KZ Gedenkstätte Dachau & Schloss Nymphenburg

Yesterday we decided to visit the KZ Gedenkstätte Dachau to see this important piece of history and to remember the thousands who died here and in other such camps. Thee Dachau Concentration Camp was the first of the concentration camps. It was built in 1933 for political prisoners only a few weeks after Hilter became the Reich Chancellor. However, within a few years it was being used for all sorts of other prisoners.

The largest portion of this camp was actually the SS training camp, known as "The School of Violence," which is not open to the public. The camp was under the command of Theodor Eicke. He came up with the organization and rules for the camp, and his camp became the model for all the other concentration camps. Eickle also later became the inspector of all the concentration camps.

The Jourhaus with its gate, which was the entrance/exit to the camp

This infamous motto on the camp gate translates to "Work will make you free."

The inscription on the memorial inside the camp

The morning started out very foggy, which just added to the somber mood of the former concentration camp.

 
One of the first rooms of the museum portion of the memorial showed what some of the factors were that helped lead to Nazi Germany. One of those conditions was the terms in which Germany was left at the end of WWI. They were left with such huge debts that they decided the only way out was to inflate their money and pay off the debts with the worthless cash. This happened when Germany was known as the Weimar Republic and this chart shows the hyperinflation that resulted:

While the Dachau Camp was not built as an extermination camp, tens of thousands still died there. Some were given lethal injections, others died during various "experiments" performed upon them, and others were shot or beaten to death. Being assigned to work in the field at the camp was one of the worst assignments and was often reserved for the Jews. Apparently, SS guards would at times take the cap of a prisoner working in the fields, throw it across the border of the camp, and command that prisoner to run and retrieve it. Of course, this was a death sentence since anyone crossing the boundary was immediately shot. If the prisoner hesitated though, he was beaten to a bloody pulp and then forced to crawl across the boundary, where he was still shot. A gas chamber was built at this camp, but for some unknown reason was never used. Many who the Nazis decided to kill were just transferred to other extermination camps, such as Auschwitz, for that purpose.

By the end of WWII, this camp that was built to hold only 6,000 prisoners was holding 63,000. Prisoners from other camps that Germany had already lost were being sent here. An epidemic of typhus fever broke out, killing thousands more. A coal shortage made it so that the ovens couldn't be used, so bodies were piled up and some mass graves were made. After the war, there so many bodies left at the camp that local farmers carted them off to mass graves.

There was plenty of torture administered the prisoners as well. There were tree/pole hangings, standing cells, and floggings. Below is a flogging bench.

Two of the barracks were reconstructed for the memorial.

They included a room with a couple rows of toilets and another with large central basins that served as urinals.

Here is where the other barracks once stood. You can also see the old watchtower in the distance.

This was the camp road lined with poplar trees. It was the prisoner's central meeting place. In the few free hours that prisoners had, they could meet other friends from different barracks in this area and exchange information.

The Concentration Camp, memorial, and museum were difficult to stomach. I don't know how those who perpetuated the cruelties that occurred in such places became so hardened or lived with themselves. I am glad we had the opportunity to visit here, but we were definitely ready to leave after seeing it.

We ate lunch at the cafeteria just outside the memorial, and then we headed to the Nymphenburg Palace that afternoon to end our day on a happier note.

The grounds were very impressive looking. Unfortunately for us though, we were obviously not there at the ideal season in which to fully enjoy them. The statues were all boarded up to protect them from the cold, there were no leaves on the trees, and the colors were all browns, grays, and muted greens. The swans on the water were beautiful though. A couple of swans came right up to us.

Here is the front of the Nyphenburg Palace:

And here it is from the back:

We actually would have liked to spend more time on the grounds and in the palace, but this place closes at 4:00 during the winter, so we actually didn't have that much time.

The inside was fascinating to see though. Several rooms were decorated in the ornate and elaborate Rococo style of the 18th century. This central hall was particularly elaborate.

The ceiling

The walls

You can also see Nate's cool ipod panoramic photo of this room here.

This room was called the Chinese Lacquer Cabinet. The chandelier, which dates from the 18th century, is made from rock crystal rather than glass. It is the only one of its sort here; all the other chandeliers in the palace are glass.

After seeing the palace, we went next door to the Museum Mensch und Natur, which didn't close nearly so early. It was a very nice museum, but not much was in English. (Luckily, both the concentration camp and the palace had lots of signs in English.) Austin enjoyed this more than the other places we had seen, which was good. We thought he would enjoy seeing the various rocks, dinosaurs, animals, and other exhibits, but as it turned out he mostly just cared about pushing the buttons that were set up to explain certain displays.

After the museum we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, and then to another restaurant for dessert. We decided we wanted to try some apple strudel with vanilla sauce here. We were surprised when we finally had our desserts brought out to us to receive a full bowl of vanilla sauce with a piece of apple strudel in the middle of it. We think they should call the dish vanilla sauce with some apple strudel. It did taste good though, and was very filling.