KZ-GEDENKSTÄTTE DACHAU

Description

Essentials about the KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau in brief

The KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau (Dachau concentration camp memorial site) is located about 20 kilometers north of Munich on the outskirts of the town of Dachau. Although not much remains of the buildings of the oldest and longest-running concentration camp. Nevertheless, the original sites still standing, the museum and the memorials built after World War II are a depressing memorial to the terror of the Nazi regime. The concentration camp memorial can be visited either as part of guided tours or independently with the help of audio guides.

The history of the Konzentrationslager Dachau

The Konzentrationslager Dachau (Dachau concentration camp) was established as the first concentration camp in March 1933, a few weeks after Hitler’s appointment as Reich Chancellor. Until its liberation by the U.S. Army on April 29, 1945, Dachau was thus the longest-running Nazi concentration camp.

Initially, the camp served to imprison political opponents of the Nazis. Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer SS and Munich police chief, had it built east of the city of Dachau on the site of a former munitions factory. The Dachau concentration camp served to imprison and deter political dissenters, especially in its early years.

After the successful crushing of the SA in 1934, Himmler began planning the expansion of the concentration camp. In 1937, construction began on a new prisoner area. The organization and spatial layout of the Dachau Concentration Camp served as a template for new concentration camps throughout the Reich in later years. Dachau was also a training site for SS guards and SS leadership personnel who were deployed to many other concentration and extermination camps after the start of World War II. Although Dachau concentration camp is not officially considered an extermination camp, no other concentration camp saw as many political murders as Dachau.

With the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws on Racial Discrimination in 1935, the Dachau concentration camp was also used to imprison and murder other groups of prisoners, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and Sinti and Roma. After the Reich Pogrom Night in 1938, the SS also increasingly imprisoned Jews. After the beginning of World War II, people from occupied territories in Europe were also imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp.

Between 1933 and 1945, more than 200,000 prisoners from 34 countries were deprived of their freedom and tortured by the SS. At least 41,000 camp inmates were murdered or died from the inhumane prison conditions. In addition, the SS deported thousands and thousands of prisoners to other extermination camps.

On April 29, 1945, the camp was finally liberated by soldiers of the 7th US Army.

The memorial sites of the KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau

Today, the KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau is located on the site. It was established in the 1960s at the instigation of former prisoners who demanded the establishment of a dignified memorial. In 1960, a temporary museum was built in the building of the former crematorium. In the same year, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising built the Todesangst Christi Chapel, which has since become a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of Christians from all over the world.

In 1965, the memorial was transformed into its current form. The original prisoner barracks were demolished due to their dilapidated condition and the outlines of 32 barracks were recast in concrete. The Protestant Church of Reconciliation and the Israelite Memorial were built. The former rail line between the Dachau train station and the memorial was designated as a “path of remembrance.” And the International Memorial was inaugurated on the former roll call square.

In 1994, the Russian Orthodox Chapel in honor of the Resurrection of Christ was erected in Old Russian style by soldiers of the Russian army leaving Germany as a memorial to the Orthodox victims of National Socialism. And finally, in 2003, a replica of a barrack was built, the interior of which is a reminder of the inhumane living conditions of the camp inmates.

Unlike other concentration camps, the Dachau concentration camp has repeatedly come under criticism for its many sacred memorials on the grounds. Critics see this as a dissolution of the authentic character of the camp and its replacement with religious monuments of reconciliation. Pathos and kitsch would obscure the view of reality and not do justice to the suffering of the victims. Whether one can share this criticism is something everyone must judge for themselves when they visit the concentration camp memorial. The fact is that the memorial is still an oppressive monument to the terror of National Socialist rule.