Dachau and Dachau Concentration camp, Munich

Go to visit Dachau if you want to learn a bit about the dark side of history. It is a place where you might get in shock as it is not easy to see and understand how these things could happen just about 60 years ago.
Buses are going there regularly, about half an hour ride.

Address:
KZ-Gedenkstaette Dachau Alte Roemerstraße 75
D - 85221 Dachau

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I did not find visiting the Dachau concentration camp quite as emotional as when I visited Auzwitz. Maybe it is because all the bunkers have been leveled bar the one they have kept to show how the people lived and you have these vast open spaces at Dachau, or maybe it is because I first visited Auzwitz. Still the terror of what happened stays with you and the camp is a stark reminder of what happens during time of war.
I ask myself the question ........... what is wrong with us humans as a specie that we could do such terrible things to others?

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Unless you're very well versed in concentration camps, this is an eye-opening experience. This monument that has been created to memorialize the terror of the 20th century deserves a day of your time. Most notable is how this all came about; circumstances, the times and the convergence of commonplace events makes you wonder just how many more times things like this will occur in human history. "Never again" is only a dream as long as apathy and ignorance exist.

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The town of Dachau and with it, the memorial site for Dachau's concentration camp, is only an hour away from Munich's city centre by public transportation. Make sure you go there. It will be a sad trip. But it's important that as many people as possible see this in order to make sure that what happened here between 1933 and 1945 will never ever happen again!

Read more about my visit here on my Dachau Page.

Directions: From Munich take S-Bahn number 2 in direction Petershausen and get off at Dachau main station. In front of the station there's a bus terminal. Busses to the memorial site are very well signposted from there.

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Dachau is one of Munich's suburbs, and now infamous for being home to the first concentration camp from Hitler's Germany. It also served as a prototype and model for the others that followed...

Among the eerie reminders of the horrors- gas chambers (which for some reason were never used in Dacau) and the wrought iron gate to the main camp, which bears the words `Arbeit Macht Frei' or `Work will set you free'. The nazi's had this motto/ slogan put up at many of their concentration camps.
Of course, nobody was ever released for hard work or cooperation...
The original barracks were later pulled down, though one was rebuilt and is used as a display of the camps history. The remaining barracks are now just marked by small concrete foundations with numbers on each of them.

Almost 30,000 prisoners were killed here, and many others lost their lives due to other causes while at the camp. The exact numbers are hard to determine.

The best way to get there is to take the S-Bahn (S2) to Dachau station, and then follow the signs. Busses run regularly (724/ 726) between the station and the campsite.
Its a 10 min walk from there on to the main entrance.

The Memorial Site is open on all days except for Mondays, between 9 am and 5 pm.
Entry is free.

The Dachau concentration camp memorial is something that all humans should experience. Supposedly a 'work camp' and not a extermination camp like Aushwitz it has amazing pictures and articles, a particularly interesting one has a board classifying the star or symbol a prisoner had to wear there were at least twenty classifications. They also have reproduction of there 'housing' and the actual crematoriums. I wasn't in the mood to take pictures so I got this one from a web site. It is a picture from the memorial in the front of the camp, one of the best modern memorials I have ever seen.

A visit to Dachau is highly recommended during any visit to Munich. Sobering and disturbing, but fascinating and compelling. You can actually touch the crematoriums. It's like nothing you'll ever experience.

Dachau was the first German concentration camp, set up in 1933. The camp office files show a total of more than 206,000 prisoners were registered b/t 1933 and 1945, however, there were many more that weren't registered so the exact number of prisoners is unknown.

The museum is divided into four parts: The Entrance Hall, The Vestibule, Center-First part and Center-Second part.

The Entrance Hall shows the main concentration camps w/their sub. camps.

The Vestibule shows the documentation; the period preceding the Third Reich.

The Center-First part shows the main part of the exhibition beginning with documents illustrating the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933. The you see the foundation of the camp, the arrival of prisoners, life in the concentration camp, working conditions, punishments and transfers of prisoners to other camps.

The Center-Second part shows executions and a description of the so-called final solution of Jews.

This concentration camp will grip you, compel you to seek truth and raise more questions about humanity than you could ever imagine. Go, don't deny yourself the opportunity to experience this place.

You can take a private car or S2/s-bahn- train/bus to Dachau, as it is only 45 minutes from Munich.

Note: the site is closed on Mondays.