A Day at Dachau (by Heather)

---

One of the must do’s on our Europe trip is to visit Auschwitz when we get to Poland. I wasn’t sure whether I would go to Dachau or not. Ed, having been there when he came to Europe in his early 20’s said I should go – and I am glad I did.



The camp was the first concentration camp in the Nazi regime, set up in March 1933 (Hitler only came to power at the end of January 1933 – things moved fast). Originally it was used to house mainly political prisoners. The first camp commandant was seen as too lax and was replaced by Theodor Eicke who set up stringent rules and punishments in the camp. He later took on the role to oversee the structures and regimes at other concentration camps. All of the key camp commandants and other high officials received their training based on Eicke’s methods and mainly at Dachau. The camp was even closed for a period between 1939 and 1940 and all residents moved to other camps. During this time, intensive training was given to all officers who would serve in concentration camps.



SS Officers who served in the camps went through very strict training processes – that also included a serious amount of brainwashing to believe that the prisoners were of no value and less than human. One of the things that has fascinated me over the years is how anyone could treat another human in such a horrid manner. But we also have to remember that the climate in Germany overall was one of desperation. After the end of WWI, the reparations that had to be paid crippled the country. Just as they were starting to recover, the global depression of 1929 hit the country. When the National Socialist Party came to power, over 6 million German citizens were unemployed. Hitler promised reform and work for all. Anti-Semitism was already high in the country. The propaganda used on the public and military alike portrayed the Jewish people as parasites.



On top of all that, the public soon saw that anyone who opposed the regime was quickly silenced – either by incarceration in a concentration camp or extermination.



I don’t say any of that to excuse the actions, but to maybe try and have a little bit of understanding as to how this could happen and how the general public could let it happen.



Life inside the camp was designed to subjugate, humiliate and to have the prisoners living in constant fear. Mindless, useless labour worked many people to the bone. Jewish prisoners suffered the worst, even in the early days. Jobs such as shovelling sand from one pile to another and back again for endless hours were designed to work people to death.



Even in “free time” in the barracks – it was spent making beds and scrubbing floors to better than military precision. One of the commentaries from a prisoner that I listened to described just how the mattresses (straw stuffed into sacks) had to be set up, with the bedding on top in absolute uniformity. If one mattress as even slightly higher than another or the bedding not folded to the specific 60cm width placed 20cm from the end of the bed (measuring sticks were provided), this would lead to punishment – in the form of hanging from poles for hours at a time. And hanging from poles meant hands tied behind the back and then lifted backwards behind and over the head to hang. It must have been so painful.



There are pieces of this history that we all know about – mass killings (although Dachau was not an extermination camp, about 41,500 people died there), scientific experiments, hunger and anguish. Going to Dachau meant you could spend time exploring about people’s lives. The actual site and the museum have been preserved to help visitors try and walk – just a tiny bit – in the shoes (or should I say ill-fitting wooden clogs) of the prisoners.



Dachau was liberated on April 29 1945 by two American divisions. They were faced with a stench of death, a camp designed to hold 6,000 having more than 30,000 sick and malnourished prisoners, and piles of corpses that had not been cremated because there was no coal.



The camp residents were not actually allowed to just walk out – typhus was rampant in the camp as well as lice and other parasites. The camp turned into a quarantine site for the next few weeks – but the former prisoners were provided with warm clothing and nourishing food. However, over those next few weeks more than 2,000 people died from the diseases and effects of their internment.



The residents of the town of Dachau were forced to come into the camp and view what had been happening on their doorsteps. Even though there was denial that they knew what was going on, you can’t help but wonder what they really knew. But, what could they have done?



The site now holds some really moving memorials. Over the years, things have been added, exhibitions have changed and the site has been used for many things.



I couldn’t help but wonder what I would have done living in those times. I like to think that had I been a German, I would have done what I could to speak out or to try and save lives. If I had been a Jew, I like to think that I would have tried to live – to see the end and speak out. But then I look at my son, and know – had I been a mother, I would have done everything I could to protect my child.



People lived in fear – either inside or outside of a concentration camp. People would have done what they felt they could cope with – and either way, lived or died by the consequences. I am sure many Germans after the end of the war lived with guilt – and probably a lot still do today.



Never again.

---