Today's target run: 48 minutes
Today’s completed run: 36 minutes
Our last stop in Munich was to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site located in the small town of Dachau. Forever, this town will be associated with horrors of the concentration camp that shares its name.
Heinrich Himmler first organized Dachau as a concentration camp for enemies of the Third Reich in 1933. It ultimately grew to include everyone from Communists and Social Democrats, Jews, Gays, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, clergymen, political opponents, trade union members, and many others. During its 12 year history (1933-1945), more than 206,000 prisoners from 30 countries were imprisoned here.
Some prisoners were forced into slave labor, while others died at the hands of the Nazis due to starvation, disease, medical experimentation, or mass murder (beatings, firing squads, and the gas chamber). At least 30,000 people were “registered” as dying while in Dachau, but there are countless thousands that were also murdered here, even if complete records were not kept.
The SS abandoned the camp on April 28, 1945 and the US Army moved in the following day. In all, a total of 67,000 “living” prisoners, most on the verge of death, were discovered at Dachau and its subsidiary camps.
An escaped inmate, Joesph Rovan described this place as “implacable, perverted, an organization that was totally murderous, a marvelous machine for the debasement and dehumanization of man.” Today, this museum serves as a reminder of the atrocities that occurred here and a warning and a reminder to never let it happen again.
I debated as to whether to include many of these photos on the blog. I chose to do so as a memorial to those who perished in this hell on earth.
What it must have looked like to those entering the camp for the first time. The snow and cold weather just further contributed to the bleakness of the setting.
The watch tower at Dachau.
Entrance to Dachau; prisoners were registered here as they entered the prison camp.
A view of the grounds which held the 206,000 people who passed through Dachau as prisoners.
The barracks at Dachau.
Another of the prisoner barracks at Dachau.
Site of the many barrack buildings at Dachau; today, only the foundations of these buildings remain.
Sleeping and bathroom quarters of one of the remaining barracks at Dachau.
Russian chapel and memorial to the more than 4500 Russians who lost their lives at Dachau.
The building that housed the gas chamber and crematorium at Dachau.
Entrance to the “showers” at Dachau.
The site of the horrific Dachau gas chamber.
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