When I was at Dachau. (Picture heavy)

[Behind the Aegis]

This past October, I went to Europe for two weeks. My first trip abroad (OK, I went to The Bahamas when I was 21, but...). I went to Iceland, Munich, Dachau, Vienna, Krakow, Auschwitz, Berlin, and Dublin, Ireland. Here are some pictures I took while at Dachau.


Intro marker to the site


2nd crematorium


Primary guard tower


International Monument designed by Nandor Glid


Memorial of victims (sadly, pink triangles weren't used because gay men weren't seen as victims worth mentioning when this was created.)


Memorial "grave marker" for the thousands of victims


The dormitories

[Angry Dragon]

1. KICK

[Solly Mack]

2. I went there a few years ago.

Very powerful, the feelings of sadness and despair.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. These are amazing, historical photos, my dear Behind the Aegis...

This history must never be forgotten or reviled as false or any other wrong idea.

Thank you for these excellent photos.

[MLAA]

4. Thank you.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Unbelievably, many people around the world

still think these are "fake" and thought this even before the fucking moron coined the word. Fortunately, Eisenhower and a few others were able to convince FDR to send Army photographers and cameramen into the newly liberated camps to document the atrocities. They knew at the time that some people would not believe it or attempt to discredit the evidence. Some nuts are still saying it was a made up PR ploy by governments to make the poor Nazis look bad.
When I was in France at the end of Jan. 2005 the TV showed endless movies, documentaries, etc. about the beginning of the end of liberation as The Battle of the Bulge finally made progress toward total liberation as they observed the 60th anniversary. Heads of states placed wreaths at the sites. It was a pretty big deal there. There were shows about the concentration camps that even I had not seen before. Too bad most were in French without subtitles. However, when looking at the images you really don't need many subtitles to convey the disgusting, horrific realities that had occurred. Our country needs to remind Americans more often of this recent history and how it can easily happen again. We are too shielded by distance.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. It is sad how right Eisenhower was.

Even with overwhelming proof, too many deny what really happened and create ahistorical narratives.

[TwistOneUp]

6. It's my understanding...

That it's absolutely quiet at the camps, because birds won't nest or fly near there.

[MFM008]

7. My mom went there

When we lived in Germany from 69 to 73. Yeah it was she said it was some place that you don't forget. Now I got to go up to the eagle's nest where Hitler hung out but unfortunately the day I went the inside of the building was closed for repair or it was Sunday I don't remember so I ended up poking around the grounds underneath the building and around the old Hut's for the guards that was creepy enough.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. My brother and father went to the Eagle's Nest.

I chose to go with my mother to the Munich Zoo!

[byronius]

8. Went there at the age of 10, utterly altered me.

I'm grateful for the experience. I don't think my parents thought about how it might affect me, but I'm glad they took me.

I've had a Thing about Nazis ever since.

Sort of a ragey thing.

I carry Dachau with me at all times. Sort of a dark guide beam that continually calibrates my moral compass. It's why I speak up loudly whenever I hear anything anti-Semitic.

Well, all right. Yell. I yell. I try to stay calm.

But I found myself alone in the crematorium, and stuck my head in through the oven door, and now I am of the unalterable opinion that all things Nazi just need to go.

[Mira]

11. I second

all of that. And cry with you!

Just saw this, after I responded to the photos, and therefore I respond to what you say! because I was just a little older than you when I was there.

[raven mad]

9. My dad and his brothers fought the good fight.

Extremely excellent photos. Sad memories.

[Mira]

10. Wonderfully shown. Thank you. Read on:

I grew up a short train ride away from Dachau. I was born in 1944, and as a 12-13 year old and the oldest child in the family, during the reconstruction time, there were many Americans who wanted to see Dachau. My minister father, stuggling to support a growing family, would send me along with those American ministers and soldiers to show them the Camp.
Numerous times. It was a hard time in Germany, and things that would be unimaginable now were commonplace as the country struggled to get back on its feet.
My Dad, by the way, was a member of the German underground in opposition, and was hunted during the war times. Explains a few things about me

I am very happy to see these photographs. Because, as you can imagine, the Dachau I remember from the mid fifties has undergone quite a face lift. To put it mildly.

[Behind the Aegis]

16. Thank you for sharing.

We were staying in Munich and took the train there. I must say there was a part of me that was a bit jarred as we pulled into the station and I looked out the window to see "Dachau" on a blue station marker.

We had a private tour from an American who is working on a PhD there. It was nice to have a very small group, just my family, because we could ask anything and everything we wanted. Of course, I was also highly irritated when we saw the memorial wall of triangles and I noticed, quickly, one color was missing: PINK. I asked why and he explained when it was built (65?), "homosexuals" weren't considered worthy of mention because they were "criminals" and they didn't want to "sully the reputations of other victims." I must say, that really pissed me off! As a matter of fact, though all three death camps tours, gay men were only mentioned as victims ONCE. Personally, the lack of inclusion made me feel the same way I do when I hear people talk poorly about Jews in regards to the Holocaust...angry. I don't think many realize how horrible gay men were treated in the camps and even after the war, when many were sent from the death camps to prisons to serve out there terms for violating the German law against homosexuality.

Thank you for sharing a very different perspective. I feel it adds to the narrative.

[sheshe2]

12. Thank you.

[rdking647]

13. i have been tracing my family tree for years now

last weekend i got a hold of a large amount of information on distant cousing.

and found out that 20 of them were killed in the holocaust

I always knw i had distant cousins who were killed but its different seeing it on paper

[Behind the Aegis]

17. That would be very sobbering.

We also had several relatives who were murdered then, but they are pretty much "nameless" as the family never spoke of it.