into the camp. At the end of the monument the words "Never Again" are written in Yiddish using Hebrew letters, and in French, English, German and Russian. An urn with the ashes of the unknown concentration camp prisoner lies before it and recalls the fate of the thousands of people whose corpses were burnt in the crematorium. It was buried here in May 1967. The panel on the left narrow side of the monument notes further: "This monument was erected in honor of the tens of thousands of martyrs, who died here as victims of National Socialist tyranny..."

The Maintenance Building from the other side of the camp.

Latin Memorial stone.

We could not read what the memorial stone said since 1) it was in Latin and 2) it was hot out and the plastic cover was covered in condensation.

The picture above shows the isle of trees that lead now to the religious memorials but once were where the Barracks stood.  They originally were dismantled and later two Barracks were reconstructed in exact replica.

The larger beds.  These beds would have had more than one person sleeping in each bed.

These were single beds.  They would have had straw pallets in them.

This picture shows how the Barracks once were.

The bathrooms in the Barracks.  No privacy.

The "shower" room.  Basically just enough to wash hands and faces.  No real showers or baths.

The spaces where the other Barracks once stood.

Looking out from The Mortal Agony of Christ Chapel.

Looking into the Jewish Memorial.

Looking out of the Jewish Memorial.

The trenches around Dachau.

A picture of prisoners waving to the U.S. soldiers coming to liberate them.  Some are in the trenches.

The Crematoriums.

The Crematoriums were tucked way in the back.  I'm sure to be hidden from the eyes of anyone outside of the camp.  I think this was the saddest part of our journey.  I hated to think how many people died in this camp that believed they might one day leave...

This reads: "Think about (remember) how we died here."

These were the newer ovens, relatively speaking.  These ovens were only used to burn already dead bodies.

The oven room looking towards the Death Chambers.

The holding room.  This is where prisoners were lead and unclothed to wait for "showers".

Looking into the "shower" room.

The "shower" room or Death Chamber.

This was the original ovens.  They had to build more once they brought more prisoners.

The Unknown Prisoner by Fritz Koelle

The last thing we looked at was the statue of the Unknown Prisoner.  The inscription reads, "To honor the dead, to warn the living."

Our journey to Dachau, while not necessarily the happiest of occasions, was enlightening and we are very glad that we had the opportunity to touch history rather than just read about it.