Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

The entrance gate to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. The words mean "Work will set you free."

As I mentioned with Schloss Nymphenburg, I had some specific sites that I wanted to visit while in Germany. A palace was one such site. Oktoberfest was another. But, the most important site I wanted to see was a concentration camp. My interest was very akin to my search for faith that any long time reader knows I indulge on every trip. In this case, I wasn’t looking for faith…I wanted to see what evil looked like. I wanted to see if there was any shred of an explanation as to why one group of human beings would subject another group to the grotesque degenerations that were experienced at the concentration camps. As is usually the case with these quests, what I found surprised me.

In breaking with our usual travel custom, we decided to join a guided tour in order to see this Memorial. Normally, I don’t like guided tours, because I don’t like being placed on a schedule and rushed from place to place. I prefer to wander around a particular place, guidebook in hand, and linger among the history. But, because this was a unique site (and because it seemed rather difficult to get to the Memorial without a car), we agreed that a tour would probably be the best option. Lonely Planet mentioned three different tour groups. We settled on Radius Tours, because they were the most highly touted tour group and they had an early morning tour.

We arrived at the Munich train station at 9 a.m. sharp. It was a short walk from our train to the Radius Tours office inside the train station. We bought our tickets from a shabbily dressed young man. The cost was €19/person. He told us the tour would be leaving at 9:15 a.m., and to meet by the office’s front door. Sure enough, at 9:15, the shabbily dressed young man emerged from behind the desk and called over everyone who was going on the tour. He said his name was Ian and that he’d be our guide for this tour. He said we’d be at the Memorial for about three and a half hours, with travel to the site taking about 45 minutes each way (for a total tour time of about five hours). He said we should purchase food and drink at the train station before we left, because there were no food or beverage sales at the Memorial itself. This turned out to be very important advice. All of us went scurrying for some food before the train to Dachau left.

At about 9:30 a.m., we boarded the S-Bahn for Dachau. Already, I was appreciating being on a tour. Ian led us quickly and easily to the track where the train was departing. I’m not sure I would have found it on my own. After about a 25 minute train ride, we arrived at Dachau’s train station. Ian led all of us on a short walk to the bus station just outside the train station. After a short wait, Ian pointed us to the bus that we needed to board (something else I’m sure I would have missed had I been on my own). We got on the bus. I was a bit surprised to see a group of school children also getting on the bus with us. I hadn’t imagined that they could be on a field trip to the Memorial, but that was exactly what they were doing.

After a short 15 minute ride, the bus stopped at the Memorial. Again, I was surprised by what I saw. I had expected to see the front gates to the camp. Instead, I didn’t see the camp at all. All that was in front of me was a sign saying “Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial” in German and English, a grove of trees, and a gravel covered path leading into the trees. I felt a bit of disassociation as I looked around. But, Ian gathered us together and told us that we were on the edge of the camp. He provided a bit of a history lesson detailing the reasons why the camp came into existence and who was brought to the camp. Then, he led us north down the path to the camp’s front gate. As I’ve mentioned on the September 27^th page, it was raining that day. The sound of both the rain hitting the gravel on the path and our feet trudging through the gravel made for an eerie sound. That sound was magnified when we came upon the camp’s wall, which loomed to our right. We continued to follow the wall until we reached the front gate.

“Arbeit Macht Frei.” Those three words were written into the front gate in rod iron. Ian brought us to the gate and told us that the words meant “Work Sets You Free.” He described it as the first of many lies that the Nazis would tell Dachau’s prisoners. Ian then described the function of the guardhouse surrounding the gate, and mentioned that this view was usually the last view of freedom that a Dachau prisoner enjoyed.

Ian then led us through the gate and into the camp’s grounds. Again, I was surprised by what I saw. The grounds were large, but generally empty. There were a few buildings to our right (south), and a couple of buildings to our left (north). But, for the most part, the ground were made up of gravel fields. Ian led us across one of those fields (later identified as the parade ground) and into the buildings to our left. He explained that these were recreations of the prisoners’ barracks. The original barracks were leveled in the mid-1960s. However, these were reconstructed to give visitors an idea of the conditions that prisoners endured. To be honest, it was a bit difficult to imagine those conditions. The rooms seemed pretty spacious. Additionally, the filth and dirt that are so prevalent in survivors’ accounts was long gone. What finally did put the picture of the conditions in my mind was when Ian said that each barrack was designed to hold 200. Yet, by the end of the war, each barrack held 2,000. Then, the squalor that must have existed became real to me.

