Dachau

Aside from Auschwitz, Dachau is probably the next most synonymous place for the Holocaust. It was a concentration camp for the Nazis during the period leading up to and during the Second World War. It was the only camp that had a continuous existence from the time Hitler first took power through the end of the Nazi regime. And it is located right outside Munich, about 15 or 20 kilometers away, and a 30 minute suburban train and bus ride.

The Berlin Wall was interesting and another part of the whole recent story of Germany is the concentration camp system and the persecution of the Jews and other religious groups, among others. During my travels, I have visited lots of Second World War historical sites, and now it was time for ground zero, as it were.

The Dachau concentration camp site is open as a memorial to what happened, so that people can go and learn, and hopefully never let something like it happen again. (Although that has already failed, I would say. Cambodia had a brutal time of the extermination of people as well, and the world still chose to ignore it for a long time. Perhaps well will never truly learn.) It is a free site. All visitors are welcome to come and learn without having to pay an entrance fee. There are lots of information boards and things to see. But if one wants to learn about it all in a more structured way, there are two kinds of tour available. One is an audio tour. The other is a guided tour with an interpretive guide. This is available in many languages. And showing that they really believe that it's important for people to come and learn and understand, the cost of the guided tour is 3 Euros, or about 4 or 5 dollars. The audio guide is a bit more at 3.50 Euros. There are, of course, donation boxes all around for those who wish to make sure the work can continue.

Normally, I don't see much benefit in paying for a guided tour, usually because it's so blinking expensive, but this was different. And it was cheap enough to be within reach. So I made sure to arrive early enough to be able to take the guided tour at 11:00. (The other tour is at 1:00.) Because I was unsure how long it would take to get to the site, I left quite early and arrived at just after 10. This left me with quite a bit of time to just wander around for a bit to see things nearby. I didn't actually do much of that though, as it was chilly. And I have no real shoes. (I gave up wanting to cart them around sometime in Thailand, I think, and left them someplace along the way.) So I only have a pair of sandals and a few pairs of socks to keep my tootsies warm. With the tour being a lot of outside, I didn't want to make myself too cold to be able to pay proper attention, even though I suppose it would have given me a better understanding of the true conditions in the camp for those interned there.

So I stayed mostly in the information center and checked out the books in their shop, and waited. It looked for a long time as though I was going to be the only one on the tour. There were groups coming in, but they mostly had their own guides to take them through the site. Others were coming in singly and in small groups, but they were taking the audio guides and heading out.

Finally, a few people came in and signed up for the guided tour. I was glad for that. Shortly, our guide came and gathered us up. Suddenly there were about 15 people. Cool. Our guide's name was Claudia. She was of Italian-German roots, but had married a French Canadian. She was a rather international sort, and she told us that probably made it a bit easier for her to be a guide there. Many pure Germans still have difficulty with the whole notion that that evil came out of their midst. It doesn't really matter that they had nothing personally to do with it, they still feel embarrassed and ashamed and don't like to talk about that time. With Claudia's roots, she had an easier time of it, she said.

She took us to the entrance of the camp. She stopped us there to give us a brief overview of the site. It had originally been a munitions factory. It had supplied of the weapons for the First World War. When Germany lost that war, the stipulations of the Paris Accord severely limited the production of munitions in Germany. The Dachau factory was closed. There had been somewhere around 8000 workers there who suddenly unemployed. The Dachau region was devastated by that closing. Inflation soared. Things were pretty brutal for the Germans.

The world economic crisis of 1929 hurt even more. It was in this climate that a young Hitler came to the public's attention. He was seen as easily manipulated by the political elite and so he was promoted. On January 30, 1933, he was promoted to Chancellor of Germany. He was the man in charge. Thus began some quick moves to take control, limit the power of those who were from other parties, and to take and hide away those who would speak against Hitler, his policies and his government.

He was aided by two things. First, he was a master of public relations and saying what people wanted to hear. Second, in February of 1933 there was a fire that somehow involved the Reichstag in Berlin. Hitler used that fire to promote the idea of a threat to the government and public safety. He was able to suspend the rule of law and even the ability of other parties to exist and function. His moves following the Reichstag fire allowed him to basically establish a dictatorship, where he was the sole authority, and his party was the only valid one.

Now he needed a place to be able to imprison dangerous law breakers and subversive elements, in order that they couldn't wreak havoc on the public. Of course, this was just the propaganda that was used to legitimize the removal of elements that would oppose Hitler's government.

Using that line, the prison at Dachau was brought online. Heinrich Himmler, one of Hitler's underlings, had come from the Dachau area and so he knew of the closing of the munitions plant. The buildings were still there, it was out of the public's eye, and there was a train line that went right up to the site. It could be easily converted to a detention facility. It was perfect for the purposes of Hitler and his government. With a bit of work, Dachau came online as a detention facility. Next to the prison camp, there was another large area that served as an SS headquarters and training camp. Thousands of prisoners were placed in the Dachau concentration camp, and thousands of young SS officers in training were placed in the training facility next to the camp.

Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp and served as the model for all other concentration camps, of which there were thousands, throughout Germany and Europe.

