Dachau and My Heavy Heart

‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ was what greeted us on the gates of Dachau Concentration Camp when we stepped within sight of it. Loosely translated, it meant ‘Work Liberates’ and is the slogan placed over entrances to a number of Nazi Concentration Camps during the Holocaust, including Auschwitz.

For years, I couldn’t make myself visit Eastern Europe because of Auschwitz.  It may sound rather warped to some of you because I could easily solve the problem by simply omitting Auschwitz from the itinerary.  Yet, I know I should visit it, and one day I will.  It’s such an important place and there is much to learn about human history and what atrocities we are all actually capable of.  No one should miss it if they could.

And so, after seeing pictures of Dachau Concentration Camp on my junior’s Facebook account, I naively thought that it would be a good starting point for me.  Hey, the pictures looked tame enough and after all, Dachau doesn’t have such a notorious reputation as Auschwitz right?

Wrong.  In truth, one concentration camp is no different from another.  If there were any significant differences between Dachau and Auschwitz, it had to be the numbers who never walked out of the camps.  But a death is a death; it doesn’t make it less painful for me just because the numbers are fewer in Dachau.

The pathway led to entrance of Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site and I was really dragging my feet, dreading what was to come as I approached closer and closer to the site.  Without having any part of the site in sight, I was already feeling my heart grow heavier by the second.  It wasn’t going to be easy…

And it wasn’t.  Truth is, there isn’t much to be seen that will really evoke strong emotions in one, but I’ve already long established the fact that my fertile imagination is probably the single major bane of my existence.  I don’t need to see misery and death to imagine misery and death.  For this very reason, the hubby rightfully chose to remind me that a structure we were about to approach was the crematorium, and gently suggested that we should skip it altogether.  Without hesitation, I agreed with him.  There is no way I am able to handle seeing the crematorium with my own eyes – for sure, I will be disturbed for a prolonged duration of time.

The roll-call square in the background is huge.  What took place during the times when the concentration camp was occupied was that, the prisoners had to stand in the square every morning and evening (at least) for roll call, regardless of the weather.  And it is a known fact that Dachau, like Munich, can get quite cold in winter.  Sometimes the dead had to be dragged out to the square for the roll call as well, just so that the numbers tallied.  On rare good days, the roll call would take slightly over an hour.  But for the other ‘normal’ days, the prisoners had to stand at attention for hours on end.  And they were not allowed to help fellow prison mates who might faint from the fatigue and exhaustion.  It was little wonder that many of them chose death over living.

Dachau Concentration Camp is a very important landmark in the history of World World II because it was the first Nazi concentration camp to be set up, and it served as a prototype and model for other Nazi concentration camps that followed.  And many memories of Dachau were reproduced and depicted accurately on the memorial site because unlike some other concentration camps (scholars would call them ‘extermination camps’ instead), many prisoners managed to walk out of the camp alive.

Never Again.  As I am typing this post, CNN on TV is reporting on the situation in Syria, the suicide bombing in Baghdad and the bombing of several churches in Nigeria.  Just when will we ever learn respect for human lives?