Once we had finished with the barracks, we walked across the parade ground. Ian said that there was inspection every morning, with a possible second or third inspection each day. Prisoners had to stand at attention regardless of the weather on this open field until the inspection was complete (which could take up to two hours). Unlike the barracks, it was easy to imagine what an ordeal that must have been.

We were then led to one of the guard towers. Ian said that there was only one escape from Dachau in the camp’s 12 years of operations (and that occurred in the first year). The reason why was pretty apparent. Dachau had one of the most complete prison fortification systems in existence. Around the length of the camp were two walls. One was the eight-foot concrete fence that I had seen upon entering. Inside of that fence was an eight-foot barbed wire fence that was electrified. In between those two fences was a ten-foot gravel strip that was patrolled by guard dogs and soldiers. In front of the electrified fence was a ditch about four feet deep that was filled with water. In front of that ditch was a five foot wide grass strip. The guards in the towers had orders to shoot anyone who set foot on the grass strip. So, if by some miracle the guards didn’t shoot you for setting foot on the grass strip, one had to get through the electric fence (while soaking wet from the ditch), bypass the dogs and soldiers patrolling the perimeter, and scale another concrete fence before getting out. It was easy to see why most of those who tried to escape were people who were actually trying to commit suicide.

Ian then led us back to the buildings that were on my right when I first entered the Memorial. This building was called the maintenance building. Here was where prisoners were brought after they first passed through the camp’s gates. Inside its walls, prisoners were stripped of their clothing and possessions, subjected to humiliating medical inspections, and then given their prisoner clothes and detail. Ian stopped us just before entering the building to allow us a chance to look at the International Memorial. Created by Nandor Glid in 1968, the International Memorial looks like a group of people tangled in barbed wire. However, as Ian pointed out, the International Memorial is not just the statue: it is also the ramp leading up to the statue. Thus, when one completes the walk down the ramp to the sculpture itself, one ends up looking up at the sculpture. By looking up at the sculpture, one gets the impression that the prisoners were lifted above their suffering to freedom. Next to the sculpture were artistic representations of the color identification patches worn by the various ethnic and social groups imprisoned at Dachau. Finally, at the monument’s far left wall was a series of phrases in different languages all saying the same thing: Never Again. After I took the entire structure into account, I found the International Memorial to be both clever and moving.

After spending a bit of time at the International Memorial, we proceeded inside the maintenance building. While there, we saw a short film on some of the horrors (beatings and executions) that occurred at Dachau. After the film ended, we went to the place where many of those horrors took place: the bunker. The bunker is located directly behind (to the south of) the maintenance building. While the bunker wasn’t underground, as the name might suggest, it was as dark and claustrophobic as one might imagine. The rooms were dark and narrow. The building’s concrete construction only added to the oppressive atmosphere. It was very easy to feel the pure evil had been performed in this building. It was exactly the evil that I had hoped to see during my visit.

Yet, I thought the evil in the bunker would be surpassed by that at the crematorium. My expectation came from the conventional images from Auschwitz and Dachau that have been shown over and over since the end of World War II. I figured that any place where so many bodies were treated in such an inhuman manner would positively reek of evil. So, it seemed natural that we’d be going to the crematorium after finishing our tour of the bunker. Sure enough, Ian gathered us all together after our time in the bunker and told us we’d now be walking to the crematorium. He said to maintain silence while at the crematorium, because it was considered the most holy ground at the Memorial. We trudged the half mile from the bunker to the crematorium grounds. The crematorium isn’t part of the camp proper. Instead, it sits across a bridge over the River Wörm to the north west of the camp. The reason for the crematorium’s placement was to hide it from the prisoners so that they wouldn’t know what was going on there.

In another of a series of surprises, the crematorium’s grounds were nothing like I expected. Instead of the camp’s gravel fields, the crematorium’s grounds were park-like. There was grass and trees everywhere. Ian led us through the trees to a small building. Inside the building were two small ovens. Ian explained that these were the first two ovens installed at Dachau. However, they were later deemed to be inefficient because they could only burn one body in each oven at a given time. So, the Nazis built a second crematorium, which is where Ian took us next.

Ian explained that the “new” crematorium was a complete killing complex that was never fully utilized. However, for purposes of demonstration, he would have us walk through the building as though we were prisoners who were being executed if this structure were fully functioning. So, we first went into a holding room. Then, we went into a room that was advertised as a “brausebad”, or shower room. There were shower heads in the ceiling. However, the main intent of the room was as a gas chamber. The gas was intended to be introduced through slots in the wall. Fortunately, this room was the one that was never used in this new crematorium. However, if it had been used, then one’s body would proceed to the next room, which was the oven room. In here were four ovens, each capable of burning three bodies at a time. There were also hooks on the rafters above the ovens, where bodies were hung before burning. Finally, there was a morgue room on the north side of the oven room where bodies were stored while awaiting immolation. This is the room where many of the pictures of bodies were taken right after the war.

