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Seven Hundred Bee posted:it's not an exaggeration. they would frequently take local officials from nearby towns and force them to move bodies. you can see examples of it in the video linked above. I visited Dachau in 2007 while backpacking through Central and Eastern Europe, and it was one of the most educational and sobering experiences of my life. The scale of the operation is horrendous--but is hidden in plain site from this tiny, beautiful little town. The museum is full of British puff-pieces about the industriousness of the late-30s Germans, 'repurposing' the 'listless rabble' in indentured servitude at the camp. Many of the films showed the co-opting of local wagons to dispose of the dead--as well as marching townspeople through the crematorium. They mention the outright denial of events by locals, even after viewing the implements. I got the impression that it was fairly common, at least for the allies, to force locals to participate in the liberation of the camps, disposal of the dead, and rehabilitation of survivors. From what I understand, the main crematorium was never operational, and thus the camp never operated fully as a death camp. Having said that, the number of dead was still fairly staggering, and there was plenty of media to confirm it. /derail Actual question for the scholar: It was brought to my attention that the Jewish population of Vienna was largely exterminated, never to return in any number. Is there a remaining/prevailing anti-semitism in Austria? I find that interesting to reconcile against the intentional dissociation with Nazism after the war. LeeMajors fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 2, 2013 04:15
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Seven Hundred Bee posted:if you have the stomach (or really if anyone reading does), watch the youtube video i linked above. IIRC it's not from a death camp, but rather a labor camp, so most of the people who died there died from starvation or disease. it's.. sobering and moving to see bodies thrown around like cardboard. I watched it. It is very similar to standing in the loading room of the crematorium (empty, concrete walls with 12ft ceilings) staring at a picture of the same room stacked to the ceiling with dead bodies awaiting disposal. The grounds had many pictures to remind you of the atrocities that occurred precisely where you were standing.
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Apr 2, 2013 04:23
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I think it may have gotten lost in the shuffle due my  edit, so I'll ask again.....LeeMajors posted:Actual question for the scholar: It was brought to my attention that the Jewish population of Vienna was largely exterminated, never to return in any number. Is there a remaining/prevailing anti-semitism in Austria? I find that interesting to reconcile against the intentional dissociation with Nazism after the war.
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Apr 2, 2013 14:21
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MothraAttack posted:Just wanted to clarify that these camps didn't have homicidal gas chambers, although one might have been tested once at Dachau and the jury's out on that. The chamber itself may have never been operational, but it was on the way. It was certainly constructed with mass execution and disposal capacity in mind.  The ovens themselves were described as being operational just for disposal, although I am unsure of to what kind of capacity.
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Apr 12, 2013 04:03
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MothraAttack posted:Yeah, that's true. Of the several gas chambers at Dachau one was clearly fitted for homicidal purposes -- the others designed differently for delousing -- and the crematoria were certainly capable. Each oven could incinerate nine or ten bodies in under 15 minutes. Although the Dachau chamber was likely never used (or perhaps only on a handful of occasions) they could always send inmates to nearby Hartheim castle to be gassed, as such was the fate of thousands of mentally ill and handicapped victims. Yeah but the chambers for delousing were at one end of the building and were actually designed to that end. They had heavy rotating doors and were pre-registration on the far left end of the building. The building was designed with an actual workflow with delousing first, registration next, then 'showers,' and finally the ovens through the opposite side of the showers. The actual homicide chamber is labeled 'Brausebad' or shower and could accommodate probably 100-150ppl. Edit: I can just walk through it, for those that don't know. Delousing chambers are here, that are much lower than head high and are before the 'registration desk' in the building  After the registration desk there is another room, not unlike a locker room, and this sign leading to the next chamber....  Which looks like a group shower.....  ...but has the distinction of being followed by these giant ovens through the opposite door.  I'm not trying to contradict anything you're saying, but I think it's pretty clear that they had set up Dachau to eventually be a death camp. If memory serves, my audio guide said something to the effect of the showers were not confirmed to be operational, but could've been tested on humans. There was another, smaller crematorium just across from this one that was used for the duration of the camp to dispose of the bodies of those that were being worked to death, died from disease, or were shot for whatever reason, but it was inadequate for the number of executions being performed as the liberation front approached from the west. Further edit: I'm not sure if you snuck a edit on me, but I totally read your post differently the first time. Oh well, pictures are fun.
LeeMajors fucked around with this message at 10:53 on Apr 12, 2013 |
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Apr 12, 2013 10:31
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