Dachau - The Final Straw

In late April I saw a documentary on how Israel commemorates the holocaust. The show followed a couple of children as they prepared for the commemoration. It was in Hebrew with German subtitles and very well done. Many of the preparations were organized by the school and at one point a teacher asked the students why they should remember the Shoah? Or, why was there a Shoah, or Holocaust? The answer shocked me, though I had heard the theme before:

We remember the Shoah because the Jews in Europe were living good lives and were successful and in being successful they forgot their relationship to God. The Holocaust reminded them that they were God's people.

I told my friend at work about the statement from the documentary. My friend is an American and Jewish. We were both silent afterwards.

For my part, I realized that I had heard many quote holy writ (both ancient & modern) where passages say that through suffering we are reminded of God's mercy and through suffering we are brought closer to God.

I was deeply moved to hear someone say that about the holocaust. And it gave me a greater respect for the Jewish people reminding me that the Jewish people have, despite horrific suffering throughout history (the holocaust is just the latest example) remained faithful to God.

The final two places that I visited almost brought me to tears and moved me in a way that is hard to describe.

I left the museum and headed for the far corner of the camp, once again I passed the foundations of all 32 barracks. I saw the flag of Israel in Barracks 10, the edges now lined with tiny stones from my children, who were enthralled by the many stones in the camp. The crunching of the rocks under my feet continued, and despite the shadows shortening (it was almost 12 noon) the grounds were still cold to me.

I met Tamara in the back corner. She said "We found it." I couldn't think of what she was referring to. She told me she had found the gas chambers or gas showers. I didn't think all of the camps had gas chambers and had always associated that experience with Auschwitz. I was a bit scared and nervous to go into that area of the camp. It is separated by a fence with a gate from the main camp. She said Shantal didn't want to go in and that it was very eerie.

English: Remember how we died here!

I went with Spencer back to that section of the memorial. He was excited to tell me about each section of the memorial. I was trying to take it all in, but it seemed like we were moving so fast. There is really enough information for an entire day in the memorial.

We entered into the disinfection area, which was very small, then the waiting room. Here, Tamara informed me, the prisoners would be instructed as to why they were all showering. Then the prisoners would be ushered into the derobing room. It seemed to me that time was speeding up and that I lost track of what was happening around me.




Entering the showers from the waiting room one sees a sign above the door (upper right of picture above) which says "Brausebad" (or to bathe using a shower).



We walked into the shower room. As I walked into the showers shocked that the room was so small and confining. Showers usually have high ceilings for ventilation I thought. Then the door closed. I think Spencer closed the door, just out of curiosity to see if the door still worked. As the door closed, I felt a suffocating feeling surround me. I shuddered and out of instinct looked behind me hoping to find a way out.


Naturally and gratefully the door ahead of us was open and I was glad to leave of my own accord out the door on the other side of the showers and into the death chamber room. This is the room where the prisoners' bodies would be piled up waiting to be incinerated. We entered the incinerator room with ovens for burning the bodies (3 or 4 bodies could be incinerated at a time Tamara recalled). Despite the gruesome nature of this room I was glad to be there. I was glad to be in the light again and to be out of the showers.


We left this building and walked around the grounds a bit. This is the nicest part of the camp, with many trees, flowers, and nice foot paths. It was good to be in such nice surroundings after having walked through the death showers.



We left that area and walked back to the museum. We were back on the rocks and in the cool wind.

Behind the museum is a jail and a courtyard where executions took place. Tamara had indicated that she encountered an oppressive feeling when she entered the jail house. I experienced something similar. When I entered the thought jumped into my head - "it's not worth fighting any more" and a feeling of hopelessness entered my heart. The cells themselves were small and the long hallway was cold, cold, almost like the air conditioning was running.

I was glad to leave the jail and the camp. I'm not sure how any prisoner survived such an experience. I wondered how the soldiers could, for so long, torture, and brutally murder other humans. Wouldn't their hearts have been softened by the cries of the innocent? Wouldn't they have stood up to the sheer madness of it all, even if it cost them their own lives? These are questions thousands have asked. My questions also remained unanswered.

On the way out I took a long look at the gate with the words Arbeit macht frei! (work shall set you free) and at the worn down train platform. What a relief it was when it finally got warm as we neared the car.