As I said earlier, I had expected to find great evil in the crematorium. But, the whole complex is so clean and empty, that it’s hard to imagine anything happened there, much less the burning of thousands of bodies. I left the building a bit perplexed at my emotions. I was still pondering them when Ian asked that we walk through the rest of the crematorium’s grounds to see the graves of the unknown thousands. It was during this walk that my feelings crystallized. After passing several monument markers stating “Thousands buried here”, I realized that evil was no longer at the crematorium. Instead, only a deep, abiding sadness permeated the grounds (my feelings were undoubtedly assisted by the rain that was falling while we took this walk). Again, I was surprised to find such a powerful, yet unexpected, emotion at the site.

Ian then led us to three chapels that reside on the camp’s north side. There are chapels to the members of the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths that lived and died at Dachau. We had 15 minutes to see the chapels. I chose to see the Catholic chapel, which turned out to be basically an open aired altar. Pretty much everything I saw of the chapel from a distance was what I saw when I came up close to it. With little to see at the Catholic chapel, I headed over to the Jewish chapel. This chapel was a bit more daring from an architectural point of view. The altar area was actually underground. That, combined with the dark, rock-like interior, made the Jewish chapel feel like a cave. The interior’s light was provided by a hole in the chapel’s dome, again emphasizing the chapel’s cave-like feel. The architect was probably trying to emphasize that the Jewish faith had to go “underground” during the time this camp was active. If that was his intent, his efforts were successful.

By the time I finished at the Jewish Chapel, it was time to begin our walk back to the busses. We walked the long center road from the chapels to the maintenance building. As I made the walk and passed the foundations of the prisoner barracks, it occurred to me that I was a bit uncomfortable holding an umbrella and walking this gravel path in the rain. Yet, the prisoners who were here didn’t have the luxury of a gravel path and an umbrella to deal with the rain when they were imprisoned here. And, that was the least of their discomforts. When that realization hit me, I began to more deeply appreciate the suffering that went on in this camp.

When we got to the maintenance building, Ian told us that we had a choice: we could either tour the exhibit inside the maintenance building which detailed Dachau’s history, or we go to the memorial’s gift shop (which was outside the camp grounds). He said there wouldn’t be enough time to visit both, and the maintenance building’s book store didn’t open until 1 p.m. (which was about the time we were scheduled to leave). Ian showed his preference by saying that the gift shop contained a book that listed the entire historical exhibit. Taking his cue, I went to the gift shop and bought the book Ian mentioned. Dianne went to the maintenance building’s exhibit. She didn’t get to see the entire exhibit. But, she filled in what she missed with the book I purchased.

At just before 1 p.m., Ian called all of us together and herded us back to the bus stop. After a short wait, we were on the bus for the train station. Another 25 minute train ride later, and we were back in Munich. The train was populated by revelers who were visiting Oktoberfest. The festive mood on the train was a marked contrast to the somber mood we had just experienced.

As I said at the beginning, I was looking for the face of evil during my tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. I caught glimpses of it at parts of the camp. But, the overwhelming feeling when walking through the memorial was sadness. It was probably the rain, but it just felt like a large cloud of sorrow and shame had settled on this camp. I don’t think I was alone in my feelings. I saw large numbers of German schoolchildren and German military walking around the grounds in complete silence. Even though these events happened before their lifetimes, it was clean that they felt some of the poignancy that exists in the memorial today.

A tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial is a must for anyone who is in the Munich area. One will run through a gamut of emotions (sorrow, frustration, depression). But, in the end, one will leave with a better understanding of just what happened in this place and a commitment to live up to the words on the International Memorial: Never Again.

I also have to give a very high recommendation to Radius Tours, and particularly Ian, for the wonderful guided tour. Being on this tour added a depth and perspective that wouldn’t have existed had we toured the camp by ourselves. Plus, going on the guided tour alleviated all the transportation difficulties that would have existed had we gone on our own. So, spend the extra few Euros and take advantage of Radius Tours’ wonderful program.

Above:

1) Maintenance Building with Memorial Statue

2) The "New" Crematorium ovens

3) Guard Tower

4) Foundations for Prisoners' Barracks

Home September 27