Dachau Concentration Camp

Now for a much somber topic.  The day after I arrived in Munich I visited Dachau, the first concentration camp built by the Nazis and the model for subsequent concentration camps.  This camp was built in 1933 and originally housed political prisoners, but soon swelled to house Sinta and Roma, Jews, and other enemies of the Nazi Party.

The former gatehouse of Dachau.  This is what prisoners saw upon entering the camp.

The former gate to the Dachau prison.  The translation is "Work makes (you) free" and was installed in the entrances to many concentration camps.

With the mass influx of prisoners, the camp became overcrowded with inhuman living conditions.  The barracks that were built to house 200 prisoners, became cramped spaces for 2000.  The overcrowded and unclean conditions, led to multiple epidemics of typhus throughout the camps history.

The former prisoner processing center, which has been converted into a museum detailing the dark history of the Dachau Concentration Camp. 

Two prison barracks that were recreated to inform visitors of the terrible prison conditions.  The large empty space was the former prisoner assembly area.

In Dachau, Nazi scientists performed inhumane experiments on prisoners and devised terrible torture and interrogation techniques.  To handle the dead from the experiments, torture, and mass executions; bodies were burned in 4 large incineration chambers.  Although gas chambers were also built at Dachau, they were never used on a mass execution level.

This building housed the 4 large incineration chambers and the gas chambers.

It was a truly sobering experience, and lead to the introspective question: Do all humans have an innate darkness that enables us to feel no empathy for our fellow man?

Tomorrow, a walking tour will guide us through the historic streets of Munich.