Today was the first time we really got a grasp on the effect of Hitler and his Nazi regime. Upon arriving at the camp we were told that this camp was very large in terms of scale. When we walked 15 minutes just to get to the entrance I understood. Our tour guide first started off by telling us about the size of the camp and the origin. He described to us how the camp was separated between soldiers and prisoners, and each was its own side. When you enter the camp, you walk through this large steel door which has a saying “Arbeit Macht frei” which means “Work sets you free”. That saying was felt throughout the entirety of the tour.
As you go through the gates you see the sheer size of the camp. I’ve seen pictures and movies, but to see how large this establishment was blew my mind. In the main front yard there is empty space where they would make the prisoners stand. This front yard alone looked like about 3.5 football fields. Imagine needing that much space just for people to stand shoulder to shoulder almost. We then entered into a model room of what a prison barrack looked like. When entering, I saw pictures that I have never seen on the internet. Hundreds of people crammed into a space that felt small to me and 20 classmates. The beds were so small that I don’t think I could fit in them, and we were told that at times there would be four men in one bed. We were educated on the cleaning routines they needed to keep, how they had to fold their beds and sweep the floors, and if you didn’t do this correctly you were publicly humiliated in front of the other prisoners. Just thinking of how chaotic the environment was I couldn’t imagine being able to keep a place clean. After leaving that we then saw how far the camp stretched, there were originally 34 bunkers for millions of prisoners.
We then ended our tour by looking at the gas chambers. This was very eye opening to me. I’ve learned of them in school, but to actually stand in one and imagine myself in their shoes was nothing but unsettling. To think that this was done to innocent people is detrimental. A part that stood out to me was that there were many smaller camps around Germany. Estimated to be 44,000 camps at its peak. The smaller camps had slaves that worked for companies, essentially building stuff for free. The most notable was a bunker that was rebuilt by human labor. If you couldn’t work you died. Connecting this to my studies didn’t give me a distorted view on my company, but made me realize that they were probably built off of slave labor. I don’t personally believe my company did this, but much older established companies had a part in the killing of innocent people.
As a student, Dachau reminds me of the importance of understanding history and recognizing how political and propaganda systems can shape society. But more importantly, the understanding of being able to prevent it from ever happening again.
