The locals prefer calling it a Memorial center...but the reality of it is,from the 30 people that came out today with Radius Tours, a concentration camp was more familiar a term.
I met up with Jason, the American tour guide, with a Masters in History. He moved down here seven years ago to marry his lovely German bride. Enjoyed his insight, his delivery, his depth in detail story telling. It just seemed like it was far from being enough.
We took a train toward Dachau, followed by a short ten minute bus ride along a small winding road. We drove through a village, that since those early days of 1930s, had grown immensely. Quaint little shops, tall trees....it seems more slower paced than Munich. Right before the Dachau stop, Jason informs us that behind those barbed wires, are the still intact residences of what was once the SS officers. They look like white mansions, with red roof shingles and big bright windows.
Apparently, today, the government owns these properties. They are NOT open to visitors; governnment cars are stored on this particular property and the office space is used by government workers.
We get off the bus and begin our walk down this stoned pathway. Tall trees in contrast with the light gray grounds. To the right, wooden fencing to block off the center of this camp. To the left, the very first building that housed political activists, religious leaders (outspoken clergymen/priests, gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals....) who were in the wrong according to Nazi officials. Following that, we are told that Jews were brought in by the loads...and their predicament was more gruesome than the ones mentioned before.
We were able to see remnants of the train tracks which simplified the transportation of all these helpless individuals. Jason was explaining that once Hitler was elected as Chancelor (that is right ELECTED...see the power of a vote and its implication), it didn't take long before he chose this zone. This abandonned property since World War One had the right infrastructure for the purposes of the Nazi regime. The prisonners were brought here to work until exhaustion. Sometimes, there was actual work, and yet other times they were asked to dig a hole and fill it up....for the purpose of tiring out the individual, breaking him down, and ultimately stripping away his dignity and humilty.
Jason also mentioned that on all the panels along this camp the wording was carefully chosen to avoid people denying the stats. In essence, the numbers were greater than what is being diffused. Key words like "more than" were in constant usage.
We continued to walk along this narrow path and approached the famous iron black gates with the wording " Arbeit Macht Frei", meaning Freedom through work. Jason tells us that Dachau was the "Academy of Terror", the originator, role model and training ground for the vast order of brutality that spread over half of Europe in the wake of the Nazies, which ultimately ended in the Final Solution.
The actual barracks no longer exist. They did up until the fifties, but were later torn down. It appears once liberation by the American troops occured, the barracks were used by other political figures and over time, historians believed it wouldn't be a true representation of the actual setting during the second world war.
The cypress trees along each side still remain, tall and green. I found myself staring at them and thinking "YOU, tree, are a living thing...what must you have seen?"
I distanced myself from the group a little to walk along this path and stare at this empty stone filled section with numbered stone placks, once given to each barrack...and I bent down and ran my fingers through the tiny pebbles and thought about "the number of prisonners who dragged their feet during this horrid period."
None the less, they re-built one set of barracks showing the living space in 1930, 1938 and 1940. I did take a series of picture which I will show once am home. All this to say, that the room size was meant for fifty individuals...but by 1940, they were filling those same rooms with 250 boards on which to sleep. The casual dining tables, and stools no longer existed, as more prisonners were brought in. I won't even mention their bathroom facilities.
Our before last stop was the crematoriums. There were two and they were the originals. The first small one had two ovens and was not capable of burning more than one body at a time. This particular building was used before the war.
After the war, they built this huge building that provided the gaz chambers or showers, the waiting room while one undresses, the ovens which now was capable of burning three bodies at one time.
The most moving moment for me had to be the showers or gaz chambers. Low ceilings, shower heads, vents that brought in those gazes that killed the oxygen in the red blood cells. The lights were dim and there were too many tourists in that tiny space and I could just imagine what it must have been like for the prisonners awaiting their death.
There are three memorial set up where the barracks used to be. One is a Jewish Memorial with a burning sensation to the odd shape structure. A menorah stands at the tip and off-center. There is a Catholic prominent structure in the center and finally a Protestant Reconciliation building which houses religious services every week.
The tour ended in what used to be "THE KITCHEN". Now it hosts a museum and movie theatre that shows a documentary of the history of Dachau. I found it poignant, as at regular intervals, the commentator stoppped speaking as various gruesome images were being shown....a moment of silence if you will.
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