The permanent exhibition
Inside the original administration building.
From the main station take the S2 suburban train towards Dachau or Petershausen, about twenty-five minutes. At Dachau station take bus 726 towards the memorial, roughly seven minutes, which sets you down at the entrance. A day ticket for the wider Munich zone covers both train and bus and works out cheaper than buying separate fares.
It is not advised under about thirteen, and the guided tours will not take anyone younger. The exhibition includes photographs of corpses and detailed accounts of torture and medical experiments, and the gas chamber and crematorium are part of the route. A teenager who has studied the period at school can get a great deal from it; a small child will not understand what they are seeing and may be harmed by it.
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On the twenty-second of March 1933, weeks after the Nazis took power, the Dachau camp opened in a disused munitions works northwest of Munich. It was the first regular concentration camp of the Nazi state, and more importantly it became the template: the punishment code, the guard system and the administrative method were worked out here, and the officers who went on to run camps across occupied Europe were trained here. More than two hundred thousand registered prisoners from over thirty countries passed through it: German political opponents at first, then clergy, Jews, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and resistance members from every occupied country. More than forty-one thousand were killed here through starvation, disease, execution and medical experiments. American troops liberated the camp on the twenty-ninth of April 1945. The memorial itself was not created by the state but forced into being by survivors after years of pressure, opening in 1965. You enter today through the iron gate carrying the phrase that work sets you free, then cross the vast roll-call square to the administration building, now the permanent exhibition. Two barracks have been reconstructed, and the foundations of the remaining thirty-two run away in two long rows. Beyond a small stream lie the crematorium area and the gas chamber. Entry is free, the audio guide five euros, a guided tour four. Allow three hours at least, and understand that the visit is heavy in every sense.
Inside the original administration building.
Thirty-two stone rectangles in two unending rows.
Alte Roemerstrasse 75, 85221 Dachau