However, Hitler still had a somewhat tenuous grasp on power for the time being. People had bought his story and had given him the power to make these sweeping changes, but should he be seen to be too brutal and not serving the interests of the public who had elected him, he could easily lose that power and be removed. So he had to be careful about how the Dachau camp was portrayed to the public. There was a lot of propaganda involved in how the camp was presented. And it began at the door.

The camp was ostensibly a labour camp, with the rehabilitation of its inmates as its goal. That was the message that was always being presented. It was certainly presented to the incoming prisoners, to keep them passive until they were under control. But it was also for the media and the watching public. It began at the gates, where the entrance gate had the slogan, “Work will set you free,” in German.

Inside the gates, the prisoners were taken to the processing area. They were brought inside and their particulars were noted in files. Photos were taken. Then they were taken to the next stage, the issuance of prison garb. The new prisoners were taken to a room where they had to disrobe. Then they were showered and the clothes they would be wearing as prisoners were given to them. Nowadays, this would mean some kind of fitting to make sure they were appropriate, but the Nazis were not concerned with making sure prisoners were actually comfortable. And as time went on, it was clear they were interested in exactly the opposite. Claudia read us an excerpt from the hidden diary of one of the inmates. He had been the last of his particular group of incoming prisoners to get finished with the shower process and claim his prison duds. As a result, he did not get anything that fit. All his clothes save on shoe, from his description, seemed to be too small. But that was what he got.

Once the inmates were processed and taken into the system, daily life began as a prisoner. And just who were these prisoners? There were, according to those who had studied the progression of the Hitler years in Germany, three distinct phases of the concentration camps in general, and of Dachau in particular. Each phase had its own characteristics in terms of prisoners and of life expectancy of the inmates. The first phase, at the beginning of Dachau's existence, was as a prison mainly for political opponents and those who spoke against the government. There were Jews and those who later come to be horribly persecuted by the Nazis, but for this first phase, from 1933 to 1938, the majority were political prisoners, and mainly Germans and Austrians. Dachau was also the propaganda concentration/work camp. As such, appearances needed to be kept up to a certain extent. Thus, for these years, the prisoners were better treated than what comes to mind when thinking of the true concentration camps of the Nazis.

There were clothes for each prisoner. In the barracks where the prisoners slept, there was separate bed for each inmate. They had food every day and showers that had hot water. Heat was available in the camp. And all of this was available for show to the visiting public and media who had heard awful stories about the punishments meted out to the opponents of the regime. And initially, the opponents who saw what was presented at Dachau were convinced and retracted their criticisms.

But the inmates were ordinary Germans who had often done nothing wrong, in the eyes of those of us who have grown up free and with the freedom to express ourselves without fear. Of course, such freedom of expression was the exact thing that Hitler couldn't allow, as dissidents could sway the opinions of the public against him and end his power. So these people were the ones who were imprisoned. Priests who preached against the Nazis were brought to Dachau. After one assassination attempt on Hitler failed, one priest had had the temerity to suggest that had the assassin succeeded, the suffering of thousands would have been ended or prevented. He was reported by someone who believed in Hitler, and he was incarcerated. Businessmen who didn't fully support the government with contributions were incarcerated. Anyone who spoke against the regime was imprisoned. Slowly, opposition was stamped out and all that was left were those who followed, blindly or not.

Behind the propagandist facade, the reality was somewhat different. The rules in the camp were very strict and absolute. Abrogating any of the rules meant often brutal punishment, being beaten, or hung by the wrists with one's hands behind the back for an hour or more. And for particularly strong offenders, they could be removed from the general population to the special barracks behind the intake center.

In the special barracks, there were sensory deprivation cells, dark cells, and standing cells. A prisoner might find himself in a dark cell for days on end with no light and no way to tell what time it was. A particularly intractable prisoner might find himself standing in a small walled area not large enough to sit or lay down in. They would be left there for three or more days. The clergy who offended the regime were all placed in this special barracks. They were in special cells in the special population and were even specially treated. They had the ability even to worship according to their faith. On the surface it seemed to be very humane. However, given that other prisoners were mistreated, this only served to make others hate them. Should Hitler have prevailed, he would have had people on his side hating all those who served organized religion.

The “regular” prisoners all lived in the general quarter barracks. These were where they had their own bunks, separate from others. In the beginning, there were blankets for each. They even had shelves for sundry possessions they might have been allowed to keep.

The regular prisoners occupied the 34 barracks buildings that were built off the muster yard. They were built over time as the camp expanded to accommodate the ever-increasing number of prisoners that were being sent to Dachau. (The barracks were taken down in the time after the war, and only the plots where they were located remain today.)

But things were still not as serene as the propaganda was suggesting. The slightest deviation from the rules would leave prisoners punished. And even in the regular day to day routine, there was cruelty. Three times a day, the prisoners of the camp had to meet in the muster area to be counted. They were in the yard for an hour each time, once in the morning, one time at noon, and a final time in the evening. Rain or shine, summer, winter, every day, they met. And they had to stand at attention for that hour. They had no more clothes and over time the clothes they did have became worn and threadbare. It was particularly harsh during the winter roll calls.

