Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

 Es is Frühling in Regensburg! (It's spring in Regensburg!)

When I found out how close the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial was to Regensburg, I had to go. It's not the kind of excursion that anyone could say they 'enjoyed', but it was a meaningful time, and I'm glad I went. I took the day off from the language course, and navigated a train, a Straßenbahn (a conveyance that's somewhere between a train and a bus--it runs on rails, but stops frequently like a bus), and a city bus. After nearly 2 hours I arrived. I also feel I've overcome some of my navigational 'disability', at least in Germany. I'm a public transportation pro now! I joined an English-language tour that lasted 2 1/2 hours, and only cost 4 Euros. Entrance into the Memorial itself is free.

 The building here is where the SS did and kept their paperwork, and they did a meticulous job. Fortunately for posterity, they didn't get a chance to burn all the records as they did at all the other concentration camps. The American army stumbled upon Dachau, and the SS wasn't aware they were there until it was too late. Prisoners at Dachau are thus traceable, and their families can know what barracks building they were in, and if and when they died, and other important facts. The gate says, "Arbeit macht frei", which means "Work will set you free", which was just one of the head games the SS played with the prisoners. Some might think if they worked hard, they'd be set free. Instead, they were deliberately and literally worked to death. 

In this building the prisoners were stripped of all their possessions, as well as their clothes, and shorn of all their hair. They were sprayed with disinfectant, and then given a shower. Supposedly they could come back for showers every Sunday, but word got out that people were tortured in this building, and no one wanted to go there. That, of course, caused a lot of health problems, in addition to everything else. I was glad to see so many people taking all this in, and I found out in language class today that all German high school students are required to go on a field trip to a concentration camp memorial. I saw many such groups on my visit. 

Pictured here is a camp 'uniform', one size fits all, along with wooden shoes that were uncomfortable. This was all they had, summer or winter. Punishments were severe and for the slightest infraction. Interestingly, only about a quarter of the prisoners at Dachau were Jews. The rest were political prisoners, Roma, homosexuals, and the homeless and vagrants. 

The barracks are a reconstruction, as the German government tore down all the original ones. In a camp built for 6,000, the population grew to 60,000, and an average of 240 prisoners died every day. They were required to stand at attention for 2 hours each day in the morning and 2 hours in the evening for roll call in all weather, and any movement was severely punished. To faint and hit the ground was a death sentence. You never got up again. 

All the dead were taken to a crematorium, which is what this building is. Inside were ovens, which were tended by prisoners. This was considered the worst job in the camp. There is a gas chamber in this building, too, but it was never used beyond a test, where 20 prisoners were gassed, but only 2 died. However, they didn't need to gas anyone, the way they treated people killed enough that they hardly could dispose of the bodies. 

There were so many more details I could relate, but won't for time and space's sake. The site includes a bookstore with hundreds of volumes, mostly in German, on this period of history. At the entrance there is a list of rules regarding conduct on the site, and I didn't observe anyone violating them. It's a somber place, requiring respectful behavior. 

My next excursion is a repeat attempt at Landshut, but this time, I've done my research. In the coming weeks I plan to go to Pilsen in the Czech Republic, and Salzburg, Austria, as well as a few more towns in Bavaria. My transportation ticket pays for regional trains and buses, but to get to someplace like France or northern Germany would require an express train, which is more expensive, plus the cost of an overnight stay. So, I'll happily make my day trips, and barely touch what there is to see. 

Tschüss!