Dachau - the Museum

After seeing the Jewish memorial I showed the kids the barbed wire fence, which still had some of the old electrical equipment attached. We walked back towards the Museum to meet Tamara. Along the way, as we passed the foundation for barracks 32 we found another token. The language was Dutch and we tried to guess what it said. The camera was full so I could not snap a photo.

At the museum exit I gave Tamara the kids and I walked towards the museum. In front of the museum is a large memorial. The memorial still had dozens of wreaths of flowers laying at the base from the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau and the end of World War II that was celebrated in early May. I walked along the base and found the American wreath. There were many countries represented. You can see the tops of the wreaths in this picture as well as the museum in the background. Then the row of wreaths in the subsequent photo.






Here is the memorial and museum from a distance. The expanse of this roll call area (in front of the museum and memorial) struck me each time we walked through it. The next picture is a depiction of a night time roll call Tamara found in the museum.




Although I have seen many documentaries and films on the holocaust the museum was well done in that it was dedicated entirely to the history of the Dachau concentration camp. The history of Dachau is naturally set in the background of the history of the war, but the primary focus is on Dachau's history throughout the war. Seeing the horror that took place over the life of just one camp makes the experience that much more real.

Here are few tips for people touring the memorial. There is simply too much information to read, let alone digest, in one visit. All of the information is printed in English and in German. There is also an audio tour available for 3 or 4 Euros in several languages. Here is the entrance to the museum - it looks like a battered down hall, as it may have looked while Dachau was open. Prisoners were brought into this building for registration, which generally included beatings and brutal treatment.



Here are some of my impressions after walking through the museum.

At the beginning of the museum maps are displayed showing the many concentration camps and sub-concentration camps (satellite camps). They seem to be ubiquitous. Then I came upon a T.V. in a side room. A documentary containing interviews with survivors of the Dachau concentration camp was being played. The survivors spoke rather light heartedly about their experiences. That struck me.



Here is a brief summary from two of the interviews. A priest who had held a mass with some polish people spoke about his entrance to the camp. He said, when he arrived he buttoned up his coat all the way so as to hide his priestly collar. When asked what his crime was, he knew he had to answer without hesitation and with some whit. He said "friendly relations with the polish." The officer said - "what was her name!" and moved onto the next prisoner. The man laughed and said I made it into Dachau without getting beaten. He said the officers had beaten almost all the other prisoners, including those just before and just after him in line.

Another man was transfered to Dachau from Auschwitz. When he came into the camp he received a new prisoner number - different from the number he had in Auschwitz. It amazed me that he could remember both numbers without even batting an eye. He said he then was left alone for a time with the other arriving prisoners. They had a peak into one of the shower facilities. They were surprised, because there was an actual shower head, with water dripping. He and his fellow prisoners arriving that day were very enthusiastic, because they expected a gas chamber.

Next I remember seeing a display that explained that prisoners released early on were told - do not talk about the camp or any of the details about life in the camp. A scary part of the system of intimidation and annihilation.

Then the career paths of several of the SS soldiers stationed at Dachau were documented. This struck me as so odd - a career in such a field, with a resume, and references. It seemed so contrary to normal and humane relations. They noted the increased violence and death toll that came about during one prominent camp leader's administration and documented his career path in detail. I believe he was later sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials but do not remember the name.

I then read about some of the experiments they performed on the prisoners. One experiment attempted to answer the question - "how long can a soldier stranded in the ocean survive on salt water?" One of the prisoners who underwent the treatment survived, testified at the Nuremberg Trials and helped convict the men working in the camp. Additionally they injected all sorts of diseases into the prisoners to see how the human body responded. Tamara remembered that they wrapped mosquito nets around prisoners legs with malaria infected mosquitoes trapped in the nets to infect the prisoners with malaria.

The museum then talked about how they tortured prisoners - there were special tables for beatings and special racks used to hang the prisoners from the ceiling by their wrists. Horrid. I couldn't stay in this room very long. The quote from the torture table reads:

Whipping trestle with bullwhip: For beatings the prisoners were strapped over a wooden trestle and whipped by two SS men with a bullwhip. The prisoners had to count the blows aloud.

The items about torturing prisoners were in the former shower area of the prisoner processing center (now the museum).


One of the last item was the video recordings from the Americans after Dachau's liberation - wow. It was hard to watch after touring the museum. I've seen similar videos before, but it was tough to get through.

