Day 7

The boys decided to go visit Neuschwanstein Castle, something I had been fortunate to have visited with my mother in high school, and us girls went to Dachau Concentration Camp. Just out of the city Dachau lies. One of the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany. Open on March 22, 1933 only 51 days after Hilter took power and was in operation until April 29, 1945 when United States troops liberated the camp. Dachau served as the model for all later concentration camps and also as a "school of violence" for the SS men. The entrance gate to the concentration camp still holds the eerie words "Arbeit macht frei" which means "work liberates". The beginning years from 1933 to 1938 much of the prisoners were German nationals detained for political reasonings. Later the camp was used for prisoners of all sorts from every nation occupied by the forces of the Third Reich, or Nazi Germany. Estimates put the number of prisoners detained here over 200,000 ranging from more than 30 countries. At liberation around two-thirds were political prisoners and nearly one-third were Jews. Around 40,000 perished in the twelve years either here at this camp or at one of its satellite camps. Many deaths were caused by malnutrition and severe conditions and bodies often were disposed of in the crematorium.

We had an amazing tour guide we picked up in the city along with a handful of other visitors. She explained much of the history of the socialist movement and Hitler and the Nazi Parties rise to power. It was quite powerful arriving at Dachau, so close to Munich. We took a bus from the train station and down the road that once prisoners were marched down before entering the camp. The camp in the twelve years contained a range of prisoners from political to homosexuals, to Jews to Jehovah Witnesses. Each wore a different badge and signified which type of prisoner they were. Each day the prisoners would have to make role at around 5am. Before they could do this though they had to complete the most basic but also most difficult task, making their beds. Given stripped sheets the prisoners must line up each of the stripes perfectly so that it completely matched from top to bottom and from side to side. We got to walk through a recreated barrack showing three stages in the camps history. At the beginning each bed had dividers in between and room for personal belongings. Soon though the dividers were removed and multiple people were assigned to each bed. By liberation there were as many as 1500 prisoners living in each barrack, buildings that were designed to hold 250.

Much of the daily life at Dachau was designed with intentions of physical and mental abuse of the prisoners. The museum and memorial site here had recovered torture devises and the chamber that held some of the more important prisoners was still intact. The museum today is part of the original structure of the officers barracks and also were prisoners were initially taken when arriving at the camp. The whole camp is much smaller than other concentration camps. The outer ring of the camp is grass about 20 feet long stretching the whole circumference. If any prisoner stepped foot on this grass they were considered to be "escaping" and shot on the spot. After the grass came the first of two motes. Next was a barbed wire fence that was kept electrically hot constantly. After that was another mote. Then surrounding the whole camp was areas that the SS soldiers would have been training. We learned that only one man successfully made it out of the camp. Its said he most likely had help from someone within the camp. The original crematorium built in 1940 and the second crematorium built in 1942/43 still exist at the camp. The second was built because of the mass influx of deaths occurring. All in all this was one of the most moving and awakening experiences I have ever had.