We had a couple of hours spare which meant we couldn't do much else - like visit the many museums and galleries or churches. We did stop at the Rathaus (Town Hall) and wait for the 11am show of the famous chiming clock - where mechanical figures in the clock enact a joust and perform the Dance of the Coopers (a carnival dance celebrating the coopers who make the barrels for the beer). The display lasted about 15 minutes and received a round of applause from the audience below.
It was a public holiday in Munich, unbeknown to us, which actually meant the city was not as busy as it would normally have been (and I was happy about that!). We stopped for a packed lunch (provided by the Hotel) in a local park - unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the English Garden before heading back to meet the Tour Guide.
The visit out to Dachau started with a train and then bus journey with the area around Dachau being built up with housing and businesses - before and during the war the area being open fields. Our American guide walked us through the entry gates saying 'Work will make you free' (obviously in German) which, our Guide advised, was a lie as the prisoners were expected to be worked to death. He said that this was set up as a prison in 1933 by Himmler for mainly political prisoners at the time before developing into something a whole lot more sinister.
Prisoners included Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, disgraced armed forces personnel, people classed as asocial (homeless), disabled and hardened criminals each depicted by a different coloured triangle with some with a coloured stripe above the triangle if they have been in the camp before or had escaped previously and been recaptured.
As the ideologies of Hitler developed, people were brutally murdered and cremated and, because of a coal shortage, buried in mass graves. We were shown where the prisoners were brought in and stripped naked before being washed and then given striped clothing. We were shown replica bunk houses where the men slept (women and children were taken elsewhere) and shown the communal eating and toilet areas. Eric, our Guide, described the punishments that were meted out which included whipping with a bull whip for 25 strokes and the victim needing to count to 25 in German while this was happening - and if they couldn't count to 25 they would get another 25 strokes. Other punishment included hanging from a pole to dislocate your shoulders and the guards would sometimes push or kick the prisoners to increase the pain.
We saw the tower were armed guards would shoot to kill if anyone veered off the main path and I couldn't help but think of the poor souls who would veer off the path for a quick (and relatively painless death) - they're situation becoming increasingly hopeless.
As the camp developed into an extermination camp, the gas chambers were built and we walked through what, to me, was an assembly line of rooms: prisoners coming in one door being told to strip naked as they were going for a 'shower', then into the next room (where they were gassed) and then into another room where their bodies were piled awaiting cremation in the last room. Eric told us that this building was built by prisoners who were Catholic Priests using brick from bombed buildings in Munich.
On the site there are memorials built by various religious groups; the Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Catholic church and the Russian's (in memory of 4000 Russian prisoners of war who were assassinated by the Nazi's close to the camp). There is also a memorial in the shape of twisted bodies which was depicting that happened to prisoners who tried to escape over the high voltage electric fence.
It seemed crass to take photographs of the site but it is an incredible place. The site is immense in size: Eric told us that the site was built to manage about 5000 prisoners but had about 60,000 - you could only imagine the misery, deprivation and disease these poor people felt.
The tour lasted about 5 hours and we ended our trip to Munich with a lovely meal in a restaurant called 'Salt' before getting the train back home - at one point we thought we had boarded the wrong train (which would have been interesting!) but we made it home safe and sound and ready for bed.
