The SS were some sick, sick people

Entrance to the Dachau Concentration Camp site.
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Today we decided to drive up to Dachau to see the Concentration Camp Memorial. On our way there we got lost in the city of Dachau, which is very big, and ended up seeing the castle in Dachau.

The concentration camp has a free admission, but you do have to pay for parking and the audio guides.

"Dear God, make me dumb, so I will not to Dachau come!"

You should start out at the museum part to get a total history from beginning to end about the rise and fall of the third reich and what took place until 1945 at the concentration camps. It does explain how Hitler came to power and the economic conditions that led others to follow him into his insanity. There are a lot of posters and pictures describing everything in detail. The museum part ends with a video you can watch showing the American Liberators coming into the camp and freeing the detainees. You can then go to each of the buildings that are left on the site of the camp and view the holding cells, bathrooms, showers, barracks and the crematorium. There are several religious shrines erected for different religions. There also is an actual church where they hold services on Sundays.

Dachau's Crematorium.
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Most of the barracks where the detainees where held are destroyed, but they have the foundations still visible. They also had a brothel there where the women detainees were forced to become prostitutes so the detained men would work better. The detainees were being sold out as slaves to businesses to bolster the war effort.

The saddest part of the camp was the crematorium. We actually got to walk through the "showers" where the detainees would get gassed. They claimed that the gassing never happened at this camp, but the next room was where they piled up the dead bodies before burning them individually in the furnaces.

Dachau Memorial.
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Dachau was considered the most evil of all concentration camps that the SS had. Dachau had such a bad reputation, that they would promote from within to run other camps such as Auschwitz.

In 12 concentration camps the "educational work" of Hitler's regime was in full operation. In the Dachau camp, the number of prisoners shot "while attempting to escape" rose and in Munich the rhyme circulated: "Dear God, make me dumb, so I will not to Dachau come!" - prisoner account by Walter Hornung.

It wasn't the best note to end our trip on, but we are glad we got to see it.

Now we will be heading home on Thursday. It will be a long trip.

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