Today we went to Dachau, which was a really interesting experience. Our tour guide told us about the history and how this camp was used as a model and propaganda model. I found interesting since it was a big cover up for how prisoners were really getting treated. Some things the Nazi's did would put radiators in rooms but no control knob so it looked like the prisoners were going to have a heated room during winter, but they more more likely turn the heat on during hot summer days to make it even more miserable. Some of the other things were how the camp was destroyed and rebuilt and converted to a refuge camp and then back to the memorial. I found this very interesting since I was expecting to see the original barracks and stuff but only replicas of them along with all outline of all the foundations was left.
One thing I did was just stand in the parade ground for about 10 minutes in the hot sun to see what it was kind of like although it was nothing close to what the prisoners experienced. It was very out out side today around 80 degrees F. It was very uncomfortable and then know that the prisoners would have to do this on even hotter days for hours and during the extreme cold of winter really put a perspective in mind of the horrors that they faced. I really found it disturbing that people would do this along with the mass murder of people and the other horrible things the Nazi's did to people.
I thought it was horrible as well with how the SS treated the prisoners in the weather conditions. I read in the museum that they would make them wear coats when it was really hot and wear nothing when it was really cold. This really opened my eyes to how cruel the SS was and brought to life what I had only read in books.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how they deceived so many people to think that the camp was not bad at all! All the things like the radiator and nice landscape outside really fooled people when they toured the facility!
ReplyDeleteI too sat out in the sun to get a feel for what the prisoners must have felt I mean even going into the barracks fully clothed was quite cold even on such a hot day today so I could not image what they were feeling in the winter when there was snow on the ground..
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