Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site (warning: grim)

japra | Jul 18, 2008 | Comments 13

I almost didn’t write this post. I procrastinated, mainly because every time I thought about it, my stomach clenched and I was unsure of what I wanted to say. It’s a tough subject.

So then I made a deal with myself that I would only show a few pictures and include a link to the memorial’s website. But soon after I started going through my photos, I decided I’d really wanted to show you the Dachau I saw. It won’t be enough. If you want to know more, please do visit the official site. Also, here is a timeline for the camp from 1933-1945.

I am still absorbing what I saw and what I learned.

The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site opened in 1965. It is located about an hour from Munich by train and bus. The bus dropped us off right in front of the memorial entrance.
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There’s an admission fee but the audio guide is included. You’ll have to leave your ID with them if you take their handsets (and I highly recommend you do take them). At the end, we also bought the book The Dachau Concentration Camp, 1933 to 1945 Text and Photo Documents from the exhibition, with CD. It includes photos and translations of all the panels in the museum and so much more. I can barely look at it, though. It’s heartbreaking.

If you go, I hope you will take time to see the film. Be sure to check the times for the English show. It is quite an intense, by the way. If you have young children, you may not want them to watch it. Roxi is 13 and she wanted to see it. It made a really big impression on her. We actually saw the film at the end of our visit because we got to the camp after the first show. If at all possible, try to catch the film first.
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“Arbeit macht frei” or Work Shall Set You Free.

Dachau was the first concentration camp in Germany. It opened in March 1933 on the grounds of a former munitions factory and was supposed to be a model for all concentration camps.
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The Jourhaus was the main entrance to the camp and served as the office for SS personnel.
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A model of the camp inside the museum. All 34 of the prisoner barracks were torn down. The two barracks currently on site are reconstructions. The area in back housed the SS barracks, the crematorium and the execution area.

The location of one of the original 34 barracks.
. Another view of the area looking up toward the Maintenance building where the museum and cinema is now housed.
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Prisoner dormitory. The camp grew so overcrowded that individual bunks were turned into basically raised platforms where people slept crammed together head to foot.

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Prison toilets.
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Prison sinks. In the museum, there is a haunting photo of a prisoner who committed suicide by tying himself to a sink similar to this one.
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Eating hall. The prisoners’ lockers are against the wall. I was trying to remember what they were allowed to keep in there. I think it was just their eating utensils. According to the book, the floorboards were scrubbed three times a day (by the prisoners) and the lockers were polished with sandpaper.
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A guard tower.

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Camp border with multiple layers of security. If a prisoner stepped foot on that grass, he would be shot.

Detailing of electric barbed wire fence.
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View from the Jourhaus across the roll-call square toward the maintenance building. Prisoners lined up in this square every day, sometimes for hours.

The International Memorial. There are other Religious Memorials on site.

The Protestant memorial.
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The Catholic memorial.
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The Jewish memorial.
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And the Russian-Orthodox chapel. There is also the Carmelite Convent but I didn’t know we could go in there. It seemed like we would be intruding.
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The original crematorium was built about 1940.

The second crematorium, or barrack X, was built around 1942. Located here are the gas chamber, delousing rooms, and the cremation ovens.

These chambers used for delousing the prisoners’ clothes.
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The “showers”–really the gas chamber. Apparently the Dachau gas chamber was never used for mass killings. But thousands did die in this camp from malnutrition, medical experiments, hanging or shooting.