Lest We Forget

While in Munich, we had the chance to visit the first concentration camp opened in Germany called Dachau concentration camp. It's hard to describe standing on the grounds of a place that caused so much suffering and took so many lives. It was very moving. With Remembrance Day coming up I thought I would share a few of the pictures that we took. I recommend that if you ever get the chance you visit a concentration camp.  It is hard to wrap your mind around all the pain that was endured, but it is important to remember what went on at these camps. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The door to the camp, "Work Sets You Free"

Roll call area. This happened daily, took hours or all day, and prisoners weren't allowed to move. Everyone had to be accounted for, which meant dragging out bodies of bunk mates who had passed away in the evening.

This is a bunk room. Each single bed would have to fit 5 to 6 people. Sometimes they would get so crowded that people would get smothered and die in their sleep.

Disrobing room. Victims would remove and leave clothes in this room before entering the gas chamber disguised as a "shower".  Clothing was brought to the disinfecting chamber before the next group was brought in.

This is where the guards would put the poisonous gas (zyklon-b) for the gas chambers. 

This is the gas chamber. Victims were told they were going to take a "shower" and the room even had fake shower spouts in it. During a 15 to 20 minute period up to 150 people could be suffocated in the gas chambers. 

Death chamber, where the dead were brought before they were cremated.

crematorium

A picture from liberation day. If you look closely you can see the bad shape that a lot of the prisoners were in. The man on the bottom right corner with the "X" on this back, who looks like an old man, is only in his 20s. He is so malnourished that his spinal cord is visible at the back of his neck. Our tour guide did not know how this man could still be alive, let alone standing.