73 years ago: Dachau first German concentration camp

Wow. I didn't notice the date on the Dachau photo. Thanks, Walter.

... who are you researching and what happened to Niemöller. Did he survive the camps?

I suppose there will always be "camp commandants" out there. You just need the right conditions to bring them out.

Walter, I think Lash was asking why you felt the need to post the photos, not if you felt this was necessary to happen in 1933-45... .but again, that is just my understanding.

..... sorry Walter for hijacking... just spinning off on the topic of rememberance and learning from it.

roger wrote:

Wow. I didn't notice the date on the Dachau photo. Thanks, Walter.

2006 minus 73 years = 1933. :wink:

So, being busy an not having time to read through all of your sites, who are you researching and what happened to Niemöller. Did he survive the camps?

I have read several books on the Holocaust.

One is "Auschwitz" by Sara Nomberg-Przytyk. It a tale by a survivor. Very moving.

Another is "Soldiers of Evil" by Tom Segev. It's about the Commandants of the concentration camps. It's interesting to note that most of the commandants were insignificant people who would have gone through life as angry men harming no one if Hitler's Third Reich had never been created. Makes one wonder how many potential camp commandants are out there today unable to express their anger or devotion to an ideology of hate.

I suppose there will always be "camp commandants" out there. You just need the right conditions to bring them out.

One thing that disturbs me most is that some of those who suffered most in 1950s (political prisoner who went through torture and humiliation) became the most ruthless leaders a decade or two later (Gomulka, Husak...). How does that happen to people?

Wewelsburg - Cult and Terror Centre of the SS (DVD 056/a movie from 1996, dvd-version 2006)

Wewelsburg Castle, which stands high above the Alme Valley some twenty kilometres southwest of Paderborn, was built between 1603 and 1609. Its location, unusual triangular form and chequered history excited the interest of Heinrich Himmler, the Reich Leader of the SS. In 1934, the SS rented the castle from the district of Büren. In 1936, work started on converting Wewelsburg Castle, which was originally envisaged as a „Reichs Leaders' School", into a prestigious ideological centre for the SS Group Leaders. The plans were extended in 1941 to include the entire district. Had they been executed, the village of Wewelsburg would have disappeared.

In spring 1939, the SS established a concentration camp in Wewelsburg. It was reclassified an independent organisation and renamed „Niederhagen Concentration Camp" in 1941. The SS planned to use the Camp immate for the extensive conversion work. Of the approximately 3,8000 people interned there, 1,285 died as a result of the inhumane working and living conditions, On 31 March 1945, shortly before the war ended, a special SS commando blew up the castle at Himmler's command. It was gutted, leaving outside walls standing. Since 1950, it has again been home to a youth hostel and a district museum (as it had been before 1934).

The film centres on the experiences of Otto Press, a former political prisoner. He poignantly describes his experiences living in the camp and doing construction work in the village, Until his death in 2003, he continually sought dialogue with young people and supported the work of the District Museum.


In addition to presenting the history of Wewelsburg castle during the Nazi period, the documentation on contemporary history, „Wewelsburg 1933 - 1945. Cult and Terror Centre of the SS", which opened in the District Museum in 1982, also shows the difficulties the population faced in coming terms with the National Socialist legacy after 1945. For a long time, the documentation provided the only focal point in the village for commemorating the victims of Niedernhagen Concentration Camp. The Camp itself made way for a residential and commercial estate. Only a few relicts such as the inmates' kitchen, the gatehouse and part of the roll call area are recognisable today. It was not until the year 2000, fifty-five years after the end of the war and four years after the documentary film had been released, that a commemorative symbol, which the survivors of the concentration camp had continually demanded, was unveiled (thanks to the initiative of young villagers) on the former roll call area. A quarry stone memorial, recalling the triangle worn by inmates, commemorates in three languages the victims of SS violence in Wewelsburg.