Dachau Concentration Camp...
A recent visit to Dachau near Munich Germany bought the chance to photograph one of the most iconic sites of World II, the Dachau Concentration Camp. Please be forewarned the image on this page maybe of a graphic nature, however this site is a graphic place and especially because of this fact, it is import the story is told and not forgotten less it be repeated to the detriment of man.
While the most notorious camp of World War II may have been Auschwitz (an extermination camp) in Poland, it was liberated by the Soviets under Joseph Stalin and did not receive the media coverage which Dachau (a labor camp) did as it was liberated by British and American forces and therefore became the iconic symbol of the atypical concentration camp to the western world. In fact it was the atypical or model camp upon which the rest of the network of camps where build upon, meaning "new ideas" were developed in Dachau then implemented else where in the system. Specifically the infamous "showers" and "fumigation chambers".
From the links above you can read all about both site in far greater detail then could possibly written here and would suggest do so to better understand the images you will see. As the setting today is serene with small clear steam running though the property, with the breeze blowing on a warm spring day makes it easy to forget all the ugliness this very spot stood witness to may years ago.
|
As the prisoners would approach the complex after a 2 mile march from the city center they would be faced with the tunnel entrance to the Dachau camp. For many it was to be a one way trip. Also note worthy is the fact that two-thirds of all the Dachau prisoners, including the prisoners in the sub-camps, were non-Jewish political prisoners with Polish Catholics in the majority. |
| click Image above for larger view | |
 |
Once at the gate the prisoners were met by the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" when translated literally states "work makes free". In many of the western slang translations it became "work will set you free". This was to be a common phrase to adorn the entrance of many a concentration camp including Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen, and Terezin. |
| click Image above for larger view | |
 |
While the living conditions of the barracks were deplorable, the building feared the most was this one. The crematorium as it also housed the "fumigation" stalls and the infamous "shower" prototype. Depending on who's count you use, anywhere from 67,000 to 243,000 souls perished in this building. When liberated in 1945 the Nazi's had run out of coal for the ovens and started stackingthe bodies like cord wood in front of the building. Upon the arrival of the Allied forces, some 6,700 had accumulated. |
| click Image above for larger view | |
 |
The shower heads you see in the ceiling have no pipes running to them and the openings you see the morning sun light shining though were used to dump the Zyklon-B pellets into the room. The square "vents" in the ceiling are just that, vents to expel the gas once its job was done. Also note worthy is the ceiling in this room is very low and there is a feeling I can not explain when one stands a mist all of this. |
| click Image above for larger view | |
 |
The site has 6 crematory ovens, 4 in this main build and 2 more in another smaller building about 20 yards away. Even as I write this, its still hard to get my mind around this whole experience as it was it was horrific to even imagine the fear one felt as they walked the path to this building. To this, even before the war ended on May 8, 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered that as many American soldiers as possible should be brought to see the gas chamber in the crematorium, where a sign outside said, "This area is being retained as a shrine to the 238,000 individuals who were cremated here. Please don't destroy." |
| click Image above for larger view | |
 |
One parting thought, my lovely wife always wonders why I have interest in
photographic such ugliness. The answer is an easy one, in order to
appreciate beauty one has to understand ugliness. With this as I
exited the same gate which many had made only a one way trip, I had a new
appreciation for the beauty of a "free" life...
|
| click Image above for larger view | Click Here for flikr gallery with more images |