I went to Dachau Concentration Camp and felt almost like it didn’t do anyone justice. It didn’t seem to reveal the extent of the horrors of what happened there. Until I saw this. My heart was in my stomach.
I went to Dachau in the 90s. It was still powerful, but it felt sanitized...not that the Germans were trying to deny the past, but just that by museumizing it, some of the rawness that conveyed truth was lost.
Later, I got a chance to visit a couple of the camps in the east and it’s a much different experience. It felt like there was less direction or suggestion as to what I should think. For example, at Terezin, there’s an otherwise-unlabeled wall with lots of small, odd-looking marks at a certain height. In looking at it, the realization slowly dawns on you that they’re bullet marks and each one represents someone who was put up against the wall and shot. It’s like it’s up to you to discover the horrors of what was done, and that discovery process makes those realizations that much more powerful.
My Grandfather was a Sr. Sergeant in the 45th Infantry Division, from Oklahoma. He went through those gates not long after they were opened. If it makes you feel any better, those infantry guys never even conceived of such evil. When they saw the train cars with the bodies spilling out, most of the soldiers vomited, all had tears in their eyes. A bunch of them flipped the hell out and grabbed every guard they could and forced them into a field. Some were torn apart by the prisoners, literally. The others were executed by pissed off soldiers. Then they went and got the mayor of Dachau and his wife and made them tour the camp. They went home and shot themselves. Soon after, they brought the entire town out to bury bodies. They even took people out of the hospital, no matter what shape they were in, made them go look.
We have a letter written to my Grandmother and he talks about what he had witnessed. Not long after that, he was killed on his way to take surrendering Germans prisoner.
arkayeast on July 12nd, 2019 at 14:26 UTC »
I have been there. Depressed for days after. Once in a concentration camp is more than enough. The chapel was beautiful though.
tablair on July 12nd, 2019 at 16:01 UTC »
I went to Dachau in the 90s. It was still powerful, but it felt sanitized...not that the Germans were trying to deny the past, but just that by museumizing it, some of the rawness that conveyed truth was lost.
Later, I got a chance to visit a couple of the camps in the east and it’s a much different experience. It felt like there was less direction or suggestion as to what I should think. For example, at Terezin, there’s an otherwise-unlabeled wall with lots of small, odd-looking marks at a certain height. In looking at it, the realization slowly dawns on you that they’re bullet marks and each one represents someone who was put up against the wall and shot. It’s like it’s up to you to discover the horrors of what was done, and that discovery process makes those realizations that much more powerful.
Guy_In_Florida on July 12nd, 2019 at 17:40 UTC »
My Grandfather was a Sr. Sergeant in the 45th Infantry Division, from Oklahoma. He went through those gates not long after they were opened. If it makes you feel any better, those infantry guys never even conceived of such evil. When they saw the train cars with the bodies spilling out, most of the soldiers vomited, all had tears in their eyes. A bunch of them flipped the hell out and grabbed every guard they could and forced them into a field. Some were torn apart by the prisoners, literally. The others were executed by pissed off soldiers. Then they went and got the mayor of Dachau and his wife and made them tour the camp. They went home and shot themselves. Soon after, they brought the entire town out to bury bodies. They even took people out of the hospital, no matter what shape they were in, made them go look.
We have a letter written to my Grandmother and he talks about what he had witnessed. Not long after that, he was killed on his way to take surrendering Germans prisoner.