I was struggling in the days leading up to this day, as I knew what I would see would be incredibly sad and extremely humbling. We arrived at Dachau concentration camp at around 10 am after a slightly long bus ride. We were debriefed by our wonderful tour guide about some brief history and facts, which I found interesting. One fact I found particularly intriguing, that I had not known before, was that Adolf Hitler was not a born-German citizen, he was actually born in Austria and gave up his Austrian citizenship to illegally be allowed to be Chancellor of Germany.

It was finally time to enter through the gates, which were scary to begin with, as they read “Arbeit Macht Frei” meaning “work will set you free.” This was a prime example of Nazi propaganda and the way they tried brainwashing prisoners, as the “work” they did was forced and unfair. We walked through the gates, and everything felt very eerie. It was a wide open space with only a few buildings, which immediately made me sad thinking about the way they would line up prisoners and make them work in this space. We learned some more history before entering one of the living quarters, which were extremely confined and unsanitary. In here, I was intrigued by the photographs our tour guide showed us, which included pictures of prisoners in Dachau, their uniforms, etc. The most interesting, yet sad, part I found was the triangle system used to mark prisoners for their different crimes against Hitler (different colored triangles and symbols for Jews, political enemies, etc.)

We eventually moved on to some of the places right outside the camp, included a convent, a Russian Orthodox church, etc. Near these places was a gas chamber and crematorium, which we learned the gas chamber was never actually used. Dachau was never used as a death camp, mainly because Hitler did not want the blood on German land (and because visitors saw Dachau instead of places like Auschwitz and thought these camps were only prisons).

We visited the museum and saw prison cells where “special” prisoners were kept, and learned that there used to be cells so small to prevent prisoners from sitting down for days on end. From this experience, I learned a lot about the inner-workings of Dachau, the concentration camp system, and World War II history from the German perspective. This was an incredible and educational, but extremely depressing experience.

The pictures our guide showed us, notably the triangle system used to mark prisoners for their crimes

The eerie landscape of Dachau

The crematorium

The gates of Dachau, reading “Arbeit Macht Frei” or “work will set you free”