This is a quick pre-warning that the content of this post is slightly different to the normal. I have tried to keep my normal style of writing without being disrespectful or ignore the dark subject that this post will discuss. You may also notice a lack of images in this post. This is due to a conscious decision not to take photos, with the exception of the above featured image. This was in order to immerse ourselves and not be distracted. I hope I have done the subject justice and not only entertained you with my story but educated you too. Thank you for reading.
In 1939 WW2 officially began, disregarding prior conflicts that were already ongoing that we now consider under the umbrella of WW2, after the invasion of Poland on September 1st. By September 3rd, Britain and France were in a state of war with Germany and the rest is, as they say, history. By 1945, the war had engulfed 93 modern day countries and estimated casualties of between 70 and 85 million. 17 million of these died in what we now call the Holocaust in various camps across occupied Europe, the most famous being Auschwitz, another of these camps was in Dachau around 13 miles northwest of Munich. The Dachau camp was in operation the longest of all of these camps opening in March of 1933. Initally housing political prisoners, though later including artist, mentally and physically disabled, Romani, homosexuals, various other groups and of course Jews. Eventually, it became a death camp where thousands of prisoners died from disease, malnutrition, and overwork. Many of the prisoners were executed in the eventual ending of the war.
By the time the war had begun, the camp had already been open for over half of its lifespan.
We awoke on our first full day in Germany with the plan to visit Dachau, as one of the agreed visits during our stay. Though I have never studied history beyond school, I have always been interested in it, particularly war and military history. However, until this point in my life, I had only ever read about the Holocaust, I had never visited any of the camps and having the chance to, I felt the need to do so.
After a hearty breakfast we headed out on the S Bahn to Dachau. 40 to 50 minutes later we arrived and orientated ourselves to the bus stop. Happily, our regional train tickets doubled up as bus passes too, so we were able to hop on without issue after a lovely driver put up with my broken German. From the station to the entrance of the camp at the northeast of Dachau was a short 8-10 minute ride, and we arrived just before opening time so as to get ahead of the crowds.
Upon arrival, there is a visitor centre just to the left and a road up to the main entrance of the camp. We had earlier decided not to have a tour guide as we wanted to take our time and take it all in, so we wandered up the road to the main entrance. The short walk was adorned with a few information posts and maps of the site, which we read, and opposite the main gate was the remnants of the train station where the prisoners were brought in. We took a few moments to take in our surroundings and prepare for what we might see and read, then walked the same route of 200,000 prisoners over 12 years through the gate under the infamous ‘Arbeit macht frei’ lettering adorned in iron.
Subsequently, it has been housed in the museum
There is a replica where visitors enter
After entering, to our right sat a large barracks type building which houses the museum,to our left a long road up to various memorials and to our front a large open space with two replica huts and the remains of foundations for the other 30 or so. We immediately entered the museum and began our wonder round. The displays take the visitor from the beginning, the rise of the Nazi Party, into the war, the evolution of the camp from political prisoners to death camp, and into the post-war trials. It is easy to follow, though many of the information boards repeat some information, then add slightly more or different information at the end. Some of the boards dipict scenes or display images that can be quite upsetting to the viewer and come with warnings.
Without a doubt, the museum is informative. However, I must admit to feeling an information overload by the time we approached the trials at the end. As I mentioned before I had wanted to go and see first hand one of these camps so I was determined to take as much in as I could and by the end I felt I had done as much. I was very interested to learn after all the horrific things that happened in Dachau, which I had just read about, that the Dachau trials began before the famous Nuremburg trials. However, due to the publicity of the latter, the former faded from the public eye and the infomation boards seemed to imply that many of those resposible or involved in the running of the camp may not have been brought to justice in the end.
Leaving the museum, we gathered ourselves and headed into the replica housing huts, which were simply built and gave you a small sense of how cramped and horrific the conditions would have been. Each hut was designed to house 200 prisoners, though historians have sumised that many would have housed up to 2000 at some point, which was mindblowing considering its size. We then left and walked up the main track to the north of the camp and saw the memorial sites. The 5 buildings commemorated, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Carmelite, and Russian Orthodox.
The last place on the site that we visited was the crematorium, which, for obvious reasons, was the hardest part of the visit. In fact, I am not ashamed to say we needed to make a swift exit from the ‘Shower room’ as it had become a bit too much for both of us. Taking a moment outside of the building to think about all we had read, seen, and experienced, we decided to head back out of the gate that over 40,000 of the 200,000 prisoners never did.
Taking the bus back to the town, we wandered to a cafe and collected our thoughts. We resolved to head up to the old town to see the view from the castle and were lucky enough to see right across to Munich as the weather had been fantastic. At this point, we agreed to head back to Munich to decompress and have the rest of the day off.
I would recommend anyone reading if you have a chance to visit a site like Dachau you do without hesitation. Since being back home, friends and family have asked what it was like, ‘haunting’ doesn’t seem to do it justice.
195wanderer.com 