Dachau, Germany

We went to the Dachau Concentration camp today. Dachau is only about an hour outside of Munich and was the first concentration camp that Hitler had built. It also was the only camp that was active for all 12 years (1933-1945). It was difficult to walk thru the site, read the stories and picture the horror that took place there.

The camp began as a prison for political prisoners/enemies of Hitler only, but then grew to one of the largest concentration camps of WW2 housing Jews from multiple countries. It was built to house 2700 - but at its peak, there were 64,000 prisoners there at one time.

The main exhibition hall has been put in the old buildings - and it is walls and walls of stories and of the history of this place. It was overwhelming reading them. We spent a couple hours there, but to read them all would have taken all day.

We were allowed to walk thru one of the barracks they lived in. Most had been demolished, but two were still intact. Each barrack had almost 1000 people squished in trying to survive.

Seeing where they prepared the bodies for execution was almost too much. We walked thru the actual gas chamber they used (disguised as “showers”) and then saw the crematoriums. They said in the end they didn’t “waste time” gassing anyone, they would simply hang them on the wooden beam in front of the crematorium chambers until dead, and then burn them.

Eventually, they quit burning the bodies and just piled them outside the fences. When the Allies arrived in 1945 to liberate the camp, they first came upon the thousands of dead bodies in stacks, before they could ever get to the gates.

I had read that if you ever get a chance to see a concentration camp first hand, you should do it. I definitely agree. It was very moving and emotional. To walk where they walked, to stand where they stood, to see where they died … something I’ll never forget. Something no one should ever forget.Read more