After that I thought I was done. There was one more section that I hadn't seen and wanted to go to and one building with prison cells that Tamara had mentioned, but I thought I was done with the pain. In my next post you'll see that I was desperately wrong.

Dachau - The Cold & The Rocks

A few things stuck me just after entering through the Dachau concentration camp gate with the famous "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work will set you free) slogan. The camp was larger than expect and the air was decidedly chilly. As I then started to walk around I noticed the gravel yard of the camp and how the gravel crunched under my feet and under the wheels of the stroller. Throughout the entire visit the chill did not leave the air and the noise of the crunching rocks did not leave my ears.



We then split up so Tamara could go into the museum alone (some pictures and videos are too graphic for young children). We walked from the museum entrance to the restored barracks across the role call area. People died standing at attention in this area and the walk seemed long and the chill in the air and crunching under my feet would not let up. At this point the kids started gathering rocks.

We went into the barracks and looked at the beds - three level bunk beds. The kids thought the beds would be cool to sleep in and picked out their favorite. I showed them that the beds would have been half a head too small for me (I am about 6 ft. 1 in. or 185.42 cm).



We then walked on past the remaining barracks' foundations (there are only two restored barracks on the grounds, but originally about 32 stood on the grounds - a foundation is present for each of the barracks.) The horrible thing is that towards the end of the war they housed up to 2000 people despite having capacity for only 200. The chill and the crunching did not subside and I tried to walk in the sun. I kept expecting the morning chill to wear off, but it would not. The kids continued to gather rocks and Shantal started gathering the "pretty" rocks. She is very good at seeing the beauty in the world around her.

We then found a Flag of Israel on the ground within the foundation of barracks number 10. The kids were impressed by this. In the lower left corner of the flag you can see some little rocks around the edge of the flag. Spencer completed this decoration and when we walked back I noticed that the flag had a stone boundary and some stone decoration in the middle in the star. Shantal continued to find beautiful rocks and was trying to decide which ones to keep. The chill and crunch did not relent.



We then went to the Jewish memorial on the grounds. The submerged memorial leads the visitor into what feels like an underground prison with what looked like barbed wire fencing guiding you down into an abyss. Once inside the prison, however, there is a ray of hope shining down though through a hole in the building's ceiling and through the hole, up on the roof one can see a candelabra, the light of the temple, a beacon in a world of darkness. I thought this was well done, and it provided brief relief from the crunching rocks and chilly air. Shantal had narrowed her search to a few rocks.



My journey did not end there. I will continue with a post about the images and impressions from the museum.

One note, however, on chill in the air. I would have attributed the chill in the air the weather of that day, except that when we left the camp and were walking to car the chill suddenly left. The sudden change in temperature was so abrupt that I will always associate an eerie chill in the air with the Dachau concentration camp.

Dachau Memorial

We visited the concentration camp memorial in Dachau, Germany (near Munich) today (Konzentrationslager or KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau). What an experience. Today I'll mention just one thing. The shame that I felt for ever having made a joke about someone being a Nazi in my life.

Something about seeing the concentration camp itself, walking the grounds covered in stones, going into the buildings where prisoners lived (up to 2,000 prisoners where there were only facilities for 200), other buildings where prisoners were tortured, pictures of the science experiments, the images of prisoners being freed by U.S. Soldiers (April 29, 1945), pictures of the hundreds of dead bodies that were discovered, and the gas chambers put me, needless to say, in a somber mood.

It is a common thing in America to call an over controlling person a Nazi. A typical example is the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld's sitcom. I think a better phrase would be drill sergeant. Someone who demands perfection in a certain situation. I think I remember referring to someone as a Nazi where a better phrase may have been micro-manager or even anal-retentive.

I remember, while hosting our first exchange student from Germany in 2004-2005, our student taking such a statement very personally. One of the fellow students in our congregation said Nazi instead of drill sergeant, micro-manager, etc. I explained that the phrase is a bad one, but that the individual who used the phrase was not intentionally demeaning the history of the 2nd world war and the great atrocities that took place under the Nazi regime.

Now I better understand why our German exchange student took this so personal and I was sad that I used something so horrible as the Nazi regime and as a joke. I plan to write some impressions of our visit over the next days. I know that Tamara plans to provide some pictures and details regarding the trip as well.