I'll start by saying that many years ago, I stood across from Dachau in Germany

[cornball 24]

while visiting my brother who was stationed there while serving in the USAF. I will NEVER forget the horrific feeling I experienced with the knowledge of the atrocities that happened there. I am making no comparisons, just making a statement. I feel that we DUrs are very frustrated by what is happening to innocent people, particularly in Gaza. Given that, and the fact that we individuals have no way of "fixing it", that at times we react/respond by being overly critical of another's post. I get it! My supposition is that both Hamas and Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud have the same goal-no two state solution. Meanwhile and sadly, the slaughter continues.

[WarGamer]

1. Dachau is especially creepy... moreso than Auschwitz IMHO.

[obamanut2012]

2. Interesting -- why?

I have been to Dachau, and it was indeed creepy. I've only seen films and photos of Auschwitz.

[WarGamer]

3. Part of it is the presentation and the history.

To me... Auschwitz feels more like a memorial, like an austere memorial and museum honoring the victims.

Dachau feels more... dark?

When I was at Auschwitz it was summer... and it was absolutely crowded, tons of school kids on tour giggling and laughing and carrying on. People walking around with their soda in hand, slurping away...

Psychologically, it feels "safe" meaning that the crowds of people reassure ourselves that whatever is inside has been seen a million times and experienced a million times.

So I left with a feeling of sadness, the displays and presentation were powerful.

Now Dachau... it was Fall and the crowds were minimal in the morning. It was cool and gray. Their crematorium is original, intact and creepy. The emptiness... the vastness...

And the knowledge of what went on... Liberation Day. The US soldiers smelling the camp from miles away, discovering the Death Trains full of bodies... even before reaching the camp.

GI's were so incensed that they executed a bunch of Germans and there are pictures of GI's giving camp prisoners weapons to kill Germans

Before going, I knew the history. The GI's emptied the field hospital at Dachau, lined hundreds up against a wall and machine gunned many. We'll never know how many were killed, official reports say 20 and witnesses say hundreds.

The liberation of Dachau was recorded by a unit photographer. The pictures are deeply troubling. The bodies, the conditions in the camp, the suffering and misery... recorded much more starkly than in Auschwitz.

So maybe it was my own experience that made Dachau seem creepier? Or my own knowledge? Or because Auschwitz is so much larger?

I'm not sure. The only way I can describe it, after Auschwitz I felt shocked and stunned.. it was hard to fathom the cruelty and inhumanity in relatively recent history.

You see... I've also been to Gettysburg, Spotsylvania and other Civil War battlefields... they feel like the dead are at peace.

But these camps... the darkness just hangs over these places.

Dachau made me feel physically ill, even anxious (I've had anxiety issues) and mentally destabilized.

[LNM]

4. I visited Dachau when I was about 21.

I was in Europe with a friend having a young-adult, care-free time. I insisted on seeing Dachau. I don't remember much except the baracks and crematorium, the ledgers of soldiers who were there in the morning and gone in the evening. I felt physically ill after that and I still feel the place is haunted and I'm an atheist. It was quite an impression for the young me.

[WarGamer]

5. yes, haunted in a non-religious, non supernatural sorta way.

[canetoad]

10. Most, if not all

Of the photos of the 'Liberation of Auschwitz' were shot a couple of weeks after the Red Army entered on 27th January.

Not expecting to find such a facility, there was no documentation of the entry as the Russians didn't know the true significance of what they'd found.

Once they realized this, they set up re-enactment shots (the twins, elderly women in bunks etc...) using the original inmates who were present on 27 Jan. Knowing this, I can see they are a little more upbeat than you'd expect if they were newly found.

Good post btw. Rec.

[WarGamer]

11. Didn't know that... thanks!

Liberation of Dachau was literally caught live on film.

Here's a PG rated shot... most aren't suitable to show.

[pecosbob]

6. Dachau was one of the oldest camps, IIRC.

It was one of the camps where they first began to incarcerate undesirables...they even made a show of how well the prisoners were treated. Well, that was in 1933.

"Lieber Herr Gott, mach mich stumm, Das ich nicht nach Dachau komm'" (Dear Lord God, make me dumb [silent], that I may not to Dachau come)

[keithbvadu2]

7. Could it happen again?

[bdamomma]

8. It could happen

here, but if we vote in November, we can stop it. Scary thought of "detention camps?" in the US.

[keithbvadu2]

9. Hasn't Trump been promising such reeducation camps?

Mao did it. Rocketman Kim does it. Russia has Siberia.

[bdamomma]

12. He's a monster.

nt