Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau Concentration Camp is located about 20 minutes out of Munich and is a site of incredible historical significance following the Nazi reign in Germany. Dachau was opened with the intention of housing political prisoners, however it also imprisoned Jews, German "criminals" and those of other nationalities. It only held male prisoners and over 200 000 prisoners went through the camp. Conditions were harsh, with over 32 000 documented deaths at the camp - people were shot, worked to death, died of sickness, and also murdered in the gas chambers that are well known in regard to the Holocaust. This concentration camp is the only one that was in action throughout Hitler's time in power, from 1933 to 1945.

We woke up at about 5am...gotta love jetlag. After getting ready, we walked to the train station...only to find the ticket machine didn't accept a single one of our 5 debit cards?! Never put off, we asked a few people before finding an ATM (we used our best German...what German?) and got cash out before catching a tram into Munich. After a quick coffee break at Starbucks, we got on the train and headed to Dachau. Dachau is the name of the town that Dachau concentration camp is located in, and the locals apparently do not have a very good relationship with those who run the memorial site because they believe that it should not be focused on.

We arrived at the train station, and took a taxi to the camp (the complimentary bus was packed and we didn't fancy a 40 minute wait in the cold). A quick lunch later and we were on the 1pm tour - if you were visiting Munich I'd recommend visiting Dachau (more on that later) but it would also be worth taking part in the 3 Euro tour available at the visitors centre as the guide was very knowledgable and it was reasonably priced for the length of time that it was.

I studied Nazi Germany while at school, and have recently revisited it through tutoring, so I definitely appreciated the historical significance of a place like this. However, it wasn't until I was inside the gates of the camp that I realised the sheer scale of Dachau. It held training grounds and quarters for the SS soldiers that were pointed out at the start of the tour, however it was the places where the prisoners were held that was the main focus.

 We were shown the gas chambers and crematorium on the other side of the grounds. Dachau was originally intended to be a forced labour camp, and it was only later on when the main purpose of it became to murder its prisoners. The crematorium was completed by prisoners in mid 1938, with another built next to the camp in 1942.

There are several memorials at Dachau - one Jewish, one Catholic, one Russian, and a few others. These memorials were built during the Cold War, and as such the Russian memorial is outside the grounds of Dachau. So soon after the finish of the Holocaust, and people were already excluding others based on their country of origin.

The prisoners were housed in large blocks that have since been knocked down due to wear, with two replicas being built recently. We walked through these replicas and the conditions that the prisoners lived in were appalling. Although the "dormitories" would have been absolutely spotless - another aspect of Nazi control - they were cramped and small. In winter they would have been freezing, and in summer unbearably hot.

We also walked past the blocks that used to have the living quarters on top and my family stopped at number 9 - the block where the father of one of Mum's friends was housed when he was imprisoned here as a political prisoner at 17 in 1945. He was liberated by the Americans.

There are a few general memorials at the front of the grounds near the museum. One is a sculpture of skeletons.

The other is a sculpture comprising of chains, representing the prisoners being tied together, with triangles depicting the badges that prisoners wore woven throughout. These triangles were in different colours depending on the "offence" that the person had committed to end up in the camp. For example, red triangles showed political prisoners, green triangles showed professional criminals, yellow stars represented Jews, and purple triangles depicted Jehovah's witnesses. However, the sculpture did not show pink triangles (homosexuals), black triangles ("antisocials") or green triangles (professional criminals). The artist reportedly wanted all of these groups represented, however it was in the view of the Dachau memorial committee - a view that it still holds today - that these groups did not need to be represented. It really does make you wonder how much people really have changed.

I think it's so important to visit somewhere like Dachau for educational purposes and so this story is never forgotten. We need to stop history, in this case, repeating itself. Approximately 11 million people died during Nazi reign, and when you hear of the plight of particular groups being ignored you wonder if any lessons have been learnt. This was an event that shook the world and affected so many millions of people and I felt like the world had really changed since then, and we were looking back at history. However when the actual site of these killings still discriminates, I wonder if this change will ever be permanent.

"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933 -1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men".