Dachau Concentration Camp

On the way home from Garmisch we got to make one last stop. Dachau Concentration Camp.
Arbeit Macht Frei means "Work makes you free." This phrase was on the gate as you entered Dachau.

Being able to see these Concentration Camps with my children has been so surreal and a very somber experience.  Hearing the stories of so many who lost their lives because of their political stance or down right hatred is so very sad and extremely eye-opening.  We learned a lot today from this horrifying time in history.  We took a personal guided tour of the Camp.  The tour lasted 2 hours.  After our tour we watched a 30 minute video of life at Dachau and how the camp was liberated on April 29, 1945. 

A little History...
Dachau Concentration camp was established in March 1933.  It was the first concentration camp; originally intended for political prisoners. There were very few Jewish prisoners at this time.   However, with the increasing persecutions of jews more than 10,000 Jews were moved to Dachau in 1938.  Dachau was a Men ONLY prison. No Women and no Children; they were sent to Berlin.  Among the Political prisoners and the Jews Dachau also held Jehovah's Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals and criminals.  Our tour guide told us there were a couple Americans imprisoned here as well.  He gave specific numbers of each group but I didn't write them down.  

Dachau was also the training center for ALL SS guards.  They would train the guards and them send them to different concentration camps all over.  This camp's organization and routine became the model for all Nazi concentration camps.  Today Police are still trained here. You can only see a portion of Dachau due to the current training. 

The inmates arrived by train and then had to walk 3K to Dachau camp.  They had to have their heads shaved and were given a rank.This was the Ideology system of ideas and ideals by the nazi's
This rank "Badge of Shame" it has specific meaning indicated by color and shape.  It was to be worn on their uniform as to tell everyone their status. Another way for the SS to break their spirit and take away their personality! Our tour guide said you gave up three things when you entered Dachau
1. Property
2. Rights
3. Dignity
The highest race was blond hair blue eyes. The lower race was Soviet people. 

There was one boy at the camp he was 11 years old.  I cannot imagine.  This little boy is Chandler's age.

The prisoners were then issued one blue and white stripped outfit.
They were not given coats or any winter gear nothing to protect them from the weather.  

They were given Wooden shoes, but no socks nothing to cushion the shoe or help keep their feet warm.
The Prisoners were forced to work 12 hours a day, working in sand piles.  There was no purpose to the work.  Just to exterminate them by working them to death.  They were only given 600 calories a day if they got to eat at all. 

This excruciating torture was used by the SS to punish prisoners or to extract confessions.

In 1944 the camp authorities installed four standing cells in each of three ordinary cells.  These standing cells had a floor area of 70x70cm (about 2 feet by 6 feet inch square), which prevented prisoners from sitting or lying down. Prisoners were imprisoned here for up to 72 hours at a stretch.  The torture in these cell was increased by the lack of light and air. After the liberation of the camp in 1945 the Americans Military authorities removed these additions. 

This was the isolation room for prisoners. 

Dachau had 7 guard towers.  When the American's came to liberate the camp we do not know how many SS guards were here.  A lot of them ran when the saw the Solders break in.  There was 50 SS men in this watch tour.  They were arrested and put on trial between 1945-1948 under Military Law. The SS from all of the other camps were brought back to Dachau.  Kind of fitting they were trained here and they were tried here. 

The Barrack room in 1933-1937
This room served as both the common room and where they slept.  Each prisoners had their own bed, and a place to sit.
The barracks were a place of humiliation and abuse. 

Sleeping quarters after 1938 (Reconstruction)
Because more and more prisoners were admitted the camp was beginning to break at the seams.  They built up 20 new barracks now referred to as blocks. Each new block was laid out for 52 prisoners. 

The camp became so crowded in 1940 more than ten thousand prisoners.
They crammed as many as possible on the wood planks.  You can imagine this place was running rampant with disease and illness. There was no medical treatment here for the prisoners. 

The SS had a very ridged cleanliness and hygiene regiment the prisoners had to meet.  If they didn't they would be punished.  However, the sanitary facilities were entirely insufficient for the growing number of prisoners. Especially in the mornings, they had only a few minutes to complete this ridged schedule and there just wasn't enough space or facility for several hundred prisoners to use the wash rooms and bathrooms. 

9 toilets for hundreds of prisoners. 

Here is a picture depicting the sleeping arrangements and malnutrition at Dachau.
Our tour guide told us after 6pm the SS left for the night.  At this time people got to serve and help each other; something they could never do if the SS was watching.  I'm sure this is how many of them survived. There is power in serving and helping someone else.
Our tour guide told a story of how some of the foreign prisoners couldn't speak German and all the SS communications/ rules were in German.  So at night some of the prisoners would help the foreigners learn some German words and the rules so they wouldn't be beaten again and again because they didn't understand the directions or rules given by the SS Guards.
What a powerful message and lesson to us all.  Serve and help those in NEED!  

The SS had a crematorium built in the summer of 1940 because the number of dead had risen dramatically.
The crematorium could only be accessed through the SS camp.  The prisoners working in the crematorium lived by the crematorium and were not allowed to talk to the people inside the prison. 

This crematorium had two ovens. 

In 1942/43 a second building with 4 ovens was built to help accommodate the number of bodies that needed to be cremated.
  It was also built with a gas chamber.  However, there is no evidence that it was ever used. 

Here are three ovens they had a fourth one to the right of these three. 

Here is the Gas Chamber.
This room was disguised as "showers" and equipped with fake shower spouts to mislead the victims and prevent them from refusing to enter the room.  During a period of 15 to 20 minutes up to 150 people could be suffocated to death through prussic acid poison gas.  Again there is no evidence that any mass killings were accomplished here. 

Just so you can get an idea of just how many people were here.
Dachau had 30 barracks to house 200 people per barracks
The camp planned on 6,000 prisoners.
On April 29, 1945 the US Liberated 32,000 prisoners. Not to include those that had died. Because there were so many unregistered prisoners we do not know the total number of victims who died in Dachau. 
However, the records show between 1933-1945 the number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau or the surrounding sub-camps to exceeds 188,000. 

Ron and Jeremy waiting for the tour to move to our next area.
Like Father like Son.

In 12 years the camp was open, only one man escaped Dachau. 

Clark, Inella, Ron, Bev, and Jeremy
We will NOT forget the tragedy that happened here in Germany.

This beautiful memorial was set up with all the different ranks "Badges of Shame" that represented the different groups imprisoned here, however not every group is shown in this memorial. 

Dachau Concentration Camp was running for 12 long years.  Here is a fascinating sculpture that represents all the Prisoners that died of starvation and disease in the camp.
If you look closely you will see the hand of the skeleton resembles the barbs on the barbed wire fence.  The sculpture is 48 feet wide and 19 feet tall.