In addition, as it was a labour camp, the prisoners had to work. Much of the time, the work was meaningless. For instance, there was a gravel quarry associated with the camp. There were times when gravel was needed, so it was collected and sent out of the camp by the prisoners. However, a lot of the time they simply shovelled gravel from a pile on one side to a pile on the other side. Then they shovelled it back. Many tasks in the camp were like that.

And because Dachau concentration camp was located next to the SS training facility, there were other hazards to the existence of the prisoners as well. The young SS officers were trained to hate and to kill. They were trained to brutalize. And they needed to practice. The prisoners in Dachau were ideal for that purpose. Savage beatings were given. Other punishments were meted out by the SS trainees in order to prove their training.

Over time, the conditions in the camp, the malnutrition, the cold, the encroachment of disease, and the mistreatment took their toll. Many prisoners died. Of the 200 thousand plus prisoners who had come to the camp, more than 43 thousand died. They had to be disposed of.

At the end of the camp, actually on the grounds of the SS training facility, a small crematorium was located. This was added to later (as the number of dead outstripped the capacity of the small crematorium), with a much larger crematorium facility that included an extermination facility as well. The dead were brought and cremated and their ashes were buried nearby. In actuality, for reasons that nobody actually knows, the extermination facility was never used for more than some trials. It never became used as a functioning entity connected with Dachau. When the time came that the Nazis were incarcerating more Jews and other religious prisoners in Dachau, and they were beginning their “Final Solution” the inmates were shipped off to other facilities for extermination.

Claudia brought us there and explained the functioning of the facility and then let us walk through without any further questions inside, out of deference to the sombre air about the crematorium.

There were two other phases to the functioning of the Dachau facility that I mentioned but didn't explain. The first was the time before the war, when Hitler was eliminating opposition and consolidating his power and position.

The second phase was with the beginning of the aggression of Germany and into the first stages of the war. This was when Hitler began his campaign of persecution against the Jews. As a result, the number of political prisoners, which had been the majority, fell and more Jews and others were incarcerated. This marked a change in how the prisoners were treated. It also began the time when survival rates became worse for prisoners. Hitler wanted to eradicate the Jews. They began to be killed. In addition, their living conditions worsened. The barracks went from single beds with dividers, to common cots. Overcrowding began to be the norm. The punishments were meted out more regularly and with more ferocity. More inmates died. Hitler wanted Russia and viewed the Russians as sub-humans. Prisoners captured in Russia often weren't even logged in as prisoners. They were taken out and shot or killed in other ways.

This was the situation for the first part of the war, until 1943 or so. But then the tide began to turn. The Allies began to beat back the German advance. And in the last stages of the war, two things were at work. One was that Hitler and Himmler didn't want any prisoners to survive to be liberated by the Allies. In addition, they began to realize that just taking the Jews out and exterminating them wasn't the best strategy any longer. They needed able-bodied workers to get jobs done. So they made the inmates work. And they literally worked them to death. When one dropped dead from exhaustion and malnutrition, he or she was replaced by a new prisoner.

Prisoners were transported from the outer regions of German controlled territories to the inner and most protected spots, of which Dachau was one. The overcrowding became severe, adding to the conditions that beat down the prisoners and eventually killed them. Thousands died in the last stages of the war before the Americans came and liberated the camp in April of 1945. And they still died after that while waiting to go home or at least to somewhere else. Malnutrition and mistreatment had piled up and there were those who couldn't hold on just a little bit longer.

But, the Allies did arrive. And they did liberate the camp. Many of the SS were rounded up and imprisoned themselves, although most never faced any punishment. The camp for a time was turned into a refugee camp, but the survivors of the concentration camp resisted that. They wanted a memorial. And many of the Germans wanted the camp eradicated from existence, to put that chapter of their history into the past and hidden. Many of the buildings of the camp were razed over time and only the presence of the American army, who had occupied some of the buildings to house its operations saved any buildings at all.

After the liberation of the camp, sometimes years later, different faiths set up memorials and churches to help people deal with what happened there as well as providing a new way to look at the area.  Instead of a place of death that many sought to hide and destroy, the churches and memorials acted to change it into a place to remember, a place to show so that something like that could not happen again.  These places are located at the end of the camp, right near the crematoriums.  They are fitting places for renewal.

After the years of terror and horror, now the camp is clean and somewhat sterile. There is a lot of information about what happened there, and some of the buildings remain. But the horror is gone. It is a nice memorial to the victims of the site, but I don't know if it can really serve to connect the visitor to what happened.

I have visited the sites of horror in Cambodia. They have it on display. In Phnom Penh, and other places where people were killed, they have dug up bones and have them displayed, even though it must pain some who were there and lived through it. I think they do it so that nobody will ever forget, so that nobody will ever be able to say, “Nope, didn't happen.”

In Dachau, I knew it had happened there, but the evidence was gone for the most part. There were photos around, but it would be possible to wonder if it had really happened there. It's a bit too clean. And that's a shame. Because if we ever forget that it did happen once, there, we might hide our heads in the sand in the future and it could happen again.