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Entrance to Dachau Concentration Camp
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Gate where prisoners entered the camp
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Work makes you free
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Barracks (reconstructed) built to house 500 prisoners...housed 5,000 by the end of the war.
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A look back at the entrance
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Bonnie and Alun (our guide) in the reconstruction of the barracks as they would have looked like in 1933 when Dachau was opened. The bunks were reasonably wide and there was even a day room where prisoners could spend some time.
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Barracks in 1939 - similar to the barracks I was in at Fort Jackson, SC, in 1972. Room enough.
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Communal toilet
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Barracks at the end of the war. The prisoners had to sleep on their sides - back to chest - in order for all to have a place to sleep because the Germans were housing 500 prisoners in space constructed to house 50!
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The barracks at liberation
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Administration building - note the sculpture that was added as a memorial
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The sculpture in front of the administration building is symbolic of how bodies were found when the camp was liberated.
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Prisoners wore different patches indicating their status Jew, nationality, political prisoner...that sot of thing. There were more than thirty nationalities among the prisoners at Dachau.
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"NEVER AGAIN" in five languages.
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Grass marked the line prisoners could not cross without being shot, beyond the grass was a ditch, then an upward slope with tripwire,then an electric fence topped by barbed wire. The other side of the fence was patrolled by dogs.
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Crematorium
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Gas Chamber - There are two vents where the gas was put in.
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The gas chamber was disguised as a shower. The Germans gassed 150 at a time. It took 20-30 minutes for the prisoners to die.
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There were 34 barracks in all...only two have been rebuilt. The balance are represented by wooden beams showing the footprint of each building.
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There were seven guard houses.
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The parade ground where the roll was called twice a day.