A Chilling Memory

Religion, art and population demographics are a great representation of Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. By far one of the most moving experiences I’ve had was walking into Dachau. After almost missing the group tour, the second time in one trip, we arrived to a smaller city situated about twenty minutes (by train) Northwest of Munich’s city center. We took Sandemen’s New Europe: Munich tour to Dachau. This tour helped us to learn the history of World War II and the start of Dachau Concentration Camp. Dachau opened in 1933 and was the first concentration camp for the start of the war and Holocaust it was then liberated in 1945.

The tour started with a short stroll down a gravel path covered with trees and old buildings not pertinent to the actual concentration camp. Our guide gave us some brief history of Germany’s influence in WWI and WWII and Dachau’s rise. The words Arbett Macht Frei (Work will set you free) on the black criss-crossed gate are the first things you see and are symbolic of what many concentration camps have. Upon entering, there is very large gravel space where there used to be role call. To the left are the barracks, religious memorials, and crematorium. To the right is the manager building which is now a museum and the art memorials. The religious memorials were really moving since there was a Catholic, Jewish, Protestant and Russian- Orthodox place of worship. These memorials were really interesting and humbling to see some religious influences in a place where such horrible acts were. They seemed to show a great deal of significance to a few people worshiping near them. The art memorials were really creative and most depicted hurt and a strong displacement for human rights and human life.

World War II and Dachau had a significant influence on population demographics in the 1930s and 1940s. In those decades, many Jews were displaced and killed which left a great decrease in the Jewish population in Germany. I found it very positive that now in Munich there are more Jews living there then there were before the Holocaust and war. This shows an intense population change. Even released prisoners were annexed from Germany which caused a massive defluxion in the German population those years. http://www.historiography-project.com/misc/graf_jewishlosses.html

Surrounding this taunting 1.5 sqaure kilometer memorial is an electrical fence with barbed wire and what used to be a six foot moat. This was in the green space, which meant if a guard saw you in this area, you were likely to be harshly punished or killed. About every hundred meters are large guard towers. It just felt really weird and humbling to be in the spot where thousands have died and where everyday tedious work went on. I couldn't even imagine being there in the winter.

Within the twelve years of existence, Dachau has gone through three different stages of prisoners. The camp can only hold about six thousand people but at some points, the camp was holding up to twenty thousand people. It was amazing to walk through the two remaining (rebuilt) barracks and see the three different stages and how the prisoners were so cramped and physically and mentally hurt and terrorized. I kept trying to place myself in their position as we walked through and were hearing about the painful, cruel and mentally taunting tasks that the men, women and children would have to do. It was amazing to hear that even physicians abused their medical powers by performing medical experiments on some of the prisoners, which killed many. There are the original foundations still left from the other barracks, they were torn down from American army after being liberated in 1945. The hardest part of the experience was the crematorium. We walked slowly, but fast at the same time trying to not realize that people actually were killed this way and that bodies were disposed this way. I couldn't actually believe that I was standing in the gas chamber. To this day, it still hasn't hit me that I was there.

You definitely cannot miss this on a trip to Munich; Dachau brings the history of Munich and the role of the Third Reich into perspective. One of the reasons I felt so humbled and gracious to experience this place was because of our great tour guide. She was really knowledgeable about Germany and the war and gave us a great tour of the politics of Dachau. My experience in Munich and Dachau helped to stabilize the fact that not all Germans are bad; in fact, Germans and Polish people were the top two groups represented in Dachau. This site has a lot more information on Dachau: http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/index-e.html.