Worldwide Travel

[#1]

The St. Petersburg Times recently ran an article about the town of Dachau just outside of Munich and its WWII concentration camp. Reading the article brought back powerful memories of the two times I visited Dachau—the first time in 1971 and the second in 1996. My first visit was a haunting experience that stayed with me for years. Twenty-five years later, visiting Dachau again left me emotionally distraught, but also hopeful.

It was a cloudy, cold day in April 1971 when we pulled up to the gate at Dachau. There were only three other cars in the parking lot and we saw no other people as we walked in. The grounds of the camp area were as stark and bleak as any place I have ever been. As we entered a building marked “Museum,” an employee handed us a brochure and left us to explore on our own.

It was rather dark in the unheated museum building, which seemed to add to the oppressive and chilling atmosphere. We were the only people in the museum and silently moved through the exhibits, seeing the poignant photographs and reading about what life in the camp was like for those imprisoned there. The number of people who suffered and died there, even though it wasn’t an extermination camp, was overwhelming.

But it was the silence, the absence of life and the feeling that unspeakable horror had happened there is what I remember most. After leaving the museum we continued to walk around the camp in utter silence without seeing another person. It was a disquieting experience.

Twenty-five years later while traveling in Bavaria, I wanted my husband to see and experience Dachau too. It was late May and a lovely, sunny day. When we drove into the parking lot, I was astounded to see it full of cars and tour buses. As we walked to the museum, we could see and hear throngs of school children laughing and playing on the grounds and watched several tour groups being led from building to building. Dachau was now alive with people where it had been devoid of life before.

The sense of appalling horror no longer pervaded the camp. There was life there again. But even with the vitality that I could feel in the air, Dachau’s story was still as poignant and moving as it had been in 1971. Visitors moved slowly through the museum in respectful silence absorbing the atrocities depicted.

The biggest difference, however, was that the crowd of mostly German visitors were now intensely interested in what had happened at Dachau. When I was there in 1971, the German people didn’t visit Dachau. They were still trying to understand and accept what happened in Germany during the Nazi era. The events of WWII were still too fresh and raw in their memories. 

Twenty-five years changed the atmosphere at Dachau from a painful symbol of Nazi extremism to a place filled with hope for a peaceful future. My personal hope is that every visitor to Dachau leaves with a renewed sense that the Holocaust must never be allowed to happen again.

[#2]

I too visited Dachau but in the late 80's and felt the same eerie, sad atmosphere you described.  It wasn't as empty as in the early 70's but I don't think it was jubilant as today since Germany still had the Berlin Wall.  It was a very moving, memorable experience and I too hope every visitor can walk away with an understanding of the camp's history.  

[#3]

by grandpa dewitt,

My visit to Dachau in 1951-1952 was to attend the USArmy Eucom Troop Information and Education School in the former Nazi Oficers Barracks in the concentration Camp. Our school shared the quarters with an army band school, which made the daylight hours very musical, but the nights were eerily quiet, except for the moaning of the wind in the surrounding grove of tall trees. I was made to feel very humble and sad as the history of the camp unfolded in day by day walks disclosed the horrible crematorium ovens and the shabby prisoners shacks. I shall always remember the railroad tracks and gate arch words "ARBEIT MACHT FRIE" TO be supperseded by "NIET WEIDER" as we hope NEVER AGAIN. The tiny village of Dachau need feel no shame, for what the Nazi monsters committed in the name of Adolph Hitler. I will visit Dachau again to enjoy that innocent town and the beautiful countryside. 

[#4]

In the early 1970s when we were stationed in Heidelberg (HQ USAEUR & 7th Army), speaking to Germans about WWII and the atrocities at the concentration camps was considered rude behavior by us American troops. When you were there in the 1950s, I suspect WWII was still too fresh to ignore, but by the 1970s the Germans seemed to want to pretend it never happened. When I've visited Germany over the past 10 years, I've been impressed by the way the German people are now acknowledging what happened and educating their children -- I hope to ensure that it never happens again!  Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Dachau.  It is certainly a place that left an impression on me and made me remember how grateful I am that I was born in the USA!