Dachau Concentration Camp

Sunday, July 7th, was a more sobering day as we paid a visit to Dachau, the first concentration camp to be opened and one of the last to be liberated. There is one way in and out of the camp. The door is marked with the infamous slogan of the concentration camps, "Arbeit macht frei" or "work makes you free".

Two barracks stand side-by-side; in between, a row of trees formed an alley leading past the 32 empty, marked slots where prisoners of the camp were held. The capacity of the camp was 5000 prisoners, but near the end of the war, nearly 25,000 people were packed into these tiny buildings.

In the museum, we watched a video showing actual footage of the suffering and mistreatment that was occurring in the camps. Citizens who knew nothing about what went on in the camps were permitted entrance shortly after the war, and many left shaking their heads, speechless and ashamed of what took place so close to their homes.

Located in the back corner of the camp is the crematorium and gas chamber (though the gas chamber was never put into operation). In the surrounding area stood memorials to those who lost their lives in the devastation.

One of the most amazing parts about being able to read German is how much more memorials affect me. I have to think about the translation and what the words mean. I may not understand things word for word, but using context clues makes me genuinely think about the meaning of the memorial.

Memorials here read, "The dead, an honest reminder to the living" and "Crematorium: remember how we died here." The stone pictured below reads something along the lines of "For freedom | Righteousness | And the honor of those who died", and for some reason, I found these words and this memorial to be incredibly powerful in that moment. 

Another sign of remembrance reads "Never again". At the entrance is a memorial to those who lost their lives standing up to the Nazi regime. Those who spoke out against Nazism were also held, many killed, in the concentration camps. This serves as a beautiful reminder that many people, especially Germans, were willing to speak out against the wrongdoings of the Nazi party even in the face of imminent danger.