A Reflective Visit to Dachau: Confronting History on Our Last Day in Munich

“What should we do on our last full day in Munich?”

I asked myself the evening before we visited Dachau Concentration Camp. My husband and I were on our 2-week trip in Europe, and Munich was our last stop before heading home. We wanted to engage in something interesting and worthwhile. After quick and thorough research on activities to do, we decided to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp. Visiting a concentration camp was not part of our original travel plans for Europe — not for any reason. To understand the culture and aspects of the country you MUST know about its history. Visiting the concentration camp provided us the opportunity to learn more about Germany. I didn’t know exactly how I would feel, but I knew it would be worth the time and energy. In high school, I learned about the Holocaust—a big part of history. I was very excited to gain deeper knowledge on the grounds where it occurred almost 100 years ago.

About Dachau Concentration Camp

The Dachau Concentration Camp is located a little over 10 miles north of Munich in the town of Dachau —located in the state of  Bavaria. It was the first and longest concentration camp built during the Nazi regime, nearly all the 12 years Adolf Hitler was in power. When the Nazi Party transitioned into a dictatorship, Dachau was built as the model for all future concentration camps in Germany – Auschwitz, Warsaw, and more. Thousands of lives perished at Dachau Concentration Camp. It was initially served to punish German prisoners, but as Hitler continued to remain in power, groups he felt that did not align with his agenda were imprisoned. The groups included Jewish, political prisoners, homosexuals and others. At the camp, prisoners were subjected to forced labor, medical experiments, and inhumane treatment.

Arriving to Dachau

We headed north via train to Dachau. The weather was depressing —the night prior there was heavy snowfall, and it rained throughout the day. In hindsight, the weather set the somber mood throughout the entire visit. After exiting the train at the Dachau station, we took a bus to the Dachau and stepped off. I was eager to explore the historical grounds—thick with inches of snow and water puddles covered the entire site. Never in my life had I imagined myself visiting a concentration camp. I did not have any true expectations on what it would be like, but a few notable things stuck out as I walked through the entrance.

Touring the Grounds

As I stepped through the thick white snow, melting water below mixed with ice, I walked through a black iron gate with the text inscription “Arbeit macht frei” — “Work sets you free” in German. This gate was the pass through into the concentration camp via a cream-colored, two-story rectangle building with a reddish roof with a watch station structure on top of the building. This is where the prisoners would enter the camp. To think thousands of innocent lives entered through this gothic style gate and never had the opportunity to exit back to their previous lives. As I walked through the entrance and saw a large area of land which would hold over 30 barracks, but the structures had been torn down, leaving snow-covered foundations. The area we stood in beyond the gate was where the prisoners would stand for roll call. Can you only imagine standing for roll call for hours upon hours as a form of punishment in chilling below freezing weather conditions? That is what the prisoners endured.

The Bunkers

Turning right at the roll call area, a couple hundred feet away, we entered the prison bunker —name given by the prisoners. Patchy cream, yellowish and brown colors decorated the weathered concrete walls that were ice cold due to no insulation in the building. The prison bunker held “special prisoners” such as religious leaders and prominent public figures.

As I walked down the dimly lit, narrow hallway where each prisoner had their cells the ceiling lights reflected off the light producing a sepia color and the cold weather from outside set the mood for the feeling of isolation each prisoner felt. It was hard to imagine walking down the hall that held so many emotions, history, and pain. I hesitated to capture photographs because of the historical significance of the site and what happened between the walls.

The living conditions in the bunker we especially inhumane here:

1. Prisoners were fed maybe twice a week with food lacking nutrition

2. The bunkers’ structure cells were made of concrete and were isolated

3. Limited ventilation and light.

The prisoners were also tortured greatly within the concrete walls. As I walked down the tunnel-like hall, some of the rooms held informative signs and audio devices that provided insight and perspective from the prisoners’ viewpoint of their time in the bunker. I recall a story where a prisoner would knock on the concrete walls of his cell to communicate with fellow prisoners —communication was difficult. They were completely isolated, when they would scream from torture indirectly and directly, they could not be heard outside the bunker walls.

The doors to each prisoner’s space were made of heavy wood and had a small metal grill that Nazi guards could look through and potentially provided the most accessible source of fresh air within confinement from my perspective. In addition, they had a small latch built into the door. As I exited the building, I noticed a metal gate molded within the concrete walls- the prisoners were completely isolated.

