Never forget!

We joined an Edelweiss-sponsored tour for military guests to Dachau yesterday. Dachau was originally a munitions factory during WWI and was converted to the first concentration camp in Germany during WWII, opening in 1933. 

Dachau was used as a "model" for all the other concentration camps--about 1200 of them. In addition there were "satellite camps" throughout all of the Nazi-occupied countries, perhaps as many as 15,000, with varying degrees of security and/or torture. Over 200,000 were imprisoned at Dachau; of those 41,500 were murdered.

Keith, the tour guide (left, center), has been to Dachau many times and in addition to being very knowledgable himself, also knew a former prisoner, Martin (now deceased; a very young man as a prisoner). So Keith was able to tell some "inside" stories as well.

Prior to his death Martin had been coming back to Dachau almost every day to talk to anyone who would listen about what happened there.

We could still see the train tracks where prisoners were brought in by rail cars with the doors nailed shut; most were dead by the time the crowded cars were opened.

Prisoners strong enough to walk through the town of Dachau entered the camp through the main gate (left) with the words, Arbeit machts frei (literally "work makes free" or "work liberates").

As Keith wryly commented, the only "freedom" available for the prisoners here was in the ashes ascending from the crematorium. 

One of the seven guard towers can be seen from the inside of the main gate. I tried to imagine how I would feel if I knew a sniper was up there and I had no place to hide. . .  

On one of the walls an artist had graphically depicted bodies tangled in barbed wire.

"The Bunker" was an area devoted to "special" prisoners--such as clergy who were identified for more severe torture.

Three of these rooms were devoted to 9 "standing cells," a 30-square inch box in which a prisoner stood for 72 hours without air and received only bread and water. On the forth night he was let out for one-night's sleep, then returned to the box (like a standing coffin) again.

Close to this guard tower was the "execution wall" where prisoners were shot. (We saw so many bullet holes, now filled).


After the victims fell fell, their blood was drained into a "blood ditch" so there would be no blood dripping from the trucks that carried the bodies to the crematorium.

The entrance to the "showers" had hooks for clothes and inside the "showers" were other deceptions: shower heads, vents for steam, and drains for water.

Poisonous gas flowed from each of those places, killing about 150 people within 15-20 minutes.

Surprisingly, there were flushable latrines at Dachau. Privacy, anyone?






"Bathing" took place at a large, communal sink. Clothes were worn for 6 months without a change.

Of course, electrified barbed wire surrounded the camp. An additional barrier was a ditch of water beside the fence. Should a prisonor make it as far as the water, he/she would probably not have the strength to crawl up the opposite side. If he did, being wet would eliminate any possibility of avoiding electocution. 

Many prisonors actully chose that "exit" to escape the "fate worse than death" inside the camp.

Each of the 30 barracks was designed to hold 200 prisoners but just prior to its liberation, Dachau housed over 2,000 in each of the barracks.







These mass "bunks" are where the prisoners slept--if they could under such crowded conditions.

Our response to the horror we observed in the photos, narratives, physical structures and the echoes of a not-too-distant past was similar to that of watching Schindler's List or visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Even though we are very aware of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in WWII, our memories of the details fade with time. For this reason, the Dachau Committee (comprised of descendants of prisoners) and many others fight to keep these memorials from disappearing. Their clarion call is "Never forget!" and "Never again!" 

Now that we have been reminded of the evil horrors once again, may we "Never forget."