“Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work will set you free”) stood before the victims of the Dachau Concentration Camp as they entered thru the gates at the dawn of the Second World War. Perhaps these words carried some truth as the harder they worked; the sooner their souls would be free. KZ-Dachau was the first National Socialist Party (Nazi Party) concentration camp established just outside of Munich. The city of Dachau was chosen because many of the required facilities were in place from a previous ammunitions factory and possibly because Dachau was one of the cities with the least amount of Nazi support. This would provide some motivation for the people of Dachau to recognize the Nazi Party. Dachau was intended to house political enemies of the Nazi Party with 2/3 of all victims being such. Once Hitler was granted emergency power to combat the Communist threat to Germany, he began sending political enemies that could derail the rise of the Nazi party to Dachau.
Dachau was the longest running concentration camp during Nazi rule. The camp has the facilities to support almost 6,000 victims and during the first several years the camp maintained these numbers. It wasn’t until 1939 when the eastern border of the Nazi regime started to crumble that the living conditions become unbearable. In a single year between 1939 and 1942, over 80,000 new victims were brought to Dachau from the eastern extermination camps such as Auschwitz. It was within these years when the majority of the 70,000 plus victims would perish within its walls. It is suspected that far more than 70,000 people died at Dachau as Soviet prisoners of war and those of Jewish heritage were not recorded.
During the entire operation of Dachau, gruesome tortures (both physically and psychological) were placed on the inmates. Words cannot describe the atrocities carried out in these concentration camps. People’s hands were bound behind their backs and hung by the chains for hours, inmates were forced to whip other inmates to increase hatred towards fellow victims and between different ethnicities, instead of the Nazis. The SS guards would look for any reason to lower moral. If your uniform was the wrong size, you put your hands in your pockets, or if you called anyone by name instead of their number you would be beaten. The Prisoners were broken to the point they truly believed they deserved what was happening to them.
Liberation day came on April 19, 1945 to 32,000 victims, twelve years too late. America troops discovered the horrendous site of hundreds of corpses stacked upon one another in front of the crematorium. Although Dachau was outfitted with a crematorium for mass exterminations, it was never used aside from a few “small trials.” The main reason was the lack of coal available to Germany towards the end of the war as well as the need for more worker production. Disgusted by the scene before them, troops hunted down many of the German soldiers and executed them even after they surrendered earning the name of Dachau Massacre. The number of murdered Germans range for 120 to 520. American troops brought many of the locals to the camp to show what had happened and in their disillusions forced them to help clean the facility.
Several memorials have been placed at Dachau including a plaque stating “Never Again” in several languages to remind us that such disregard for human life should never occur in the future, a Triangle memorial commemorating the different types of people interred at the camp, and four churches have been established as a place of worship. The triangle memorial contains several triangular shaped stained glass pieces entwined into chains representing the badges people were forced to wear. Each color represented a different type of victim from political prisoners to Jewish people. The disappointing thing about this memorial is the absence of three colors; homosexuals, mentally disabled, and criminal offenders. These triangles were removed by the International Prisoners Committee (IPC) prior to erecting the memorial in Dachau. It is sad to see that even today not every human life is viewed equally. We do not know who comprises the IPC so if you do let us know!
Please take a minute to think about the atrocities of Genocide, a term not known before the Holocaust. You may think how you would act if this happened again, as it is right now in Africa. The world stated "Never Again," but regions of Darfur in Sudan are still suffering political unrest, with girls being raped and boys soldiers drugged and convinced to kill. You can find more information at www.savedarfur.org.
Here’s a few books we recommend:
“That’s Dachau” about Dachau
“A Long Way Gone” about Darfur
“First They Killed My Father” about the Khemer Rogue
Dachau was the longest running concentration camp during Nazi rule. The camp has the facilities to support almost 6,000 victims and during the first several years the camp maintained these numbers. It wasn’t until 1939 when the eastern border of the Nazi regime started to crumble that the living conditions become unbearable. In a single year between 1939 and 1942, over 80,000 new victims were brought to Dachau from the eastern extermination camps such as Auschwitz. It was within these years when the majority of the 70,000 plus victims would perish within its walls. It is suspected that far more than 70,000 people died at Dachau as Soviet prisoners of war and those of Jewish heritage were not recorded.
During the entire operation of Dachau, gruesome tortures (both physically and psychological) were placed on the inmates. Words cannot describe the atrocities carried out in these concentration camps. People’s hands were bound behind their backs and hung by the chains for hours, inmates were forced to whip other inmates to increase hatred towards fellow victims and between different ethnicities, instead of the Nazis. The SS guards would look for any reason to lower moral. If your uniform was the wrong size, you put your hands in your pockets, or if you called anyone by name instead of their number you would be beaten. The Prisoners were broken to the point they truly believed they deserved what was happening to them.
Liberation day came on April 19, 1945 to 32,000 victims, twelve years too late. America troops discovered the horrendous site of hundreds of corpses stacked upon one another in front of the crematorium. Although Dachau was outfitted with a crematorium for mass exterminations, it was never used aside from a few “small trials.” The main reason was the lack of coal available to Germany towards the end of the war as well as the need for more worker production. Disgusted by the scene before them, troops hunted down many of the German soldiers and executed them even after they surrendered earning the name of Dachau Massacre. The number of murdered Germans range for 120 to 520. American troops brought many of the locals to the camp to show what had happened and in their disillusions forced them to help clean the facility.
Several memorials have been placed at Dachau including a plaque stating “Never Again” in several languages to remind us that such disregard for human life should never occur in the future, a Triangle memorial commemorating the different types of people interred at the camp, and four churches have been established as a place of worship. The triangle memorial contains several triangular shaped stained glass pieces entwined into chains representing the badges people were forced to wear. Each color represented a different type of victim from political prisoners to Jewish people. The disappointing thing about this memorial is the absence of three colors; homosexuals, mentally disabled, and criminal offenders. These triangles were removed by the International Prisoners Committee (IPC) prior to erecting the memorial in Dachau. It is sad to see that even today not every human life is viewed equally. We do not know who comprises the IPC so if you do let us know!
Please take a minute to think about the atrocities of Genocide, a term not known before the Holocaust. You may think how you would act if this happened again, as it is right now in Africa. The world stated "Never Again," but regions of Darfur in Sudan are still suffering political unrest, with girls being raped and boys soldiers drugged and convinced to kill. You can find more information at www.savedarfur.org.
Here’s a few books we recommend:
“That’s Dachau” about Dachau
“A Long Way Gone” about Darfur
“First They Killed My Father” about the Khemer Rogue
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2 comments:
I visited Germany last winter on a study abroad trip and saw the Dachau camp as well. It is a very chilling place to visit. The memorial sculpture makes it especially eerie, don't you think? One interesting fact is that it was turned into a refugee camp after the war.
Seeing "Arbeit Macht Frei" for the first time since my visit instantly evoked a strong feeling inside of me even though it took me a couple of seconds to realize where it came from. Thanks for the post.
-Alexander Leishman (VCT Intern)
Hi J&J, Wow this is cool, I feel like I am on a vacation, if you have some chocolate think of us.
Lv, At Theresa & Un.Bob
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