Seventy-five years ago, Nazi police chief Heinrich Himmler announced the opening of the first concentration camp for political prisoners, ushering in one of the most tragic chapters in modern history.
Dachau, located about 10 miles northwest of Munich, opened in March 1933, just weeks after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. In the beginning, prisoners were mostly opponents of the Nazi government, including Communists, trade unionists and Social Democrats.
But by 1938, there were around 10,000 Jewish prisoners at Dachau. The camp would eventually hold as many as 188,000 prisoners, and the Nazis used Dachau as a model and training center for its other concentration camps.
Hard to do so, but important that you listen to it all from NPR.
I heard this driving in yesterday morning. It is a must listen. Thanks for posting it.
My grandfather, Col. Frank Silliman III, (US Army, now deceased) was the presiding officer at the last of the Dachau war crimes trials. His diary from the trial is filled with doodles and drawings that he made as a release when the testimony became too excruciating to bear.
My family and I visited Dachau last July. Even on a sunny day in summer, the chill and horror of the place were overwhelming. Lessons regarding Dachau abound, I’m sure, but the one that stays with me is the “banality of evil,” the recognition that perfectly ordinary, presumably decent people can be brought to accept the most appalling acts as utterly routine and even to participate in them.