Dachau Concentration Camp

July 17th, 2016

   Yesterday we visited Dachau to learn about the concentration camp that took 63,000 men in labor and I humane punishments. We arrived roughly around 11 am and Tobias, our friendly guide and European History teacher, taught us the historical background behind the camp.

   The camp was mainly aimed to capture political prisoners near Dachau. After Hitler became the Reich Chancellor in Jan 1933, he opened a camp in Dachau where politicians were forced to do harsh Kanpur. Two years later, Hitler expanded th capacity of prisoners by putting innocent civilians who were either homosexual, immigrants, dark skinned or witnesses from Jenovah. They were forced to do 12 hours of work in murderous conditions. German industries such as Mercedes Benz and BMW supported Hitler's reign and prisoners wet forced to build propellers, and tanks. Some were also forced to make armaments for the German force during WW2.

   Despite the harsh work, they were only given 600kcal worth of food, which caused many to die of starvation, and malnutrition. In addition, they were given small sleeping spaces and only 4 bathrooms per 2000 men, which was simply not enough. The SS men (soldiers at the camp, allies of hitler) promised them "Arbeit Macht Feit", which means "Work hard, and you will be free" which was obviously a lie, in order to lift their motivation to work harder. 

   On April 1945, the US force finally attacked the SS men and freed 32,000 prisoners from living hell.

   Tobias took us to cells where prisoners took shelte. Before ending the tour we also visited the crematorium and the gas chamber where prisoner's bodies were disposed.

   Overall, this experience has showed me Germany's strong will to prevent terrors such as this to happen ever again.