Dachau Konzentrationlager

On one of the last beautifully warm days of the year, I actually took a break from the Oktoberfest revelry to go to Dachau Concentration Camp (Konzentrationlager) for some perspective and quiet time. 


As much as life in Munich seems to be a never-ending stream of parties, beer, and good times, it's sobering to think that the city was a hotbed of extremist politics and Munich was a Nazi stronghold and where the party came to prominence. The town of Dachau is 16km or a 15 minute ride on the Munich s-bahn (S2). From there, the walk is approximately 30min or there is a bus to the camp itself. Because it was such a lovely day, I chose to walk. The way to the camp is marked with several signposts denoting significant places (e.g. where prisoners were made to make roads/buildings). The proximity of the camp to the town was a little startling, even accounting for changes in geography with time. 


Dachau was the first concentration camp, existing for the entire 12 years of Nazi power, and the model of how all subsequent camps worked.Unlike Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau was not an extermination camp (people sent there solely to be killed), although it too had a gas chamber and crematoria to dispose of the bodies. Instead, the camp tended to kill by starvation, abuse, withholding medical treatment, and overcrowding. Originally starting off for political prisoners, the camp was built two hold 6000 people, eventually holding at least 10 times that amount. In addition to holding people declared 'undesirable' by the regime (i.e. Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals), the camp also held a large number of clergy (mostly Polish Catholics) and Bavarian Royalty. Although most of the buildings have been demolished over time, two of the 'barracks' have been left standing with examples of how the conditions inside the camp changed over time to become more crowded and unsanitary. The camp was the second liberated by Western Allied Forces and the museum contains several photos and videos showing the atrocious condition of the camp and inmates, living and dead.  


On that note, one of the things that startled me about actually being in Dachau was the contrast between what happened there and the state of the camp now. As most the pictorial evidence from the time was in black and white, it was startling to emerge from the cold museum and barracks and see the gloriously warm day with the golden birch leaves against the deep blue sky. It's easy to think of everything that happened here occurring in gloomy grey conditions from the photos when the reality is the prisoners would have also experienced all the horror on similarly beautiful days. For some reason, this actually made me really sad. 


While I totally recommend that tourists come here, I would just like to say that I don't believe this is a place where one should act like a tourist. By this I mean I found it incredibly tasteless to walk around the space where atrocities occurred and see people posing with the Arbeit Macht Frei gate or taking photos of the plaque that denotes where POWs were shot. Hence the photoless entry.


Entrance to the camp, now a memorial, is free but I recommend getting the audiotour to guide you through the various buildings still standing and the survivor testimonies.