Dachau Concentration Camp

Walk of Shame & a gory glimpse into the past…. I was in Munich when my friend asked me whether I would be interested in visiting the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany. While on a vacation one generally tends to visit places and do things that are pleasant; but here I was looking at visiting an important chapter from the history which I had read back in school. Reading about something is alright by me, but I also think that seeing is believing! We had already visited the Anne Frank’s house at Amsterdam (I will post about it in the days to come)  and had seen how a Jewish family had lived under the very nose by the Nazis. So I decided to visit the Dachau Concentration camp the very next day. Pronounced as “da-ka-uu”, this concentration camp was opened up in the year 1933 on the grounds of an abandoned Armaments factory near the medieval town of Dachau. Dachau is located about 16 kms northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria. It roughly took us an hour to reach Dachau by rail. (For families or couples visiting, check for the group tickets available at the ticket vending machine for cheaper travel!!)

As you step out of the Dachau railway station you will find a huge board with pictorial depiction and information about the route that was taken to transport the prisoners from the station to the concentration camp.  (A walk, which I would term as the “Walk of Shame” for all humanity) Though there is regular bus service from the station to the camp, I decided to walk the same route as the prisoners did! One thing that surprised me though was that the route is not very discreet throughout so in no way is it possible that people in Dachau weren’t aware of the ghastly activities of the Nazis, as they claimed to!!

The walk route is demarcated quite clearly by the 11 boards that stand on this Path of Remembrance. Each board depicts the route, some pictures about the place & snippets of information. I found that on that day I was the only one making that walk, with majority of the other visitors opting for the bus ride from the station to the camp. (For all those who are traveling by train, there is no need to take a separate ticket as the bus ride to & fro is also included in your train ticket!!)

The entry to the concentration camp is free; however it advisable to hire an audio guide which takes you through the whole camp systematically with related information. The audio guides can be hired at a charge from the office located before you reach the main gate. Opposite to the office is the first watch tower from where the SS men used to keep an eye on the prisoners and here is where your Dachau Concentration camp tour begins.

Just opposite to the main entrance, you will find the administrative offices of the then SS leaders currently occupied by the Bavarian army officials. Also you will see the remains of the railway tracks that lead from the station to the camp, except for the fact that it is no longer in use and there are thick layers of mud covering it as if trying to erase the traces of its horrid past.

The main gate bears the legend “Arbeit Macht Frei” meaning “Labour Brings Liberty”. However, the reality inside was something totally different. For, once the prisoner’s crossed this gate – life literally ended for them. The SS men subjected all the prisoners to brutal and horrific treatment – strenuous everyday drills, unreasonable beatings, physical torture, subjects of medical testing,…etc. the prisoners went through it all. It is said that the prisoners in Dachau were even forced to stand without moving for endless hours as a punishment. Being the first of its kind, Dachau actually served as a prototype for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. To organize the Dachau concentration camp the SS leader Heinrich Himmler hired a fanatic named Theodor Eicke also nicknamed as the ‘Father of the Concentration Camp System.’  Eicke categorically instructed all the SS guards to set aside all sentiments and sympathy for the prisoners and treat them with hatred. It was under Eicke, Rudolf Höss was trained, who then went on be the commandant of the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Once inside the camp the prisoners’ head were shaven off and a striped uniform given with different color stars as a distinguishing factor. The Jews were forced to wear yellow stars, the gay & homosexual suspects wore pink triangle (inverted), Red triangle (inverted) meant a political prisoner, Green triangle (inverted) was for habitual criminals. There were many, many such colour combinations & stars & triangles. The prisoners weren’t allowed to loiter around or make speeches to fellow inmates. Any rebellious behavior was awarded with brutal punishment like whiplashes, confinement to a stand up prison, solitary confinements,…etc. Sometimes the prisoners were shot dead and the explanation merely said ‘shot while attempting to escape.’

In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau of whom two-thirds were political prisoners and nearly one-third were Jews. 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp and almost another 10,000 plus in its sub camps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. In early 1945, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the weaker prisoners died. One point that I observed was that this being the first of the “Concentration Camp”  in Hitler’s reign all kinds of experimentation & rules where tried out here on the prisoners. All deviant practices were first tried here & improved upon before being implemented in all the other camps spread across Europe concurred by Hitler’s army.

Unlike Auschwitz, not much of the original stuff is retained at the Dachau concentration camp. As you enter the main gate, you find yourself walking into acres of land where the prisoners queued up everyday before their daily chores began. On the left hand side are the remains of 32 barracks (just the foundation outlines remain now) which were initially built to hold upto 5,000 people but when the number of prisoners ran into many thousands, the prisoners were stuffed into these barracks. These barracks soon became most unhygienic and inhumane. Opposite to the barracks is a building with its roof painted with the slogan: “There is one way to freedom. Its milestones are: obedience, zeal, honesty, order, cleanliness, temperance, truth, sense of sacrifice and love for the Fatherland.” This building is now a museum with telltale pictures, memorabilia and description about Hitler, his men and the prisoners. ( And every single picture of Hitler has been defaced!!)

A memorial site has been built with ‘Never Again’ written over it in five different languages by Dr. Johannes Neuhäusler, Auxiliary Bishop of Munich and former Dachau inmate, June 17, 1960. There is yet another museum which also houses an auditorium that shows a movie about the Nazis and their anti social activities. I also had a dekho here at the hooks on which the prisoners were hanged for hours at length and other means of sadistic punishments the prisoners had to undergo.

Towards the south west of the camp (if the main entrance is south) is situated the infamous gas chamber of Dachau concentration camp called the Baracke X. Here you will find the most gruesome symbols of inhumanity. The gas chamber was used to kill a single or group of individuals and not for mass murders. At least that is what the literature available tells us!! Even to put the prisoners into this horrifying chamber the Nazis had a very convincing story. They used to tell all those who were to be killed – that they were not very clean and so all of them are going to be given a special bath.

The first room is where the prisoners were asked to remove their clothes before they entered the shower room which was in reality the gas chamber. Showers were fitted overhead to fool the prisoners with none of them being connected to water pipes!! Two bins on the outside wall were used to pour in Zyklon-B poison gas pellets into the gas chamber. Once the prisoners were inside the shower room, the doors were sealed and the gas was poured in from the sides. After the prescribed time limit was over, the chamber was opened and the bodies dragged into the cremation oven placed in the next room. All the dead bodies were burnt here.

At the other end of the camp boundary is a Jewish memorial, a Protestant memorial called the Church of Reconciliation and a Catholic Church of Mortal Agony of Christ. There is also a Russian Orthodox chapel on the way to the crematorium. All these constitute the memorial sites present at the Dachau concentration camp today.

The 12 years of ordeal of the remaining prisoners (over 30,000) at the Dachau concentration camp came to an in the year 1945 when the US army troops came to their rescue. This was just a week before the end of World War II in Europe. By the end of the tour you are filled with remorse and you nearly wish something could have been done to save those innocents who were brutally murdered without a second thought. This visit opened my eyes to an aspect of human behavior which I never thought was possible.  The very fact that the entire town of Dachau knew of this camp & no one ever objected to the goings on is something not easy to digest for someone like me. Hope we never repeat any of these mistakes which humanity has suffered once.