Today’s post is 2000 words, 49 photos, a 10-minute read. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

This week, I’ll take you to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site near Munich. We’ll see the well-done museum, tour the rebuilt barracks, visit the decontamination chamber, and the crematorium. I’ll end with some impressions of this enlightening and sobering visit

Before we start on our journey, and if you missed earlier episodes in this series, check out the links below.

Vienna here and here; Regensburg, here and here; Neckargemund; Mosel Valley here and here; The Rhine River and Bonn; Julich here and here; and Cologne

Munich

It was a Saturday, our first full day in the Munich area. Our lodging was in Hallbergmoos, located just north of Munich and near the Munich airport. With a population of about 12,000, Hallbergmoos has a relaxed, small-town atmosphere. It is surrounded by open fields and green space while remaining closely connected to the area’s economic and cultural activities.

Munich, on the other hand, with a population of over 1.6 million, is the third-largest city in Germany.  It is also the capital of Bavaria and home to global companies like BMW and Siemens. Munich is famous for its traditional Bavarian customs, beer gardens, and the world-renowned Oktoberfest, which draws millions of visitors each year. Watch for a future post on a day spent at Oktoberfest. All in all, Munich is a modern city blended with old-world charm.

Munich also played a significant role 2oth century events, including the rise of the Nazi Party following the end of World War I. Political unrest, economic hardship, and dissatisfaction with parliamentary democracy created the rise of extremist movements. It was in Munich where Adolf Hitler emerged as the leader of a large political force. Once the Nazi Party and Hitler came to power, it was no accident that the first concentration camp built was at Dachau near Munich.

Dachau

It was a cool, cloudy morning when we pulled into the parking lot of Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site in the charming, tranquil town of Dachau. One has to wonder and ask: “Did the residents know what was going on at this camp?” They had to have noticed the trucks and trains delivering people to the camp on the edge of the city. They must have seen the corpses carted away to the camp cemetery. Maybe a few expressed their opposition to what was going on in the camp, at their own peril. Fear and prejudice kept most silent. Today, it is impossible to ignore.

The Dachau Concentration Camp is one of the most significant Holocaust remembrance sites in Europe. As I mentioned above, this was the first Nazi camp opened in 1933, a few months after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Dachau was the model for all the other concentration camps built by the Nazi regime. This camp saw an estimated 200,000 prisoners during its existence until liberated by U.S. forces on April 29, 1945. Over 40,000 died due to forced labor, starvation, disease, and execution.

We arrived at Dachau before 10 AM and paid the €3 (about $3.50 USD) for parking. The entrance to the camp is free. We signed up for the English-speaking tour led by one of the educational staff members. The fee for the tour was €4 (about $4.75 USD). We had just enough time to view the 38-minute documentary film that provided a foundational understanding of the camp’s history. The documentary provided an overview of the Dachau camp using photos, film footage, artworks, audio recordings, and interviews with witnesses. It was well done.

We met Martina, our English-speaking tour guide, outside the Visitors’ Center. Martina is a native of the city of Dachau. She told us her mother lived through the war and didn’t want to talk about the atrocities that the prisoners suffered. For the last 15 years, Martina has led tours to help visitors understand what happened here and learn so it’s not repeated. Holocaust education is mandatory in German schools. Visiting a concentration camp by high school-aged students is very common, especially if there is a camp close by. The goal is to create awareness and responsibility.

Martina led the group to the Jourhaus (guard house or administrative center), the entrance to the camp. The iron gate with the inscription, Arbeit macht frei (Work sets you free or Work makes you free). This slogan was cynical, deceptive, and a cruel lie meant to give prisoners false hope. This gate is a replica. The original was stolen in 2014, found in Norway in 2016, now displayed behind glass in the main exhibition hall.

The Nazi concentration camp system was managed by the SS (Schutzstaffel), a paramilitary group founded by Hitler. They were known for their brutal tactics, including terror, surveillance, and murder. At Dachau, the SS created a network of 140 sub or satellite camps where they “hired out” prisoners to private businesses throughout Bavaria. Many were forced to work in manufacturing plants that made armaments for the war, building roads, and private residences for SS officers.  These sub camps reduced overcrowding at the main Dachau camp. Martina took us to a map hanging on the fence that displayed the spread of the camps. She again reiterated that many prisoners died from overwork, starvation, disease, and brutal treatment.

The first building Martina took us to was the former camp prison. In other words, a prison within a prison.

Our next stop was the former maintenance buildings that now house the main museum. There are thirteen exhibit rooms filled with displays of photos and artifacts along with well-done explanations in German and English. Martina stopped along the way at a few exhibits and provided detailed explanations of what we were seeing. This bronze sculpture, Death March Memorial, particularly struck me. It commemorates the thousands of prisoners forced to march out of the camp in April 1945, just before the arrival of the American troops. Some died or were shot during these marches. The lucky ones were found by the Allied soldiers. 

This model provides a visual representation of the Dachau camp layout. It was massive in size, it had to be given the large number of prisoners. Although it’s hard to see through the window, our next stop was the sculpture on the massive assembly grounds.  

