Bavaria Attractions

Venue: Dachau Memorial Museum    When: Daily; not Mon

The Dachau Memorial Museum is a reminder from recent history on the site of Dachau concentration camp. Visitors to the site can view the remains of one of the first concentration camps built by the Nazis in the build up to the Second World War.

The only buildings still remaining are a reconstructed hut showing the pitiful living conditions of the inmates and the gas chambers, built in 1942 but unused due to the advanced progression of the war by the time of their completion. They remain a poignant proof of the technology of death eradicated by the fleeing Nazis in many of the other camp sites. A small museum and a film, KZ Dachau, are also on show to remind visitors of the camp's tragic history.

Constructed in 1933, Dachau was to become the "model" for the Nazi concentration camp system. Initially intended to house political prisoners and Nazi objectors, the camp grew to accomodate rising numbers of Jews from the Nazi-occupied areas of Eastern and Western Europe. In camps like Dachau, Jews and other "undesirables" (Gypsies, communists, homosexuals) were subjected to intense manual labour and inhuman treatment. The intensely anti-Semitic laws enforced by Hitler were to rob Jews of their possessions, nationalities, and eventually their lives.

Over 30,000 deaths were registered in Dachau during the Holocaust, but it is thought that many more died simply from cold, illness and hunger - a small percentage of the six million deaths estimated overall. A mere 20 minutes from the centre of modern Munich, the memorial museum raises issues regarding the past as well as the present and future.