Today we went to Dachau and the concentration memorial park. Dachau was Nazi Germany's first concentration camp and during its 12 years as a prison and armaments factory it housed around 200,000 prisoners. It began as a prison for German political enemies of the Reich but over time it became a processing centre and forced-labour camp for Jews, Sinti, Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, prisoners of war from Eastern Europe and other groups. After 1942 Dachau was also used for SS medical experiments. It was never a mass extermination centre but an estimated 43,00 prisoners died from starvation, illness or execution before the U.S. army liberated the camp in 1945.
Visiting Dachau was a very sobering experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment