Dachau

Well my computer has been broken so a lot has happened since then but I will start with where I left off!

So our second camp was Dachau, this camp I found to be “better”. There was a museum inside of the SS buildings and that gave us more of an incite as to what actually happened there. We started with a general explanation of the camp in the Roll call area. Here we learned of the different buildings we would be going to the prison, barracks, showers, former SS building and the crematorium.

We started our tour in the SS building that had been turned into a museum. We were given an explanation as to how records were keep and how orderly the camp was ran.  There were cards for each prisoner the important information such as date name and nationality was written in pen. All other details were to be written in pencil. We were shown the shower room, where hair was cut and a few other general buildings like this. In each building there was information about the daily activities that took place in that building as long as the horrors that took place there as well.  We were also informed of one of the only known prisoners who managed to escape the camp. 

The second building we went into was the prison of the camp. It was not uncommon for prisoners to be kept in solitude for days without food. Here we were also shown the cell of a “famous” prisoner who attacked an SS officer and we were shown several cells that held famous political leaders.

After the prison we made our way to the barracks. When we entered the barracks the first thing we saw was the “bathrooms” there was no plumbing to the toilets so all the waste would just fall under the barracks explaining why there was such a plethora of diseases. On either side of the barracks there were rooms each different room was filled with beds. Throughout the history of the camp there were 3 different styles of bunks used. Inside the barracks the floors were hallow and there was “nothing” under them.  It was explained that it was so if anyone was walking around it would be heard. The prisoners rotated through different jobs they had a day of manual labor then two different kitchen jobs then a day off.

After our visit to the Barrack we walked through what would have been the rows of barracks but what is now a cement foundation, due to disease the barracks were burned.

We made our way to the prison fence not long after then made a little walk to the crematorium. The first section was where the prisoners clothing was chemically cleaned.

 The second room was where people who had just arrived were told they would receive a shower. 

The showers.....

The following room was the showers.
Then bordering the crematorium on either side were rooms that were used to store bodies until their turn to be cremated.
 Each oven could take 4-5 bodies at a time, but it wasn’t uncommon for bodies to be piled up behind the building awaiting their turn in the oven.

The wooden beams were also used to hang prisoners as a form of punishment. They would be hung there while forced to watch bodies burning....

That evening we returned to our hotel we ate a quick dinner then were encouraged by the teachers that accompanied the other two schools to run to our rooms drop our baggage off then to come back to the lobby and have a beer with them…. Never in a million years would I have imagined teachers encouraging students to drink…… la vie belgique!! We put our stuff down then talked with the Rotarian whom accompanied us. We heard his story and how he went to live in the country during the war and he also showed us some books that he had.  That next morning we headed back to Belgium!