Dachau - Concentration Camp, Munich

pictured is the crematorium and gas chamber building in dachau concentration camp. the gas chamber was experimental and very few prisoners were gassed there. due to an influx of russian prisoners of war after the invasion of the soviet union the sanitary conditions of the camp became deplorable and thousands of prisoners died of tyhus. this epidemic kept the ovens of the crematorium in constant use. to see before and after pictures of dachau visit www.thirdreichruins.com

pictured is the jourhaus, (guard house) at the entrance to dachau concentration camp. over 200,000 people entered this camp and over 25,000 died there. a disturbing place to visit but a historically significant site.

dachau is a quiet village twelve miles northwest of munich. because of the horrible excesses of the third reich this village will always be remembered for the concentration camp that bears it's name. dachau was one of three concentration camps set up in 1933. the other two camps were buchenwald in central germany and sachsenhausen in northern germany. pictured is the main gate to dachau with it's infamous sign "work makes you free". originally, dachau was set up to house political prisoners and "asocials", meaning homosexuals, jehovah's withnesses, gypsies, and jews. an interesting book on this subject is "death dealer", the memoirs of rudolph hoss. da capo press. hoss was a block leader at dachau before his transfer as the kommandant of auschwitz. dachau is a disturbing place to visit but historically significant. an important site to visit for the student of 20th century history.

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Please do not visit Munich without making the short journey out to Dachau.

It is difficult not to be emotionally affected by the visit, especially the area of the camp where the people were gassed, hung and cremated in the furnaces.Standing in the exact spot where innocent human beings were killed left a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

On arrival after getting off the bus, go left to the book sales area where you can pick up a written guide. We also went for an audio guide which was well worth it and very informative and adds to the experience.

Allow half a day to get there and back and spend enough time to see the whole camp properly.

There is a film show in the main building in English at 11.30. Harrowing but very well worth seeing.

Please note the camp is closed on a Monday.It is open Apr-Oct 0900-1800 and Oct - Mar 10.00-1600.

After a long night of partying and such in Ostbahnhoff, we do the right thing and drive to the town where this camp is, and tactlessly ask the local german in broken german "where is the concentration camp? ....more specifically, the nazi museum for WWII labour camp???" oh boy. im pushing it. Well, we found it finally.

Some of my friends had been to the big camp in Warsaw, Poland, so this isnt as big, but very real. It is not for the emotional, because you can see where they slept, work in the yard and assembled and the underground detention cells. the audio guides make it all come to life.

There is a picture below which really captures the hardship they Jewish people faced here. Not easy to swallow.

This is a sombre experience,
u have to go just to see how or try and understand what the suffering was for the people forced to go here

the museum is laid out very well- it is long ensure u bring some drinkor something to eat as there is no place near by to buy food unless u go to where the main station is dachau

u pay something minimum for the audio guide which is very comprehensive

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I highly recommend touring Dachau with a walking tour guide, especially because of how knowledgable they are. My tour guide was a English fellow named Geoffrey. If I recollect the tour company is called Munich walks and it meets in front of the clock at the marienplatz in the morning. If I remember correctly the price is 18 euros per person and that covers the train ride over there and back. Also there isn't a charge to get into the camp. The tour takes approxiametely 4 hrs if not a little more

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After checking in our hotel following our 14 hour flight, we took the subway S-Bahn to Dachau Concentration Camp. This was the only place we went where we got lost though it could have been because we had been up for many hours and we were tired . The directions we were given got us in the general area but not to the Camp and we had to walk quite a bit and eventually caught a bus, which fortunately are everywhere. I was quite surprised to find it in the middle of town, somehow i expected it to be out in the middle of nowhere. Dachau is one of the earliest concentration camps set up in Germany in 1933. The camp is surrounded by barbed wire and there are still guard towers standing. Everyone should see it. It was cold, eerie and the museum was very sad. You could spend a lot of time there looking at photos and reading. The only tip I have is to get good directions on this one....it was hard to find.

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A visit to Dachau is a must on a trip to Munich. Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp. You can learn a lot about how people were treated and forced to live/try to survive in a concentration camp.

The camp consists of a museum, bunker, restored barracks, crematorium and memorial shrines to the various ethnic/religious groups sent here. A video is also shown in the museum's theater about what it was like during the Nazi regime.

Let's be honest with ourselves. Travel is largely about field sociology, and increasing our self-awareness. In these efforts, sometimes a trip to the darker side of human nature is called for. And Las Vegas is not the answer to every one of these callings. Group behavior and "group think" has become ever more powerful a feature of the Age of Communication - TV, radio, the Internet, etc. However, until more is known about Gitmo, some thirty years from now if and when documents are declassified, you can learn more about the nature of humans to define themselves by defining other humans at the Concentration Camp in Dachau, Germany. Plan for four hours of total time in transit and touring.

KZ Dachau is more accessible to public transit than ever before, with frequent S2 train service between Dachau and München, and more frequent bus service from the Dachau Bahnhof now direct to the KZ visitor center.

Given the numerous changes over the years, mostly to the detriment of historical integrity, recent renovations to the KZ itself have made for more display space for archived official records, detention facilities and items confiscated from those persecuted by the Nazis.