Pictures From Our Honeymoon: Dachau

Unfortunately, Alison and I did not get to see any of Munich. We both came down with Maximilian's Revenge (who would have thought you couldn't drink the water in Europe) and spent our one day in Munich in bed sleeping. 

On leaving Munich, we stopped at the Dachau Concentration Camp (Konzentrationlager), the first camp opened in Germany in 1933. The camp was intended for political prisoners who would be used as forced labor in a nearby munitions factory. Over time, Dachau became the model on which all other concentration camps were constructed. By the end of World War II, Dachau had housed over 206,000 prisoners, 32,000 of whom were reported to have died while in camp. In an ironic but just twist of fate, following the war Dachau was used to hold SS officers waiting war crimes trials. 

The Jourhaus Gate building, the main entrance into camp.

The iron gate to the Jourhaus which bears the infamous motto "Work Makes You Free."

The main grounds of the compound. The outlines shown below are the foundations of the prisoner barracks.

The new crematorium, built in 1943. The original crematorium contained a two-chamber oven, which was not large enough to accommodate the deaths that were occurring through disease, starvation, and executions.

Three of the six chambers inside the new crematorium.


























Although Dachau never served as an extermination camp, the crematorium did contain a gas chamber. It is believed this chamber may have been used to experiment on a limited number of prisoners.

 

Inside the gas chamber. 

Next and final stop: Nuremburg.

Pictures From Our Honeymoon in Germany: Wannsee

This villa sits at 56-58 Am Grossen Wannsee in the Wannsee suburb of southwest Berlin. It was here, on 20 January 1942, that SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reichssicherheitsauptsamt (Reich Main Security Office), chaired the Wannsee Conference. The conference gathered together the administrative heads of various government departments to ensure their cooperation in the Final Solution of the Jewish problem. By the end of the 90 minute meeting, the plans had been developed to transport the Jewish populations of East Europe to extermination camps as well as reduce the populations in occupied territories by 30 million people through forced starvation. A transcript of the proceedings survived, despite orders that all notes from the conference were to be destroyed, and provided considerable evidence against the defendants at the Nuremburg Trials. It's horrifying to read because these men discuss the elimination of millions of men, women, and children with the same emotional detachment as if they were talking about logistics for a corporation (puts what I write into perspective). Today the villa serves as a Holocaust memorial.

This is the main conference room in the villa where the discussions occurred. This was also the location where Kenneth Branagh's film Conspiracy was filmed.

Me standing the in the Wannsee Conference room.

After leaving the villa, we stopped at McDonald's to detox and lighten the mood.  The beer they serve at McDonald's helped.

Next stop: Dachau.