“Work Will Set You Free”
June 7th, 2011I knew that this was going to be a downer of a day. You cannot go to Dachau and not be affected by it. As much as I tried to stay away from the WWII topic and focus on more pleasant things you cannot pretend it isn’t a big part of world history.
Dachau is considered the parent of all concentration camps – it was a proto type built by Himmler in 1933. Originally intended on holding political prisoners, Himmler convinced Hitler that the concentration camps that could provide Hitler with the labor resources needed to build his new empire and the buildings that he desired. According to the tour guide, Hitler was a big fan of architecture and buildings, and Himmler knew how to push the right buttons.
It was at Dachau where all the logistics of running a large labor camp and it is in Dachau that we see all the elements of the different concentration camps. Dachau wasn’t designed as a death camp but as a labor camp. Auschwitz on the other hand was designed as a death camp and many of the other labor camps transferred certain prisoners to Auschwitz to be put to death. At Dachau, more people died of starvation, exhaustion and disease than they did in the Gas Chambers.
It was one of the first concentration camps and it was also one of the last ones shut down.
The death chambers – first stop, fumigation cubicles where people were asked to undress, next the showers with areas to drop canisters of gas in.
The final room where the bodies were cremated.
The areas around the camp were beautiful but the wall below was used for executions and next to it is a memorial to the unknown graves.
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