My trip to Bavaria included a one day stop at the Dachau Concentration
Camp Memorial, where more than 30,000 of 200,000 prisoners died at the
hands of the Nazis. Startling photos and papers documenting Nazi atrocities
and life in the concentration camp were displayed in the memorial's museum.
The images here are of the now nearly desolate camp. More information on
Dachau can be found at Dachau,
The Virtual Tour. Another good website is here.
Martin Zaidenstadt was very young when he was first interred at the
camp, and was still alive when the American army liberated the camp on
April 29, 1945. He cannot free himself of the pain and has returned to
the site every day for the past 52 years.
Perhaps the most shocking site was the crematorium, where the bodies
of many of the dead were burned. Though most prisoners sentenced to death
were first moved to another camp, many prisoners died of starvation and
disease. In addition, Russian soldiers were shot to death and buried in
mass graves nearby.
There were several churchs and temples built on the site after World
War II as well as a convent just outside. This is the Jewish synagogue.
Education is the only way to prevent atrocities such as this. Here,
a German high school class listens to a lecture.
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