Following our trip to Munich, we made the decision to stop at Dachau Concentration Camp on the way home to Frankfurt. Situated only 30 minutes outside of Munich, it seemed like an educational opportunity, albeit a somber one, for the kids.
My teens have only mildly been exposed to horrors of the Nazis. They haven’t seen Schindler’s List or read too many books, other than The Diary of Anne Frank, on what really happened in the camps. My older teen visited the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp on a school trip to Berlin. He was a bit more clued in than my daughter on what to expect.
While it is an extremely sobering experience, visiting a concentration camp memorial is a reminder of evil and what human beings are capable of doing to one another. It’s important for us to learn from the mistakes of others so we hopefully won’t go down that road again.
A Bit About the Camp
Dachau was the first Nazi Concentration Camp, which opened for political prisoners shortly after Hilter became Chancellor in 1933. This camp served as a model for all later concentration camps, and where the SS trained and tried new tactics. During its 12 years, 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned in Dachau and its nearby subsidiary camps. 41,500 people were murdered. On April 29 1945, American troops liberated the survivors.
Dachau Concentration Camp lies in the middle of the town of Dachau. In fact, there are houses in a nearby neighborhood. Maybe it’s just me, but a) I think it’s unbelievable to think that these camps were just built in towns and people went about their daily lives knowing (or at least suspecting) what was happening here; and b) I found it odd anyone would want to purchase a house on the same street or next door to the camp.
Since I visited in the late 1990s, they renovated the memorial site with a large parking area, visitor center, and exhibition hall. Our trip was during COVID after the museum recently reopened, so there was no introductory movie, no guided tours, no audio guides, and even some of the exhibit areas were roped off because it would mean people would be too close together.
Related: Top 8 Things to Do in Nearby Munich
What to Expect
First of all, expect a lot of emotions. I don’t think my kids were quite prepared for what they saw and read. When you get to the main gate with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes You Free), it definitely feels differently than seeing it in photos or in a movie.
When you walk through the gate, the main exhibition museum is on the right, the remaining barracks on the left. My recommendation is to begin with the main exhibition, located in the former maintenance building. Much improved since my last visit to Dachau, they divided the latest exhibition into 6 sections with explanations in both English and German throughout the large building.
Topics through the exhibition include: Explaining the Nazi camp system and history of the Nazi dictatorship, the signficance of Dachau and how it was used as a “model camp;” how the camps became a resource and tool for the war; and the move from labor camps to death camps. The final part of the exhibition highlights all the categories of prisoners in the camp including, Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gypsies, communists, independent thinkers, the mentally and physically disabled, artists, and Catholic clergy. Throughout the exhibitions are tons and tons of stories of people who arrived and never left.
If time allows, peek into the restored barracks. Perhaps during normal times the public can visit inside, but they were closed during our visit. Then walk all the way down the main corridor of the camp to the memorials in the back. If you can stomach it, head to the crematorium toward the back of the camp. While we didn’t mean to visit this section, we ended up down that way so we went in. It may be one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen. You do walk through the gas chamber and a room with a few remaining ovens.
I left feeling sobered, sad, and sickened.
Should You Take Kids?
Deciding to take children to any of the Nazi forced labor or death camps is a very personal decision, depending on the maturity of your kids. This is not a place for kids to run around and make a lot of noise. My kids were 14 and 16 during our trip. My daughter admitted she simply had to walk away from a few disturbing exhibits.
While there are a handful of interactive components to the exhibition, the majority of the exhibit is reading text. I would imagine if you get an audio guide it might move you along faster, but I can’t be sure. Visitors will find exhibits spaced out nicely leaving room to read. If you have kids who don’t like to read, take that into consideration.
Overall, I would say this could be very distressing for certain children, especially kids under the age of 12. That being said, redirecting them from the unsettling photos and accounts might allow older members of the family time to take it all in.
