Germany - Dachau

Germany - Dachau

We took the night train from Amsterdam to Munich. Our little compartment was quite snug...glad we did the 2 bunks rather than the 3 way too close for 3 peeps. Ellie took the top bunk and that was entertainment all on it's own....dang and no camera was out and running. Figured out later that the ladder could have scooted over so she didn't have to try to jump over the net that was there so she wouldn't roll off the top bunk. It wasn't the greatest night sleep, but it wasn't as bad as our flight from SLC to Atlanta. Every time I woke up it seemed as if the train was heading in the opposite direction, seemed as if we were just going back and forth, but we ended up in Munich and that was all that mattered. We arrived in Munich, found a locker to store our backpacks and caught our train to Dachau to hit up the concentration camp.

Once there we rented little audio guides so that we hear all the information in English and headed down the path to the train dock and the gates of the camp.

We walked into the open area where they would line up for "roll call" and then there were buildings off to the sides. They tore down all the barracks where they were housed, probably cause of all the disease and stench that was all around, but they did have a replica of what it looked like. Very cramped quarters, probably worse than one would think. They just have markers and sections blocked off of where there once was a barracks. On the other side they had probably a 10X10 room where they held war criminals and political leaders.

We headed into one of the buildings where they had video, pictures and historical time lines set up from one end of the building to the other. There were items that were taken from the Jews when they entered and items that they were allowed to keep that were on display. Stories and quotes from the soliders in Hitlers regime and those of Jews. The video was fairly graphic, but it was also hard to turn away from. Hard to believe that this happened within the last 100 years, it seems like something so barbaric would have happened hundreds of years ago.

The one place that was not torn down by the allies when they came in was the crematorium. We started walking down toward the gates of entrance of the crematorium. It was located just beyond the barracks. It was gated off and you had to cross a bridge over about a 10 foot wide ditch. A few foot in there was a giant stone that read Krematorium. As you rounded the corner you could see the smoke stack and the crematorium.







You can walk through from one end of the building where they would enter and then you can walk through each room and it had a small description of what would take place in each room. You started in just the entry room, like a waiting room, move to the disrobing room, then the gas chamber that was disguised as a shower. There were two death chambers. The first room was where the bodies would be bought before they were cremated, and the second room was where the corpses from the camp were brought to be cremated. The next room was the incinerator room where the four ovens could burn 2-3 corpses at once. There was another crematorium off to the right when you entered which was referred to as the "old" crematorium. The larger one had to be erected in order to keep up with the mortality rate of the prisoners.
Once you exit the building, in the back they had a memorial and graves for the thousands that died who were unknown. As you continued down the path they had the pistol range where the soliders would carry out executions and murders. The "execution" wall you can still see the bullet holes, a place where they hung people and a few more grave markers for those that died.

While not the most uplifting place it was one of fascination. Fascination in the fact that is was a low point for the human race, the brain washing that changed history and the ugly face of cruelty of humans.