Dachau

Our visit to the concentration camp at Dachau was a very somber event. It is very difficult to comprehend how such horrible events could have actually occurred not that long ago. Dachau attracts over 750,000 visitors annually from all over the world and is the only museum that we visited during our trip where there was no admission fee.

Dachau was originally built to house 5,000 people taken into "protective custody" by the Nazis. By April 1933, it was taken over by the SS and became a model for other concentration camps that followed. Prisoners were subject to slave labor, medical experiments, torture, execution, and death from starvation, disease, or exposure to extreme cold or heat. Gas chambers were built at Dachau in 1942, but there is little evidence that they were ever used. The crematorium could no longer be operated after October 1944 due to a coal shortage.

Shortly before the liberation of Dachau on April 29, 1945 many of the prisoners were executed by the SS and more than 7,000 were moved south in a death march to prevent them from falling into Allied hands. After liberation, Dachau became a prison camp for Nazi War Criminals. In 1948, several war crimes trials were held in Dachau and many of the instigators of the Holocaust were executed shortly afterwards.

There were more than 200,000 registered prisoners during the history of the camp. Of these, more than 30,000 died. Because thousands more prisoners arrived and died in the camp without being registered, the total number of victims will never be known.

Double click to enlarge pictures

The entrance to the Dachau Memorial Site.



The main gate through which most of the 200,000 prisoners would have entered the camp.



'Work Brings Freedom' a slogan used on the entrances to many of the Nazi Concentration Camps



We never realized the enormous size of the camp complex. This photo and the next diagram give some idea of just how large they were.



This diagram shows the layout for the entire camp. Only the main barracks area, one of over 30 barracks buildings, crematorium, gas chambers and service building remain and have been conserved for the memorial.



The only remaining barracks. They were designed to hold 200 and by the end of the war each unit was home to over 2000.



The wash basins.



The toilets.



Sleeping accomodations.



The Service Building where prisoners were first processed once they arrived at Dachau.



The fence around the perimeter of the complex.



The gas chambers. The two 'windows' on the wall is where the poison gas would be delievered to the chamber. A shower room was located adjacent to this room.




The crematorium.



One of the memorial rooms.



Another memorial room.



The Death March Memorial.