Monday, June 18, 2012

Dachau Concentration Camp

The gravel rows were once barracks that housed the prisoners
On our way to Austria, we stopped in Dachau, Germany. There is a major concentration camp located there that was considered top notch during the WWII era of holocaust and human destruction. It was very humbling to be there on a very hot, dry day with the sun beating down on us wherever we went which only let us imagine what everyday life would have been like in the concentration camp during that time.
They exhibited the crematorium, where the bodies of the dead were burned. The walls scattered with traces of bullet holes from mass executions were wrapped around the perimeter of the camp. There was even a room used specifically for gassing large amounts of people after they were told to walk in to get a shower. Killing was a common event on the camp and became a part of life for the prisoners. They rarely received food and were forced to starve until they were just skin and bones. There were a total of 200,000 prisoners that went through Dachau and 32,000 died there.
It was a very eye opening and humbling experience to see the affects of the Nazi regime.  Several monuments have been built at the camp now, including a church for remembrance and prayer. The camp is now a representation of the former German past. They recognize the things that happened and how horrific it really was, and now they remember those that have past and were affected by this tragedy.

Dachau Concentration Camp