The Barracks

After exiting the bunkers, there was a warm feeling of seeing natural light again the sun was not out because of the wet rainy weather, but I appreciated it more. As we continued to explore the grounds, I questioned what was along the path, snow-covered open land on the left and right side of the path. The map I had was wet and if there were signs on the ground they were covered up with slushy snow. I walked up to a thick concrete mound elevated off the ground and using my boots that held my freezing cold and wet feet, I brushed off the snow. The sign had the number “29” listed, and a light bulb came on in my mind that this was barracks number 29. This moment, I’ll never forget I felt a sense of quiet discovery — uncovering even a small detail in such a place felt significant. Dachau Concentration Camp consisted of 34 barracks (30 accommodation and 4 functional). Ironically, the next place we stopped was one of the few barracks still existing on the grounds. “Each of the prisoner barracks, also known as “block,” in the language of the camp, was divided into four “rooms”(KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau). Each of these “rooms” was in turn made up of day quarters furnished with tables, stools, and lockers, as well as sleeping quarters with wooden bunk beds.” The prisoners were not only stripped of their freedom, but basic privacy. The barracks was very communal, outside of the bunkbeds, the bathroom was very much public as the individuals had no privacy to defecate and urinate as the toilets were next to each other in an open area. The prisoners were allowed to shower maybe once a week — just once.  I can only imagine not being able to take an adequate shower after consistent manual labor and torture.

Main Exhibition

As we left the barracks, we visited the main exhibition hall that walked us through the history of Dachau Concentration Camp from the start of Hitler’s regime to the closing of camp. Walking through the exhibition on how prisoners were processed upon arrival where they “were subjected to a degrading procedure, forced to endure the violent deprivation of their personal rights and liberties”(KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau). Slowly walking through the hall, I noticed a display case. My eyes widened at the intimate personal items that were stripped from the prisoners (i.e. identification cards, watches, clothing, etc.) little things we often took for granted. Not only were they stripped of their personal items upon arrival to the camp but were stripped naked and of the hair on their head. No form of personal identity existed for them. As I continued to walk past the Nazi propaganda posters that were distinct due to the color, texts and graphics used I saw a weathered poster that included triangular patches with text. The triangular patches were used to identify and categorize the prisoners. For example, Jehovah’s Witness had purple patches and professional criminals had green patches. Continuing to walk through the hall, there was a wall-size print of the medical procedures, more like horrific scientific experiments than medical procedures. The SS conducted gruesome life-threatening medical experiments on the prisoners including pressure tests and drug testing. In essence they were guinea pigs and lab rats for the Nazis.

Walking through the hall took me back into time as I captured the photos and knowledge of the Holocaust and specifically the Dachau site as I physically stood in the place where all this history took place almost 100 years ago expanding the knowledge I learned in high school about the day and life of Holocaust victims. In addition, I learned how the prisoners were killed via gas chambers.

Visiting the Crematorium

The last location I visited at the Dachau Concentration Camp was the crematorium. To be frank, this was the part I most anticipated — the crematorium. I remember reading the reviews on Google and seeing a photo of the crematorium. The crematorium had the gas chambers, I learned about in school of how the prisoners perished in the gas chambers. As we continued to walk through the slushy snow we arrived at the crematorium, which is in a secluded area on site. We entered the building and walked into a room. This was the first room we entered, just before the gas chamber, had cinder block walls with concrete floors and was practically empty. The second room was lateral to the first one, when looking up I saw the ceiling had holes, that appeared to have had a gas release head. This room was the gas chamber room which was meant to kill the prisoners through poisonous gas. Historians have debated if the gas chambers were ever utilized at the camp for mass executions. I walked into the third room, and it held four furnaces, which were used to burn the bodies. One story that I will not forget visiting the camp was when a general entered the camp, he asked the Nazi soldier where he could obtain his release papers, and the soldier pointed to the crematorium as soon as the general walked in the direction, the soldier shot him. “Close to 41,500 persons died of hunger, exhaustion, and disease, the direct result of being tortured, or were brutally murdered in the Dachau concentration camp and its subcamps.”

Overall

Life at Dachau was unimaginable. Some prisoners, unable to endure the conditions, chose to end their lives by provoking the guards to shoot them by often by running toward the barbed wire fences. Today, on the campgrounds in front of the former maintenance building, stands the International Monument. According to KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, “the central bronze sculpture depicts human figures entangled in barbed wire, framed by stylized concrete pillars symbolizing the guard towers.”

“History is the study of past events, including the people, places, and events that have shaped human society”, per Valdosta State University.  Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp and stepping back into time was an experience that I recommend others try. Prior to visiting Europe, I did not think I would visit a concentration camp, yet our visit to Dachau — the first concentration camp ever established — became one of the most meaningful experiences of the trip. Dachau Concentration Camp was North Star for other concentration camps during the Nazi regime. From walking the halls of the bunker to visiting the crematorium, I felt deeply moved by the last-minute decision to witness such a vital piece of history.