Dachau

Having been to the Holocaust Museum in D.C., I thought I could handle a trip to a concentration with a numb, academic interest. For those of you who have not been to the Holocaust Museum, I strongly recommend going. It is a challenging place -- filled with people's shoes, their hair, their belongings, and their stories. But what really got me while touring the Museum were the shoes... So many shoes piled up all along the floor. Such an ordinary thing - a pair of shoes. I guess it says something about you -- where you have been, what you are doing, and where you are going. That last part is the hardest -- the shoes are not going anywhere anymore. Their role now is to remind us all about what genocide means. I was (and am) still struck by the memory of my visit to the museum and why I thought a visit to a concentration camp could be any different is beyond me. How I thought I could "handle it" -- particularly alone -- is a mystery. But, I am glad that I went and I hope not to return...

Two particular quotes seem to apply here, both from Elie Weisel (a great author).

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.

And so my journey to Dachau began... Having an experience transmitted and coming away anything but neutral. You first walk down the lane where the prisoners were brought. Now, it is a graveled walkway lined with trees and peaceful as a park. I can only imagine what people were thinking as they walked through here.



You then come to the gatehouse (not the original -- it has been reconstructed). Here is where three things were stripped of the prisoners: their pride, their possessions, and their identity. Hearing about these stories and seeing movies like Schindler's List should have prepared me but did not. It was surreal to be standing on the same earth that thousands of people stood and became less than human in the eyes of their captors.



Dachau was the first concentration camp -- it was used for training of the SS soldiers and was the model for all of the rest of the camps that were built. Dachau is also a town -- it was formerly an artist's colony, a cute little village away from the big-city life of Munich. The residents of Dachau were initially supportive of the camp being built there because the town was suffering from no jobs (as was the rest of Germany) and desired to have something to do -- even if it meant working at and building a prison for "political prisoners." People of the town denied knowing anything about what was going on at Dachau... Although it was not a "death" camp, plenty of people died there -- thousands and thousands. Their bodies were burnt in the crematorium. There are some Jewish prisoners from the camp who currently live in Dachau and used to give tours daily of the camp. A truly unsettling place....


The above picture is of the plaque, commemorating the liberators who came to the camp April 28. The soldiers tried to give all of these starving people food -- which resulted in the deaths of some because their bodies could not hold the food. Even after the camp was liberated, people had to remain at the camp because there was such a large typhus epidemic. The camp and inhabitants were quarantined for three months.

The next picture is the infamous "work will set you free."










On the left is the large gathering square where people had to stand for role call. Requirements were: to look downward at a 45 degree angle, hands at side (not in pockets), feet parallel to one another... At one point during the winter, people stood here for 17 hours straight. People died all around them. This place is like a cemetery.

I asked my guide if she ever had people come on the tour that did not believe the Holocaust had happened... She had not had that happen, but other guides have had Neo-Nazis come along. It would be hard to still believe that the Holocaust did not happen when faced with all of this evidence. Still, she said that people are not fazed.

This is the border for one of the barracks which stretched to the tree line in the distance. It was built to hold 200 people. At one point, it had 2000 people "living" in it. The second picture is of the "beds" in one of the reconstructed barracks.




















The next picture is a reconstruction of the ditch, barbed wire fence, and electrified fence. Called "going to the wire," people who could not handle the camp anymore would make an effort to run across the grass climb out of the ditch (difficult when in good health -- imagine what these people's condition was) and then throw themselves on the barbed wire in hopes of being electrocuted or shot by the guards.













The hard part about this tour was that most of this was not a reconstruction but the actual building and place. People really died here. And there was a such a contrast to the light -- it was sunny, people were walking around freely, kids were on school tours giggling and talking about whatever was on their minds... The challenge was to remain focused on the enormity of what had happened here (death) and to allow visions of what was going on now (life).

Outside the gates was the Crematorium. People are not allowed to smoke there. I don't know why that was so striking -- no smoking allowed. I understand the power of the imagery of fire and burning, but smoking also seemed to be commonplace everywhere else. It was almost as if the burning of bodies and smoking a cigarette were equivalent, but they don't seem the same to me. Maybe it was the unsettled atmosphere that made the rule so striking...

The picture is of the old crematorium -- there was a new one built (but I did not take a picture of it) because the old one could not burn bodies quickly enough. My guide said that "crematorium" was almost too nice of a term -- she thought incinerator was more appropriate. Crematoriums are where individual people who have died have their wishes fulfilled and are returned to ashes... Their ashes are gathered in a single container and handled respectfully. Here, it was anything but. No handling of individuals, no respect... Just efficient ridding of people. Prisoners worked in the crematorium and thought it a good job -- they could stay warm.

Next to the Crematorium were the gas chambers. The jury is out on whether or not these were used. There are not records of people dying here. But, there were experiments done to find out how much gas was needed. The pellets of the gas -- Cyclon B -- were dropped in through the window (far right picture). Cyclon B was developed by a German Jew to take care of rats; the scientist later killed himself as he could not stand what had happened to his discovery. At Dachau, over 30,000 people died (registered). It is estimated that the number is far higher -- thousands of Russians were killed in firing squads, groups of people who were killed were not counted in various years, etc. The number of people who died here is likely closer to 60,000... Enormous - but, compare it to Auschwitz, which had four working gas chambers which held 2,500 people. Death by Cyclon B took 15 minutes. When working at full capacity, Auschwitz was responsible for far more deaths.























The final picture is of a statue by the crematorium and gas chambers. It is in a shaded alcove, surrounded by trees. Look closely -- it is of a prisoner, hands in pockets, eyes looking straight ahead, and feet planted in a strong posture. Defiance is the name of the statue.