Boy have I been busy with life lately. I realized I haven't been on this poor blog of mine for several months now! Well it's time to get the ball rollin' again and start telling all of you about our adventures in Germany! I'll start with a more recent trip of ours, to the Dachau Concentration Camp in Dachau, Bavaria.
I learned a lot about the Dachau concentration camp during our visit...
Dachau was the first of the Nazi concentration camps to be built, and a model for the ones built after it. It opened in 1933 to hold political prisoners. In 1935 the Nuremberg law made it possible for them to hold many other people as well. Dachau was originally built to hold 5,000 prisoners who spent their time doing forced labor which was eventually used as another way to torture them. After 1942 the camp held more than 12,000 prisoners (more than 7,000 over capacity). Over 40,000 people died here from murder, suicide, gas chambers, disease, medical experiments and more over the 12 years of it running. On April 29th, 1945 U.S. troops liberated the survivors.
Entrance to the camp
The original gate, reads "Work sets you free"
Guard tower
Here, no longer standing, were many buildings that housed the prisoners.
The bunks, where prisoners slept.
The "special" prisoner hallway. These cells held prisoners such as priests. This building also contained "standing cells" that had a floor area of 70x70cm which prevented prisoners from sitting or laying down. Prisoners were in these cells for up to 72 hours at a time.
The sign above the door reads "Shower Room." But is false. The room from which I took this picture was the disrobing room. Where prisoners were to remove their clothes and were told they were to be taking a shower. They would then enter this next room through this door, which is actually a gas chamber.
The crematorium room was located on the other side of the gas chamber.
I'm very thankful to be able to not only be living in Germany, but have the opportunity to travel, and see things with such history like I did on this day.
