Ulm and Dachau

The next weekend we spent one of the most amazing weekends in Germany thus far.  We left Friday night after Brian got back from work and drove about halfway to Munich stopping outside of Ulm at this nice Bed and Breakfast.  It was very scenic and there was creek running right next to the building.  We had a nice relaxing night here.

Our room had this deck as well.

The next morning we drove a few hours to a town right outside of Munich called Dachau.  This was the place of the first concentration camp in Germany and served as the model for other camps throughout Europe.  Dachau was not an extermination camp such as Auschwitz, but nonetheless more than 25,000 prisoners died here due to malnutrition, disease, and maltreatment.  It opened in March of 1933 and was liberated in April of 1945, operating more than 12 years.

This is the main gate that all prisoners walked through after arriving by train.  The phrase translates to "Work Makes One Free"

Here is a guard tower mostly as it was during operation with the fence that encircled the entire camp.

A small part of the fence was reconstructed as it was when Dachau was in operation.  There is a large ditch with barbed wire leading up to the fence which was also covered in barbed wire.  Anyone seen trying to cross the ditch to get to the fence was shot upon by guards in the tower.

From where we are standing in the above picture, walk straight ahead and take a left out a gate and across a bridge and you get to the crematoriums.  They were not in the prisoner area and are hidden behind trees, but surely the prisoners knew what was happening here.  This memorial stands at the end of the bridge and reads "Crematorium, Remember How We Died Here."

Here is the outside of the new crematorium.  There was an older smaller one, but this larger one was built later.

The ashes of the prisoners were buried in a few spots just outside the main building.  Here is one of them with a marker reading "Graves of Thousands Unknown."

Also behind the building was an execution area that was used for several Soviet POWs.  Prisoners were shot in front of an earthen wall.

In front of the wall was a marker showing were a shallow ditch was cut in the ground that acted as a drain for the blood of executed prisoners.

Here is the wall where the prisoners were executed.

A bullet hole in the wall.

In this picture you can make out the shallow ditch for the blood to drain.

Another place that ashes were buried.

Inside the crematorium was a series of rooms that explained the use for each.  It started with a disinfecting room where the prisoners would remove their clothes which were then place in chambers and disinfected with chemicals.  After that they waited in a waiting room outside the Brausebad or shower room.

Of course the room had shower room over the door so prisoners would willingly walk inside believing they were bathing.  Inside of course were fake shower fixtures that could release poison gas.  Dachau did not use these showers.

After the shower room, was another room for the prisoners bodies to be collected before they were moved into the ovens.  Some prisoners that were executed were hung from the rafters right in front of the ovens while others were cremated.  It was difficult to understand why a place with this purpose had been built and it is unimaginable what prisoners must have felt being here more than 60 years ago.

Back outside is the foundation remains of the 20 prisoner barracks.  The area is large and meant to house 250 prisoners per barracks.  When the camp was liberated, the Americans found each barrack house 1600 persons and 32,000 prisoners total.

In front of the main administrative building, which is now the museum, is this memorial depicted bodes tangled in the fence.  Underneath is the phrase "Never Again" in several languages.  After our visit to Normandy and our visit here, we hope that truly, this happens "Nie Wieder."