I think I have seen one too many gas chambers & crematoriums on this tour, but one thing stood out to me at Dachau. On a huge building seen shortly after entering the gate which said "Arbeit Macht Frie" were words painted on the roof in huge letters, They are no longer visable today, but to prisoners they read, "There is one path ro freedom. Its milestones are,"Obedience, honesty, cleanliness, sobriety, diligence, orderliness, sacrifice, truthfulness, love of the fatherland."
Right before the entrance to the camp where the railroad tracks & the unloading platform are still visible, we saw the camp commandant's home where he lived with his wife & children. In most camps we toured, the same was true, & I can never get over how the Nazis could spend their days torturing victims & go home to families at night.
The camp fencing was made up of grass strips, ditches with electrified barbed-wire fence & the camp wall. SS men guarded the camp grounds from seven towers. If a prisoner stepped onto the grass strip, he was shot at by the guards. Seventeen barracks stood on both sides of the camp road.
designed to accommodate 200 prisoners, towards the end of the war each barrack was catastrophically overcrowded with up to 2,000 prisoners.
In the 12 years of Dachau's existence, over 200,000 were imprisoned there & in its numerous subsidary camps. More than 41,500 prisoners died. On April 29,1945, American troops liberated the survivors.
This afternoon we entered Nuremberg, Germany, site of the massive Nazi party rallies beginning in 1924 & culminating years later with the War Crimes Trials of Nazi leaders--at least those who had not escaped or committed suicide like Hitler, Goering, Goebbles, & Himmler. The museum is built around the ruins of the former Congress Hall. That hall meant to house 50,000 people was never completed. The permanent exhibit "Fascination & Terror "provides information abouit the causes, contexts & consequences of the Nazi reign of terror. It is extremely well done with modern media, as well as photographs & documents illustrate both the buildings on the grounds & the history & background of the Nazi Party rallies. As many as 500,000 Nazis, including Hitler Youth, would descend on Nuremberg for these rallies. Most arrived via train into Nuremberg & a surrounding town.
The rallies were staged by Hitler's architect Albert Speer who designed the gigantic Nazi Party Rally Grounds. The rallies were spectacles filled with pomp & circumstance featuring music & marching showing the power of the Nazi Party, culminating with Hitler's appearance high avove the clamoring crowd. Documentaries were made of the rallies & were shown in movies theaters all over Germany. The documentary "Triumph of the Will" was commissioned by Hitler to be made at the 1924 rally by famous director Leni Reivenstahl,& to this day, it is still recognized as the greatest propaganda film of all time. We saw the remains of the rally grounds; the glory is gone.
We ended our tour of Nuremberg by going to the Jury Courtroom of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice where on November 20, 1945, the trial of "Major Nazi War Criminals" began. At this trial 21 leading representatives of the Nazi regime had to answer to crimes against peace & humanity before an international ciurt. Twelve additional trials were held before in the years 1946-1949, US military tribunals
The original "Courtroom 600"
Due to the importance of of these trials for the development of modern international criminal law, "Courtroom 600" has become known world wide. The "Nuremberg Principles" that emerged from the International Military Tribunal form the basis today for the International Criminal Court in Den Haug. They make it clear that the stance toward those who bear responsibility for the fate of entire peoples has changed since 1945-46. The building is still used daily including "Courtroom 600". There is a permanent exhibition about the background, progression & aftermath of the trials on another floor. I found the whole Nuremberg experience, all new to me, most interesting. After dinner at a quaint German restaurant, we went back to our hotel & floated away on our feather beds.
