Arbeit Macht Frei, sign on the camp main gate.
Today, i would like to present to you 2 places that put a great impact on me. First one is a Concetration camp in Dachau, which was the first and example camp for all that followed, and second place is Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. To provide a great portion of information about this places to you, i quote Wikipedia article about Dachau concetration camp.
“Dachau was a Nazi German concentration camp located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich in southern Germany. Opened on 22 March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was …
Main entrance.
…the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government. Heinrich Himmler, in his capacity as police president of Munich, officially described the camp as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.”
Lost souls.
Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Its basic organization, camp layout as well as the plan for the buildings were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps.
Punishment bench.
He had a separate secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration, and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for molding the others according to his model.
Victims memorial.
Crematorium.
In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau of which nearly one-third were Jews. 31,591 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp and its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide.
Gas chamber.
Prisioners room.
In early 1945, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the weaker prisoners died.
Road to Hell.
Together with the much larger Auschwitz, Dachau has come to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps to many people. KZ Dachau holds a significant place in public memory because it was the second camp to be liberated by British or American forces.
Prison corridor.
Therefore, it was one of the first places in which the West was exposed to the reality of Nazi brutality through firsthand journalist accounts and through newsreels.
Prisoner cell.
The camp was divided into two sections—the camp area and the crematorium. The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime and one reserved for medical experiments.
Happy memories.
The courtyard between the prison and the central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners. An electrified barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers surrounded the camp.
Srebrenica memorial, Holocaust museum Washington D.C.
In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, initiated construction of a large complex of buildings on the grounds of the original camp. Prisoners were forced to do this work, starting with the destruction of the old munitions factory, under terrible conditions.
Small Jews, Holocaust museum Washington D.C.
The construction was officially completed in mid-August 1938 and the camp remained essentially unchanged until 1945. Dachau thus remained in operation for the entire period of the Third Reich. The area in Dachau included other SS facilities beside the concentration camp—a leader school of the economic and civil service, the medical school of the SS, etc. The KZ at that time was called a “protective custody camp,” and occupied less than half of the area of the entire complex.
Life in Ghetto, Holocaust museum Washington D.C.
Dachau also served as the central camp for Christian religious prisoners. According to records of the Roman Catholic Church, at least 3000 religious, deacons, priests, and bishops were imprisoned there.
In August 1944 a women’s camp opened inside Dachau. Its first shipment of women came from Auschwitz Birkenau. Only nineteen women guards served at Dachau, most of them until liberation.
Hard work and humiliation, Holocaust museum, Washington D.C.
Why do they separate us???
In the last war months the conditions at Dachau became even worse. As Allied forces advanced toward Germany, the Germans began to move prisoners in concentration camps near the front to camps further inward. They hoped to prevent the liberation of large numbers of prisoners. Transports from the evacuated camps arrived continuously at Dachau.
Small slaves.
Witnesses qoute.
After days of travel, with little or no food or water, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often near death. Typhus epidemics became a serious problem due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, insufficient provisions, and the weakened state of the prisoners.
Due to continual new transportations from the front the camp was constantly overcrowded, the hygienic conditions were beneath human dignity. Starting from the end of 1944 up to the day of liberation 15,000 people died, about half of all victims in KZ Dachau.
Will I ever …
On April 28, 1945, the day before the surrender, Camp Commandant Martin Weiss had left the Dachau camp, along with most of the regular guards and administrators in the camp. On that same day, Victor Maurer, a representative of the Red Cross, had tried to persuade 1st Lt. Johannes Otto, the adjutant of Commandant Weiss, not to abandon the camp, but to leave guards posted to keep the prisoners inside until the Americans arrived. Mauer feared that the prisoners would escape en masse and spread the active typhus fever epidemic. Lt. Otto declined to remain and fled.
Death factories list.
On April 29, 1945, the watchtowers of the Dachau camp remained occupied and a white flag was hoisted. Red Cross representative Maurer persuaded SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker, an officer in the SS-Totenkopfverbände, to accompany him to the main gate of the Dachau complex to formally surrender the concentration camp.
The U.S. troops also forced citizens of the local community to come to the camp, observe the conditions, and help clean the facilities. The local residents were indignant at being treated this way and claimed no knowledge of the activities of the camp.”
Memorial wall.
Final message, Holocaust museum Washington D.C.
* Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Zbilja jako lijep prikaz, fenomenalne slike, a i cijeli site je odličan. Još na kraju, jako lijepo da se netko sjeti na takav predivan način prikazati i sjećanja na prošlost…
Hvala najljepsa.
Izvrsne fotografije.
Deformacije objektiva samo prodonose cijelom “ugodjaju” (ako ovdje smijem upotrijebiti tu rijec).
Hvala. Da, zaista se ne radi o nimalo ugodnom ugodjaju.
Bravo frende, jako lijepo! Pozdrav!
Hvala prijatelju. Drag mi je da si i ti navratija. VIdimo se uskoro :-) Pozdravi Tamicu.
Odlične fotke, pogotovo ove crno bijele na početku. Sve su me prošli trnci od njih…Tak sam se i osjećao kad sam posjetio Auschwitz-Birkenau prije par godina, brrr…Pozdrav!
Svaka cast Mirko!
Hvala Kelly :-)
Mirko, those Dachau shots are stunning!
I was there in 1958 while I was stationed in Augsburg for two years in the 11th Airborne divison. Ther have been alot of addtions to the site. Thanks