I got to Munich at precisely 9:30 am; gotta love German punctuality. I started out by walking down to the Marienplatz, or public square. It's the largest in the city and stands as the center of social activity. It also has a central clock tower and famous Glockenspiele that tells a story of medieval knights in a jousting tournament and townspeople afterwards at a dance holding the city's banner aloft. The bells and chimes play every day at 11:00 am and 5:00 pm and always draws a huge crowd.
From the Marienplatz I walked down to Munich's famous outdoor marketplace, the Viktualienmarkt. There was around 140 different stands with everything from meats/cheeses, vegetables/fruits, and baked goods to flowers, crafts, and fine artwork/paintings. Rising from the center of the market was a blue and white stripped maypole. It once served as a kind of medieval "Yellow Pages" for travellers; the signs indicated the goods and services available in the city.
The second half of the day I spent at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. It was a very humbling experience. Dachau was the "parent" camp, the originator, the role-model and training ground for the vast order of brutality that spread over half of Europe by the armies of the Third Reich. Almost everything that happened in the system as a whole happened at some level at Dachau. The memorial site today combines the historical authenticity of the original environment and its many surviving buildings with the function of a modern museum. It is a place that provides a deeply moving and memorable experience for visitors. I was personally struck by a profound sense of peace, a feeling that perhaps seems odd given the atrocities and horrors that took place there more than 65 years go. But to me I felt hope. I felt freedom.
The camp opened with the arrival of the first prisoners on March 22, 1933. They arrived by train and part of the tracks and unloading platform still remain.
The main exit and entrance to the prisoners' camp was known as the Jourhaus. Passage through this building was made possible by a rod iron gate, which separated the prisoners from the outside world. The gate displayed the Nazi motto "Work will make you free" and characterized the mentality of the SS, who implemented forced labor as a method of torture and as an extension of the terror of concentration life. This entrance that prisoners were forced to use would later be the entrance that survivors would re-enter as free people.
One of the first things visitors see after passing through the Jourhas is a monument. Officially dedicated in 1968, it was designed by an artist and concentration camp survivor. The inscription is presented in many languages: "May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933 and 1945 because of their fight against National Socialism unite the living in their defense of peace and freedom and in reverence of human dignity." This monument is located near the former roll-call square. It was in this area that prisoners were counted every morning and evening, and assigned to their work details. Punishment measures were announced and carried out here publicly to intimidate other prisons.
The main building was where the admission procedure to the Dachau concentration camp was completed. This process was brutal and meant to remove personal rights, liberty, and human autonomy. Clothes and personal possessions were surrendered. SS officers issued the prisoners numbers, stripping them of their individuality. This building now serves a the main camp exhibition. It gives general information about the Nazi concentration camp system and explanations of all the buildings on site. Display tables show objects that were surrendered by prisoners.
Behind the main building is the bunker, or prison wing. It was used above all to punish prisoners and to extort confessions. Also imprisoned here were some so-called "special prisoners" of war, like George Elser who had attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1945. It was also site for inflicting punishment and carrying out executions. Watch towers oversaw the area.
The camp road leads from the roll-call area to the largest section of the former concentration camp grounds, where the prisoner barracks used to be. Originally there were 34 barracks with sleeping quarters, toilets, and showers. These overcrowded buildings held over 30,00 people, five times more than were originally intended.
The crematorium grounds were strictly separated from the prisoners' camp and only crematorium work details were permitted to enter this area. It also served as an execution site. The old crematorium was built in 1940.
The new crematorium, also known as barrack X, was built in 1942. In this building they began experimenting with mass exterminations. Gas was flowed into the building through small access points on the outside of the building.
The largest memorial of the site is located just outside the main building. The human skeleton sculpture commemorates those, who in an act of desperation, jumped into the barbed wire fence. It is framed by cement posts that reflect the security installations of the former concentration. The triangle sculpture recalls the badges that marked every prisoner. Together these monuments honor the tens of thousands who died as victims of National Socialist tyranny. It was dedicated on September 8, 1968.
It was late into the evening when I finally finished up out at Dachau. I headed back to the train station in Munich, exhausted, and caught an ICE train back to Stuttgart and eventually to Esslingen. It was a long, but very satisfying day.
The next morning I got packed up and headed to the airport. 16 or so hours later I was finally home. And jet lagged. But feeling so incredibly grateful for the chance to travel to Europe. I absolutely loved it. So much so that I'm already planning next year's trip. :)
2 comments:
I'm planning it, too! :-)
Wow.
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