30,000 died here

[(Ghastly) Krueger]

According to the records. The true numbers will never be known.

Here are some pics from Dachau concentration camp, near Munich.

1.- The camp. The original barracks no longer exist. Only the outline is preserved and one has been reconstructed.

2.- The wall: Prisioners were kept inside by a series of meassures, including electrified barbed wire, ditches with water, walls... and armed guards in towers every 20 m or so. Ironically, these were also used to commit suicide by the prisoners.

3 + 4.- Inside the barracks. Part of the labor done by the prisoners was to build their own beds. At least it was productive. They were also made to move rocks from one place to the other one day... and back to the first place the next day.

5.- The last beauty.

This peaceful and lovely stream separated the main camp from the crematorium.

I must confess, I was too appaled, depressed and nauseated to take pictures of the ovens and gas chambers. I guess I regret it now... if I ever go back, I'll take a couple.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

I've been there, it really IS depressing. especially on a cloudy day.

 

[Chiller]

Excellent series. Very well captured.

 

[xxjinxyjinxxx]

*gasps* OMG.
Those are really cool pictures but it would be depressing to go there.
It would be a little creepy to see what it looked like back then. *shivers*
The Holocaust is VERY depressing but interesting to read about.

 

[Maxx RS4]

This has inspired me to go and dig up my old pictures of Auschwitz.

These are some of the few places that pictures can't nearly convey as much emotion as actually going there..

Nice pictures though, I like the 2nd especially..

 

[Oldfireguy]

What a sad place.

 

[Jeff Canes]

they all need a little rotate

 

[calmom]

these are hauntingly beautiful. how depressing, yet i would love to go myself someday. i'm curious what your settings are. do you have them?

 

[(Ghastly) Krueger]

these are hauntingly beautiful. how depressing, yet i would love to go myself someday. i'm curious what your settings are. do you have them?

Sorry, no. These were taken with an old Canon ELPH (yep, advantix). Later I scanned the prints and made some PS work (adding grain, converting to B+W, etc)

Thanks for the comments, sw1tch, chiller, xxjinxyjinxxx, Maxx RS4, Oldfireguy, Jeff Canes and calmom

 

[Don Simon]

I particularly like the last one; avoiding the buildings of the camp itself in this way is quite effective and obviously your explanation of the context adds much of the impact.

Maxx I agree with your comment on the difficulty of trying to describe these places, and the responses they produce, with a photograph. I have a few shots from Mauthausen in Austria, but none come close. I remember at one point wondering about the family histories of some of the visitors and thinking that maybe me snapping away was a bit tasteless... then I saw some of the other tourists joking around and posing at execution sites... that is tasteless.