The large bronze sculpture is called the International Monument, which features tangled human figures in barbed wire. It represents the suffering and death of the victims of the Holocaust.

Nearby is the memorial to the unknown concentration camp prisoner.

This is a relief scuplture of colored markings that depicts the triangle system used to classify prisoners. While a majority of prisoners were Jewish men, there were also Jewish women and children, communists, social democrats, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), and homosexuals. There was even a brothel for the men prisoners. 

Martina then led us to the reconstructed barracks. The bunks were three high, each held more than one person. There was no privacy, conditions were crowded, food was scarce. Punishment was routine and severe. How can humans treat other humans like this? I have no answer.

After the sobering tour of the barracks, Martina led us on the long walk on the camp road past the concrete foundations of the former barracks. I was struck by the bouquet in front of former barrack 28. A spot of beauty in the midst of sorrow and hardship.

At the back edge of the grounds and separated from the camp, we came to the former crematorium area. Within this complex, there were fumigation cubicles to sanitize uniforms, clothing, and bedding to prevent the spread of typhus. These were not gas chambers.

These were the gas chambers disguised as showers. Few of the deaths at Dachau are attributed to the gas chambers. It was more likely that the SS shot or hanged members of the resistance rather than using mass gassing. Most of the deaths by gas were at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and other camps.

The Dachau crematorium is in Barracks X. While the number of remains cremated is unknown (likely in the thousands), it was more heavily used in 1945 as the death rate increased dramatically. When the camp was liberated, numerous bodies were found around and in the crematorium.

Martina told us that some visitors come to Dachau and the only thing they want to see is the crematorium, when there is so much more to learn about what happened here.

During our walk back to the entrance gate, Martina shared that she is worried about the future of Dachau and similar sites due to budget cuts and changing attitudes. The tour was two and a half hours, she was an excellent guide. She wanted us to learn and never forget.

After saying goodbye to Martina, Wayne and I walked back to the car to eat the lunch we prepared earlier that morning. We ate mostly in silence, reflecting on what we just experienced. Every so often, one of us would bring up something that really struck us. After lunch, we went back to the camp for a thorough look at the museum. We also walked the camp road to visit the three houses of worship built in the 1960s to commemorate the victims of different faiths.

The Protestant Church of Reconciliation was the first to be built. The architect designed the building to represent a counterpoint to the symmetrical and angular structures in the camp. To enter the church, one has to walk slowly into the depths, a symbol of suffering and death. Depth is also a symbol of shame, as if to be swallowed up into the ground. The depth can also be place that shelters and protects. We can hear the moans, cries, anguish, and prayers of the prisoners.

Of note, the dedication service was led by German theologian and former Dachau prisoner, Martin Niemöller. In 1946, he wrote and published the often-cited poem titled, First They Came.

The Mortal Agony of Christ Catholic Chapel is dedicated to the suffering of Christ and honors the many priests and laypeople imprisoned at Dachau. The day of our visit, there was a service to honor the many Polish political prisoners who perished at Dachau. During the service, the bell tower rang, once for each martyr. 

The Jewish Memorial was designed to resemble a destroyed building and featured a Menorah on the roof. The ramp leads downward to remind visitors of the extermination of European Jews. At the lowest point inside, light shines through an opening.

I thought it fitting that a bird happily singing away was perched on the Menorah.

Beyond the northern wall of the camp is the Carmelite Convent of the Precious Blood. It was placed there because of the horrors that occurred there and to offer a place of offering and a symbol of hope.

Leitenberg Concentration Camp Cemetery

Martina encouraged us to check out some of the other nearby sites associated with Dachau. After departing the Dachau camp parking lot, we followed the signs to the camp cemetery. Approximately six thousand prisoners are buried in mass graves dug by their fellow prisoners.

The cemetery grounds are at the top of a hill. We were breathing heavy when we reached the top of the stairs.  

The grounds were so calm and serene, away from the horrors of the camp.

Final Reflection

Visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site was a profoundly moving and sobering experience. Walking through the grounds, reading the stories of those imprisoned there, and standing in places where so much suffering occurred leaves a lasting impression. It is impossible not to reflect on the depths of human cruelty, but also on the resilience, dignity, and courage of those who endured unimaginable hardship. A visit to Dachau is both heartbreaking and essential, serving as a powerful reminder of the importance of remembrance, tolerance, and the responsibility to confront hatred wherever it appears.

But before I go……

THE FIVE SENSES PLUS ONE

Saw – concentration camp and cemetery, exhibits, films, videos, photos, artifacts, buildings, and sites of remembrance.

Heard – silence in the museum, only the shuffling of feet, birds singing, loud bells ringing at the Catholic memorial

Touch – main gate at Dachau, stone walls, memorials, gates, doors

Smell – musty smell in some of the buildings, food cooking at the Indian restaurant, imagined the smell of remains being cremated, and bodies decomposing

Taste – good Indian food, lychee with ice cream, beer

Learned – about World War II, the camps and how widespread they were, the cruelty, the violence, the punishment, the lies, the ignorance

Until next week, happy travels!

Tom

PS: Click here for a link to the post about my book “Farm Boy.” Contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. Thanks to all have plunked down your hard earned dollars and read the book. TM