The gate that each, soon to be prisoner, would walk through stating that WORK WILL SET YOU FREE.

Thousands of prisoners would be marched to the main square, dressed in thin clothing, no shoes and demanded to stand in 20 degrees below zero.  This sculpture is in remembrance of those that ran towards the electric fence in hopes to end their misery.

A glance into one of the many rooms where some of 3000 priests and German political people that stood up against Hitler’s ways were imprisoned.  We learned that the camps were not just for Jews but anyone who did not submit to the idea that there is one supreme race.

These barracks slept 280 people as the prisoners increased they slept 3 to a bed.  How is that possible…….it becomes possible when the men shriveled down to a mere 78 pounds.  When disease would run out of control they would pack 2,080 prisoners into a space built for 280.

 

A second crematorium had to be built because they could not keep up with the thousands of dying prisoners.

A burial site for the many unknown prisoners.

The term holocaust comes from the Greek word holokauston referring to an animal sacrifice  offered to a god in which the whole (olos) animal is completely burnt (kaustos)

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The camp was originally designed for holding German and Austrian political prisoners and Jews, but in 1935 it began to be used also for ordinary criminals. Inside the camp there was a sharp division between the two groups of prisoners; those who were there for political reasons and therefore wore a red tag, and the criminals, who wore a green tag. The political prisoners who were there because they disagreed with Nazi Party policies, or with Hitler, naturally didn’t consider themselves criminals.

Dachau was used as the chief camp for Christian (mainly Catholic) clergy who were imprisoned for not conforming with the Nazi Party line.

During the war, other nationals were transferred to it, including French, in 1940 Poles, in 1941 people from the Balkans, Czechs, Yugoslavs, and in 1942, Russians

When the concentration camp first opened the guards realized they needed something for the prisoners to do so they would have them stack a pile of rocks 82 feet high and then in the evening they would have to tear the pile down and spread it back out.  They would do this day after day.  They were fed about 400 calories a day.  There were 32,000 deaths documented at Dachau from 1933 to 1945 and thousands undocumented.  Between those same years 3.5 million Germans were imprisoned in such concentration camps for political reasons.  77, 000 Germans were killed because of some form of resistance.

During the genocide 11 million people were murdered, over 1 million of them being children and 6 million Jews. Also targeted were mentally and physically disabled and homosexuals.

On a lighter note, this little boy did a fabulous job on a 3 hour tour atop his daddy’s shoulders.