What was it like in the Concentration Camp at Dachau?
I recently came across this rare copy of What was it like in the Concentration Camp at Dachau? Before jumping into it, however, I want to begin with a disclaimer: I hold no bias and am only reporting the information that has been recorded in this book during 1960. This is from the accounts of Catholic priests who witnessed events, and some who were even prisoners of the camps.
Firstly, I am sure everyone is, at the very least, aware of the concentration camps of WWII. I don't know how extensively it is being covered in schools today, but while I was growing up, we always had annual reminders of the horrors that took place behind the walls of those camps...
"On Wednesday, March 22,1933, the first concentration camp will be opened in the vicinity of Dachau. ... We have adopted this measure ... in the conviction that our action will help to restore calm to our country and is in the best interests of our people."
This was the explanation given to the citizens of Germany in the morning newspaper. In reality, the concentration camp housed some of the worst atrocities that mankind has ever witnessed... or committed...
It is interesting to note that this book does not specify a genocide solely of the Jewish people. It does make mention of them; how Jewish citizens were brought to Dachau very early on: "On September 22 and 23, 1938, 3,800 Jews were brought from Dachau to Buchenwald."
It also mentions the Crystal Night, when Jewish citizens and businesses were targeted and destroyed.
Then began "Nazi re-education," where the book notes that "their numbers increased in fourteen days to more than 13,000." Yet, some did manage to narrowly avoid the camps by handing over all of their possessions and promising to emigrate.
The gas chamber, at least in Dachau's case, was merely constructed but never used. Prisoners assigned to be gassed were sent to Linz in Austria, and even then many ended up dying during their transport. In one case, "approximately 900 Polish and Russian prisoners were expected. ... On their arrival, 300 dead were counted. ... 80% of the last transport ... were corpses."
Prisoners were marked with symbols, according to their nationality and affiliations. The red chevron indicated a political prisoner. Green was a professional criminal. Black was asocial. Purple was Christian. Pink was homosexual. Jewish citizens had the Star of David on their uniforms.
Then, of course, there were the deplorable conditions and treatments that prisoners were subjected to: overcrowded living quarters, imprisoned by electric barbed wire, executions and torture, medical experimentation, brutal manual labor, solitary confinement, starvation, and the constant fear of death...
Yet, in spite of everything that took place in those camps, the book leaves us with a very important reminder...:
"'There are few men who are real angels, but there are still fewer who are real devils. In every man, even in the most depraved, some good is hidden. It is our duty to find this good and to help to develop it.'"
As a Christian, it is vital for me to live out this message, because it is through our love and good acts that we see God in others.
For example, the book includes the fact that the Gestapo permitted certain things that were banished, in honor of the Christmas season. They allowed Holy Mass, the exchanging of gifts, and singing hymns and carols. There was no other inclination to allow such things other than the Nazis were also human beings, and they were aware of the happiness it would bring to the prisoners...