Dacau Concentration Camp

After leaving Munich Germany we headed to Dacau Concentration Camp in the town Dacau.

I thought I'd write a separate blog on Dacau as it was pretty full on and quite an experience. This concentration camp was home to 200,000 prisoners. 80% of them were Jews and the rest of the prisoners were a mixture of homosexuals, gypsies or communists

Trickery was involved to lure the prisoners to the camp. When Hitler took over he told the jews if they hand over their personal possessions and homes they were aloud a one way train out of Germany. Obviously this was not the case, as the train headed straight to the campsite. We were able to see the original train tracks that transported thousands of prisoners.

This camp was mainly a labour camp. Most of the time the work was plain useless but used to torture the prisoners.They would either end their own lives or were shot. - rarely were they gassed.

When walked inside the crematorium, the ovens were still filled with ashes and coal. Also between door ledges in the concrete cracks were pieces of hair. The smell was nothing I could explain either. It is said it is the smell of burning bodies. Although it was liberated by the Americans in 1945 there's still grim reminders of what went on in these camps.

Inside the camp today only two original buildings stand which homed the prisoners. There are also the original watch towers, Nazi headquarters and both the new and old crematorium. I have so many photos on my camera but only a few on my phone so I'll explain what they are.

Photo 1&2: Entrance
Photo 3: Nazi headquarters
Photo 4: Original houses for prisoners
Photo 5: Toilets
Photo 6: Wash Area
Photo 7: Original beds
Photo 8: Living Headquarters
Photo 9: Original lockers
Photo 10: View toward where the rest of the prisoners houses were (you can still see the foundations)
Photo 11: View out window
Photo 12&13: Original beds
Photo 14: Original worn ladder on bed
Photo 15: More bedrooms
Photo 16&17: Old photo of how the bedroom looked
Photo 18: Old photo of walkway between housing
Photo 19: Photo I took of the trees and walkway today - notice the plants were just planted in Photo 18 and today they are fully grown.
Photo 20: Prisoner
Photo 21: Original barb wire around the outside if prisoners tried to cross they were shot. Most of them did it to kill themselves
Photo 22: Entrance and front of the crematorium
Photo 23&24: A photo of the dead bodies that would be held in the room pictured. Known as the holding room before being cremated
Photo 25: Original Cremation Ovens