A Visit to Dachau

While Chad gets the fun posts about beer pilgrimages and pork poisoning, I will take the ones about the less fun parts of our trip, such as our visit to Dachau on Sunday.

I have been to Auschwitz (near Krakow, Poland), but this was Chad's first visit to a concentration camp memorial.  Perhaps fittingly, Sunday was a miserable day in the weather department - pouring rain, icy wind, damp air, and about 6 degrees.

There is nothing I can say here that will suffice to describe the horrors that went on there.  What I can tell you is that Dachau was the first concentration camp, opened in 1933 until liberation in 1945.  It started as a camp for political prisoners, but quickly expanded with Hitler's reign.  The camp was rebuilt (by prisoners) in 1937-38 to accommodate 6,000 prisoners.  Just before liberation in 1945, it was housing almost 60,000.

The exhibits are very well done, and this is an absolutely necessary visit for anyone coming to Munich.  For now, I'll leave you with one of the few photos Chad took - the entry gate through which all the prisoners marched upon entry before they were stripped of their clothing, hair, freedom, and dignity.  In the words of the audio guide, "It mocked incoming prisoners by telling them that 'work shall set you free'".