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Published: August 21st 2016
Today J, T, JP and I took a tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial site. The tour was quite informative although I thought the guide was rushing us through it.
The Memorial Site on the grounds of the former concentration camp was established in 1965 on the initiative of and in accordance with the plans of the surviving prisoners who had joined together to form the Comité International de Dachau.
On March 22, 1933, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reich Chancellor, a concentration camp for political prisoners was set up in Dachau. This camp served as a model for all later concentration camps and as a "school of violence" for the SS men under whose command it stood. In the twelve years of its existence over 200.000 persons from all over Europe were imprisoned here and in the numerous subsidary camps. 41.500 were murdered. On April 29 1945, American troops liberated the survivors.
The barracks where the prisonners were kept are no longer there as they were demolished after the liberation. However, 2 replicas were constructed for the memorial site. The barracks had been built to hold 200 prisonners each. at the end
of the war, when the US army liberated Dachau concentration camp there were 1500 prisoners per barracks. You can still see the cement foundations of 30 barracks. We also visited the torture room where you can see a flogging table, the crematorium and gas chamber.
It is difficult to imagine the horror that went on there, but the site still exists today so that we do not forget. I noticed that not very may people talk while walking through the camp. Our group was very quite, not very many had questions for the guide.
See additional photos
This is our last day in Munich. Tomorrow we start our journey home. First a train to Prague to catch a plane home. Looking forward to being home again.
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