Hell
The sky grew darker and darker. With very few people there were no distractions at all. It was possible to focus on and contemplate the bunks, the ovens, the change room and the gas chamber. To take it all in quietly, quickly and with a modicum of reverence. We walked gingerly through the barracks, barely talking and did not linger.
This window looks out onto the part of the camp where all of the barracks had been arranged in two rows of 16 buildings. There was also a barracks for Clergy who were enemies of the Third Reich and another barracks the Nazi doctors used for medical experiments.
Brausebad means “shower” in German.
They did install a gas chamber here in 1942 but it was never used for mass murder. People who could no longer work but refused to die were sometimes killed in it. The so-called “shower” has a very low ceiling. It is only 6.5 or 7 feet high. It’s surreal standing in there. I couldn’t even conjure up the idea of a gas chamber and I was standing in one. It was an odd feeling.
Captured Spies
There was one plaque in honor of four young British women who were murdered here. It hangs in the crematorium.
These unfortunate ladies were caught working for the French Resistance. What makes it even more terrifying for them being brought to a place like Dachau is that the SS was in charge of concentration camps. In fact, Dachau was used as an SS training camp. I can imagine that only the most sadistic, psychopathic individuals would remain in these camps as overlords of the living dead.
Most of the murder victims at Dachau were either hung here in front of the ovens or shot in the back of the head. The vast majority of prisoners suffered a worse fate. They slowly and painfully starved to death,
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