Living History: A Lesson From Dachau

Published 11/22/2023 in Scholar Travel Stipend

Written by Francis Poon | 11/22/2023

July 20, 2023. I’m an hour north of Munich, Germany, on a bus heading uphill and passing unassuming residential neighborhoods with manicured landscaping. When we stop, I follow the crowd along a serene, tree-lined path that eventually leads to a massive open field. Albeit the many clouds in the sky, the sun occasionally peaks through. The air is fresh and crisp... a perfect day for a stroll. But I'm not at a park.

This is Dachau — one of the first concentration camps built by the Nazis and known to be the longest running camp during the Holocaust. The first prisoners were transported here, along this very same path, on March 22, 1933. Throughout Dachau’s 12-year run, the camp interned over 200,000 people and an estimated 41,500 lives perished on this site.

As a Milken Scholar whose profession is to document current events, I wanted - needed - to understand how Germany memorializes one of the darkest chapters of human history.

I make my way to the a cluster of interconnected houses overlooking the yard. It’s the first stop: the permanent exhibit.

 Divided into six sections, the exhibition contains a mix of historical artifacts and informational panels. Each item is a testimony to the various phases — from the propaganda that garnered support to Nazi dictatorship, to the methodologies that make up the concentration camps system.

Many of us learned about the major camps in school, such as Auschwitz in Poland. But surrounding these major camps was usually a network of interconnected subcamps. Dachau may have been the first, but its network contained 140 subcamps across southern Bavaria. Prisoners were forced to work grueling shifts while receiving almost no food — “an extermination through work.”

As I read the panels laid in front of me, the details are unflinching: faces to every type of victim, documents for each type of abuse. Graphic videos & photos of the mass graves.

Spread across 13 rooms, the exhibit took me hours to pursue. It’s an overwhelming and dizzying amount of information. The inhumanity these prisoners is made real by the fact that this exhibit is housed in the former maintenance building that those “imprisoned” would take when arriving to Dachau. The shunt room, prisoner baths I passed are the same as ones the prisoners used.

Eventually, I head out of the permanent exhibit and make my way to the courtyard, where guards performed daily roll call. To maintain order – and fear – the guards publicly shamed or even killed, and loud speakers made the suffering audible to every member of this site. It’s psychological warfare.

If prisoners were to find any “solace,” it’s usually in one of the huts facing this courtyard: the former barracks. Today, only one has been preserved. But this stretch originally housed 34! Dachau was initially supposed to hold 6000 prisoners. But on April 29, 1945, the day the camp was liberated by American troops, over 30,000 completely enfeebled persons were imprisoned here.

Surrounding the barracks are guard towers and perimeter fence. As soon as prisoners entered this prohibited zone, they were fired upon. Some even ran into the border strip on purpose to end their suffering. 

The final stop is the crematorium.

Built in the summer of 1940, the building contained a gas chamber. Even though this one in Dachau was never used for mass killing, executions and murder operations were frequently carried out. As I made my way through and seeing the murder weapons, I thought of the innocent lives who were led on false pretenses (“they were going to shower”) and never made out alive. The thought left me… stunned and speechless.

 Behind the crematorium, a wooded path leads visitors to a memorial site honoring the lives who perished and offers visitors a moment to reflect.

After everything I have read and witnessed, it’s much needed: how can fellow human beings be so cruel to one another? As I write, antisemitism and anti-Palestinian sentiments are rising. There is no better time to ask ourselves: how do we prevent history from reoccurring?

Politics and diplomacy can be a means, but as the mission of the Milken Family Foundation states: “the means most conducive to… helping people help themselves and those around them lead productive and satisfying lives… is through education.”

Through the support of the Milken travel stipend, Dachau gave me an education I will never forget. The interactive and immersive experience of reliving the path the prisoners took made history real again.

On the first plaque at the entrance of Dachau, the mission of this memorial is made clear: "to testify to the crimes of National Socialism… [to remember] the suffering of the victims... and to support the historical research necessary to achieve this and to generally contribute so that knowledge about the historical events is kept alive in the minds of the population and passed on."

To pass the experience on to as many people as possible, Germany takes extensive efforts making Dachau easily accessible.

Despite the camp being an hour out of Munich, there is a bus (aforementioned) offering free shuttles between the nearest metro stop and the Visitor Center. Agents are stationed in information centers throughout Munich city center and will offer directions without any shame. It’s almost like Dachau is an attraction, akin to the fabled Neuschwanstein Castle.

The camp is funded by state and federal government so entrance to Dachau is free. There are audio guides (these costs a few euros) available in a multitude of languages, helping visitors overcome language barriers to truly understand the history they are about to witness.

And for those who can’t make it to Dachau? I learned there are even free virtual tours on its website of the exhibitions and even the surrounding areas. Scans of the exhibition panels and artifacts are also available online.

The Holocaust is a painful chapter in Germany’s history, but one that is embedded within its country’s identity today. What impressed me most about my visit is how the tragedy is embraced. The curators never shied away from the brutality and extent of the crimes. Not only did they explicitly called these “extermination” crimes “inhumane,” they even identifying the specific perpetrators by name!

Unfortunately, during the writing of this post, there are extensive efforts to sugarcoat or even ban diverse histories in America.

Already, there are many moments in our past that mainstream education – even museums – have overlooked. How many of us learned about the systematic murders in Osage nation? Or the shameful purging of LGBTQ+ individuals during McCarthy era? (For those who are interested in learning more, there is “Killers of the Flower Moon,” starring Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio & Lily Gladstone about the Osage murders. Showtime recently premiered a series called “Fellow Travelers” about the Lavender Scare. Lastly, a shameless plug: on the eighth season of my series This Is Life with Lisa Ling, we cover these – and more - forgotten moments of history. Now streaming on Max!)

One must ask: what does one gain by hiding the horrors of the past?

The Dachau model shows us it is possible to embrace history in all its unsavory glory, while still being patriotic. In fact, it is through education that we can become stewards of a more empathetic future.