The Dachau Concentration Camp

August 13th, 2009 was the day I chose to go to the Dachau Concentration camp just north of Munich, Germany. This was the largest and the first concentration camp that the Nazis used to massacre thousands of innocent people whose only crime was that they either stood up against atrocity or were jewish or were homosexual or were considered asocial.

CAUTION: SOME OF THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTIONS ARE PRETTY GRAPHIC. I WOULD STILL URGE YOU ALL TO READ THIS BUT CONSIDER THIS FAIR WARNING.

One more reason to believe in hell is so that you can hope that the people who committed this are still rotting in hell and not just rotting 6 feet under. Read the rest of the blog remembering these individuals who suffered for no fault of their own and just because of one mad man who created animals just to satisfy his own ego and ambition. May he still be rotting in hell.

In any case, a short walk to the Therese-Geise Alle train station led me to the U-bahn station. I took the U5 to Odeonplatz and then transferred to another U-bahn that took me to the Marienplatz. More about the incredible public transit system in Berlin in my next post. Suffice to say that I will eventually want to live in a city that has such good train system.

I met with my tour guide, Marcin, a nice fella from England who is a music professor taking a break from music and doing these tours. In fact, I went on another Munich tour with him the previous day. More on this in my next blog.

We took the U2 to Dachau from the central Munich Station and then had to take a really long bus to the Dachau Concentration camp itself. A quick pit stop after which I picked up some food. We thought that we were ready to see this camp. Marcin gave us a long history of what actually happened in the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. In short, Germany got screwed after the 1st world war. They had to print money to pay off the debt which led to hyperinflation. This led to Hitler slowly rising to power. A quick tidbit.. Hitler's party had 1/3rd of the vote. The Social Democratic Party had 1/3rd of the vote and the Communist had

1/3rd of the vote. Hitler convinced the SDP to support his temporary ascension to dictator of the country after which he promptly and legally made himself su

preme leader of Germany.

Political prisoners, jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, asocials, handicapped people etc were rounded up for "Re-education" in concentration camps. In fact, they were herded through the city and the SS (suffice to say that they were one of the secret squads of Hitler) urged (read this as forced) the folks in the city to throw rocks, insults and spit on these individuals. They were then walked through the gates where most of them were subject to beatings by the SS officers at no specific order. This might be a good time to check out my picasa weblink for photos as you continue to read this.

After this, they were taken into the "registration building" where they were stripped naked. All the hair throughout their body was shaved off with rusted old shavers. Most of the time, this resulted in skin peeling along with the hair. All the prisoners were then subject to a liquid disinfectant bath. Imagine the pain of this on open wounds. After the screams subside, they were then subject to a shower of hot water during summer and cold water during winter!!! What a bunch of sadists!! Some were then tortured. Some were hung from their hands. Imagine your hands behind your body. Imagine them tied up together and then you are hung from the ceiling..Or you were laid on a wooden table and beaten on your back with stick.

After this, the prisoners were asked to pick out their uniforms. Each of their uniforms had symbols sewed onto it. There were symbols for Jews, Political prisoners, emigrants (Germans who left Germany for work and who were captured when the Nazis invaded other countries), homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and Asocials (People who were homeless or did not fit into the so called Aryan race). Repeat offenders had their own symbols and various other mind boggling combinations were also available.

The prisoners were then either led to bunkers or to the adjacent jails depending on their so called crimes. There were 167 cells and each were supposed to house 4 prisoners (Remember this is no more than a 6'x6' cell). There were some cells that had heaters that could be turned on in summer to further torture the prisoners. Some were given food once every 4 days (Vegetables thrown in boiling water were then eaten by the SS and the leftover water was served to the prisoners). Some were placed in vertical coffins (60cm x 60cm x 6 ft I suppose) and were left there for days at a stretch. There were rooms where medical experiments were conducted on live prisoners. There were 8 cells for priests who defied the Nazis. Did you

know that about 6 million jews were killed during the holocaust? Did you also know that about 3 million Catholics were also killed during this time!!

The bunkers are a story in themselves. I think there were 24 bunkers each with 4 rooms that were designed to house upto 240 prisoners. At times, there were more than 2000 prisoners in some bunkers. More pictures in my

picasa weblink or at my facebook page. The picture to the right is the aerial view of the rows of bunkers in this camp. There were some individual prisoners called Capos (I am not sure if I am spelling it right). These were the so called lead prisoners who controlled the prisoners for the SS. They were fed well and were given special privileges. All these buildings were demolished after the liberation. Two of them were recreated and the rest of the buildings are represented by the foundation only.

There are various memorials in the site. What came next was probably the most surreal moment of the visit. The Gas Chamber. First, there was the crematorium where thousands of bodies were supposedly burnt. And then there was the building were people were gassed to death. They were taken in the pretext that they were going to have a bath. They were walked through the SS training facility and were asked to undress. They were then asked to go to the next room where fake shower heads on the ceiling allayed the fears of the prisoners. Then, poison gas was showered on these unsuspecting innocent beings. After about 20-30 mins, the rooms were vented and the bodies moved to the next room where the valuables are removed by the animals.

The bodies are then burnt in the next room. Of course, some prisoners were also hanged right next to the "oven" and then dumped into the oven for cremation.

I deliberately kept it as graphic as possible because I truly believe that this did happen in the 30s and 40s. I also believe that many countries including the west knew or at least had an idea of such camps. That they chose to keep ignoring it is mind boggling. The same can be said about what is happening in today's world. Countries like Iran, Iraq, Sudan and many other African countries employ torture. Most Western countries are also probably involved in some sort of torture as it relates to terrorism cases. These activities have the potential of being frowned upon by future generations. Our children may also wonder like we do now about why nothing was done to prevent such horror. That Humans can do this to fellow Humans is horrific. The intention of this post is for me to document what I heard today. We all need to, in our own way, be decent to every fellow human being. Most of us do not have the power to change government policies. But, if we as individuals are able to be decent within our own circle, it has the potential for world change. Because, after all, the government is made up of many such individuals!!

Peace to you all!!