Holocaust HistoryWhy would you want to go there?
This was the question a number of friends asked when I mentioned to them that I had visited the Dachau Concentration camp while in Germany last month. It is a good question.
In Family Constellations work we discover that the traumas inflicted on millions of people during the horrors of World War 2 are still very much “alive” within the generations that have followed. This is particularly prevalent when working with the descendents of Jewish Holocaust victims and the offspring of their Nazi perpetrators. I therefore felt that it was vital for me, in the interest of better serving my clients, to gain greater insight into the human tragedy that took place in establishments like Dachau Concentration Camp. I was particularly blessed by being able to share the experience with my friend and fellow Family Constellations facilitator Janet Goldblatt, who is Jewish and whose ancestors were amongst the many victims of the Third Reich.
Getting to the camp, which is situated on the outskirts of Munich, is very easy by underground and a regular bus shuttle from the station to entrance of what is now a major tourist attraction. Very few visitors bother to amble through the adjacent picturesque medieval town of Dachau – apparently a sore point with many of the inhabitants – choosing instead to head straight for the entrance to the camp and its notoriously famous iron gate.
The first thing that struck me about Dachau was how beautiful the area is, and it was hard to reconcile the attrocities that started happening here nearly eight decades ago with the very peaceful and verdant green environment. It was quite surreal actually!
Dachau Concentration Camp was established in a unused former First World War munitions factory and was officially opened on 22nd March 1933. On 10th April the SS took over the guarding of prisoners from the Bavarian police and within two days the first prisoners were shot, allegedly while trying to escape. They were the first of over 30 000 inmates who would meet there demise while being interned at there. Many people believe that Dachau was the first concentration camp to be established in Germany, but this is not entirely acccurate. There were other camps which were provisional arrangements with spontaneous acts of terror being committed, but Dachau was the first permanent concentration camp facility of the Bavarian State. The camp's layout, organization, regulations and punishments were all developed by the Kommandant, Theodor Eicke, and became the prototype and model for all later camps - for which Eicke also became the chief inspector.
From 1933 to 1938 the prisoners of Dachau were predominately German nationals – including members of the clergy – who were detained for political reasons. Then from 1938 onwards a significant number of German Jews were interned. Many new prisoners, particularly Jews and public figures, were welcomed with 25 or more lashes from a bullwhip in order to start breaking down their personalities – some didn’t survive this initial ordeal.
One of the most touching exhibits for me was the line of glass cabinets containing the photographs of loved ones and other personal items which were taken from prisoners upon arrival. It was moving to ponder how these treasured items, which had once been lovingly carried in a jacket pocket or in a handbag, were destined never to be returned to their owners.
Dachau was liberated by members of the 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions of the U.S. Army on 29th April 1945. Our visit to the camp coincided with the 65th Anniversary Memorial Service, so the camp temporarily housed a massive marquee filled with dignitaries who had come for the wreath-laying service. It was auspicious timing, but didn’t detract from us being able visit all areas of the camp, which is very well geared for receiving visitors. At the reception to the memorial sight – it is not considered appropriate to call it a tourist attraction – the visitor can hire an audio guide (a handheld digital player) for about R40.
Richard using the audio guide next
to one of the reconstructed barracks.
This, together with a map of the site and its audio stations, allows one to explore the area without the assistance of a guide and to listen – in a choice of eleven languages – to information, eye-witness accounts and interviews with survivors. I found this to be an excellent, introspective way in which to experience the history of the location.
The former maintenance building at Dachau is now a museum which houses a comprehensive exhibition documenting the camps history. This impressive series of displays is quite overwhelming and, in my view, impossible to absorb in a single visit. Fortunately visitors are able to purchase – for about R120 – a book and CD which contains all the texts and photographs from the entire exhibit, which is based on the latest research and was first opened in May 2003.
The 34 rows of barracks which occupied the camp were torn down after 1945. The first two rows were reconstructed as part of the memorial site, while only the foundations from the remaining barracks are still evident. At the end of the long tree-lined avenue that runs between the barracks are a number of churches and memorial buildings which have been erected since the 1960s.
Richard at the bridge leading to the crematorium area
Tucked away on the edge of the memorial site is the crematorium area. As we crossed the bridge which spans the moat that separates this area from the rest of the camp, I noticed that Janet was becoming increasingly uneasy.
The final area we visited on our tour of Dachau was the crematoria and gas chamber. Janet felt unable to go inside, so I ventured alone into the stark areas where so many would have spent their last living moments. Standing and looking at the four ovens designed to burn the bodies of murdered prisoners, I tried to visualize those who might have worked here - with the searing heat and pungent smell of burning human flesh - and wondered how they were able to live with their actions afterwards. I asked myself: What are the systemic implications for their children and grandchildren? And how is it that ordinary people, who in another time and place might have been your local grocer or chemist, get swept up in a tide of hate and persecution?
I had expected that standing inside the actual gas chamber would be eerie and uncomfortable, but this was not the case. There was a most remarkable stillness in the dark enclosure - that was until a group of chattering German school children broke the silence. A fellow visitor informed me that all German school children are taken to visit a concentration camp as part of their education into the darker side of the country’s history. As I watched their bright faces flash by I pondered how innocent they looked, yet many of them too would be carrying the trans-generational impact of the “sins of the fathers”.
Dachau’s records reveal that in its 12 years as a concentration camp 206,206 prisoners from more than 30 countries were interned there and 31,951 of them died - primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. In the final days of the war, marches to and from the camp caused the death of large but unknown numbers of prisoners – and even after liberationof the camp, many weakened prisoners were beyond recovery and died.
As only the second camp to be liberated by Allied forces, Dachau holds a significant place in the public memory. It was here where journalist accounts, photographs and newsreels exposed to the world the previously widely unknown, practices of the notorius SS and the Third Reich. Rather than being the depressing and morbid experience many might expect of a visit to Dachau, I found it hugely informative and humbling.
What I did find depressing afterwards was to realise that, despite what stands to be learnt from this dark period of our species' history, the genocide has continued in so many parts of the world.
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The Family Healing Circle
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