Dachau and Munich Memorial to the Victims of National Socialism

This is a difficult one to write. 

I have avoided visiting any of the camps for decades.  I didn’t think about it much but my initial reaction, whenever the opportunity came up, was to avoid them.  It made me sick thinking about it even superficially.

Geri wanted to see at least one though and when we talked it through and I thought about it I came to the conclusion that I should probably have done this years ago.  So we added Munich to our trip this year and spent a day at Dachau.

This was the first camp, set up in 1933 for politicals.  Members of the Communist and Social Democratic parties, trade unionists and other opposition figures.  It later expanded to include large numbers of Jews and Roma.  It was a small camp by the standards of such things.  ‘Only’ about 40,000 people were killed there though about 200,000 were ‘processed’ at Dachau.

As the first of the concentration camps it was also the place where the Nazis tested their methodologies which then were applied at the other camps.

Read about it if you don’t know more.

I think we were expecting something more horrific, something closer to the reality (which of course would be impossible) and so we were both a bit tense in anticipation.  Frankly while the experience of seeing the hooks in front of the crematorium ovens where thousands were strangled to death so as the reduce the time and trouble involved in moving bodies from the execution site is horrific, in many respects the Holocaust Museums we have seen are far worse as they come closer to the reality in many ways.

One bizarre aspect of the tour was seeing things like the houses along one edge of the camp that are perhaps 20 metres from the barracks where the Gestapo interrogated politicals.  The upstairs rooms in those houses would have that building and all it stands for, as the first thing seen every morning and the last at night.

A bit sad in a terribly sad place is the monument to the victims that stands on the site.  Gay and lesbian victims and the Roma are not to be seen.  It was designed in the early 1960’s.

Despite my earlier reluctance I would highly recommend a visit to any of the camps after ours.

I also visited the monument to the victims of national socialism.  I thought it way to too modest for a city with monuments and statues of pretty much anyone and everyone, including a larger monument to the inventor of baby food, believe it or not.  But it was impressive despite that and very thoughtfully designed and sited. 

Photos of both are HERE.

One thing we did not enjoy was our guide.  In retrospect and without the trepidation we felt before going we should have just made our won way out there (easy to do) and paid the nominal fee to rent an audio guide for a self-guided tour.