Are there words to explain a place like this?
Words don’t do it justice.
The windows in the top of that little tower make it look harmless and commonplace… when there aren’t machineguns sticking out of them…
The sky is still blue, the grass is still green, just as it was back when this place was operating.
And then you pass out of a little gate and find the ovens…
Ovens not for baking bread but burning human beings.
And it kicks you right in the stomach…
And for some weird reason, the fact that there were no fresh flowers in the ovens struck me even harder… they were there the last time I was at Dachau, nearly ten years before…
Those are the shower blocks. They were all set up to be used. You can see where the gas canisters would have been placed. But the Nazis decided it was more efficient to just work and starve and torture people at this particular camp.
Our tour walked back across the huge field, past the rows and rows of spaces where the barracks once stood…
There are now two monuments to commemorate what took place here.
This one symbolizes the people who gave in to despair and walked towards the barbed wire. Once they wereĀ inside the death zone, the guards could shoot them… or just let them die on the electrified fence.
There was one thing missing that is moreĀ heartbreaking than the missing flowers in the ovens. See those triangles? The prisoners all had triangular patches sewed on the sleeves of their striped uniforms. The patches came in different colors. One color meant a political dissident. One meantĀ the prisoner was Jewish or Gypsy.Ā One color meant they were a criminal. One color stood for prisoners of war… there were RussianĀ POW’s held here towards the end of the war. And pink triangles meant the prisoner was a homosexual. If you look closely, some of the triangles in the memorial above are empty. That is because there are two colors missing from the memorial.Ā The green… for professional criminals…Ā and pink… for homosexuals are both missing.
In their infinite wisdom, the people who put this memorial together decide that criminals might have been executed by the state anyway, so they shouldn’t be honored on the memorial… and homosexuality was a criminal offense… so thereĀ is no green glass and there is no pink glass.
The artistĀ left a few triangles empty to show what he felt about this oversight.
It says; ‘never again’… but it is placed right beside the memorial with the missing pink glass…
What part of ‘never again’ do we not understand?
Pouring My Art Out 
Thank You for sharing your frustration with the memorial. It is frustrating many times how it is presented, however, I think it is great that they continue to remember what happened and don’t ignore it. Many times they try to ignore the past, and then I think it is much worse. I recently was in Europe visiting different memorial sites and there are A TON of different ones to visit, and I also wrote about them: https://discoverww2now.wordpress.com/category/sightseeing/
The sad truth is we have to maintain ugly reminders of what otherwise “good” people were once capable of to stay alert that “good” people are still capable of doing a “little evil” for a perceived “greater good.”
That is dome deep doodoo…
And we periodically keep stepping in it. Perhaps we need to teach history to our children in a more relevant way.
Like taking them to concentration camps… Where they ignore the teachers,,,
Just plain sobering.
drink more… that’s what I did afterwards
Too much. Way too much. You know, there is more slavery in the world right now than there was when it got abolished in the States? There’s more genocide than ever before. These things have to change, because we are better than this.
I thought so too until I saw Trump’s polling numbers…
Sick and depressing. But justice will prevail and Mr. Trump, well, he has no penis.
nor does he need one
He doesn’t really deserve one.
he does have the dangly parts though… which I am dying to kick ferociously…
Save some room for my foot too. He got it coming.
or at least breathing hard… ha
Whaaaaaat….
never mind… old joke
It’s very sobering to just see these pictures. I can’t imagine how it felt for you to actually be there.
Not as bad as it felt to be there all those years ago… but not fun…
Have you heard of the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel? That’s a sobering but very good book. Elie is a survivor. That book really moved me. I’ve read it twice.
My daughter’s boyfriend has family that did and didn’t survive.
That breaks my heart. Survivors live with that so in a sense who they were before it would be dead too. š¦
that is well said
Thanks Arthur.
thank you
My dad was in the group that liberated Dachau – he was one of the first medics in.
The pictures and letters from him at the time that we have are darker than these.
Outside on the rail lines headed to that place were abandoned trains with boxcars of people stacked in like firewood…live people originally. The US soldiers broke into the cars and moved bodies when they heard weak cries – a few managed to survive those trains. The survivors knew they would destined to either die in the cars or in the camp.
Do you know what the lampshades on the SS commanders’ desks were made of?
And how the few SS who did not manage to escape the US liberators arrogantly demanded to be treated with respect according to international laws?
It happened. And people must remember it . Those that witness it are few now.
Talk about it loudly. Those who do not know history….
It can happen again.
War is hell, but it can also stop hell.
Worthy post.
I do know all about that because I study military history… there was only so far I could go here.
Dad always said it was so hard to believe the cruelty that men can do to others.
But there are moments when it becomes less abstract.
You did a good job on this post. Brave.
thanks
Excellent Art – thank you. I will never have the chance to see this in person – so thank you.
well, don’t count on that
A war not done, still very alive those old minds, memories or haunting, who is to say! i should count myself lucky to not live throughout their day..
Great post hoser!
Say, how you do with comment count?
pretty well
Yeah, that’s what they all say!
I am one of them
You’re one of what?
one of them
Yeah, i’m one of the other!
so I noticed
Just don’t answer, bet you can’t!
why do you think this is funny?
take off, eh…
Sure, where too?
I assumed you would know, being Canadian and all…
That’s not my fault been born on this side of the border…