Munich: Dachau - Part D - some stories

I'll try to maintain judgement on each story so that it doesn't get to redundant, but I'll say now - these stories make you laugh because you truly cannot believe that people can be so evil.

The Prison

I talked about the prison in yesterdays blog but I didn't go into detail.

It was such a horrific feeling being in there. I'm not one to go for the supernatural, but if anything has ever been haunted - that is the place! In fact our tour guide when in there alone has heard voices talking to him. As well, someone on one of his tours, a big bulky football player came out completely white asking if the place was haunted, because he too had heard a voice speaking with him.

Becky took one picture of the hallway and at first thought she had caught a ghost on film. If she had I would not be surprised. It was already so cold in there, and when you looked into the different cells you kept expecting to see someone in there.

Back when operational they used to keep people in closets, just big enough that you couldn't sit down, meaning you would be forced to stand for weeks on end, with little to now break.

They also had a black box that was completely free of light, pretty much lying in your own coffin - one guy had stayed in there for four months. The only reason that he knew time was passing is because of the warm meal provided every four days.

Punishments

One of the real punishment like things we saw was this bench that we saw and it had a wooden whip that would be carted out in front of everyone and if you were getting beat you would be forced to count the number of hits out loud for everyone to hear. If you made a mistake you start again, if they couldn't hear you start again. Many people died from the injuries caused by this alone.

One other punishment that was actually outlawed, which really strikes me as odd that of all the things they did - they would outlaw this - was having the prisoners hands tied behind their back and then suspended from a tree. This could eventually crush their rib cage. The reason it was outlawed was because it left to many people injured and incapable of working.

The Grass

Along the entire perimeter of the camp was a grass boulevard (?) that prisoners were under no circumstances allowed to step upon. This meant they would be immediately shot, no questions, from one of the six guard towers. This then meant that guards could actually throw someone's hat on the grass - they'd be beat if they didn't get it, and shot it they did. Prisoners could also 'accidentally fall' after a push from the guard. And as a last resort it could be used as a means of suicide.

I know that I say grass, and you're like - hey, I thought this place was lifeless. Well it still is, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a lot of trees which I found to go oddly with the fact that they could grow life in a place that harvested death. The trees themselves weren't original but they were in fact the same species that had grown when there were prisoners there.