Dachau - We must remember
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| Dachau Concentration Camp* where Nazis sent millions of Jews and others to be exterminated |
With another mass killing in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the need to educate about the dangers of Antisemitism is as urgent today as it was when the Nazis perpetrated their exterminations.
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| Dachau: "Dad could still vividly picture in his mind the devices they used to slide the bodies into the ovens." |
This following essay was published in the Cleveland Jewish News and originally appeared in the Columbus Dispatch, by Mike DeWine .
As I watched the racist people in Charlottesville, Va., – many in their 20s and 30s –chanting things like, “Jews will not replace us,” I was reminded of some of the most powerful stories my father, Dick DeWine, told me about what he witnessed as a soldier during World War II. Dad didn’t talk much about the war, but he did tell me about what he and his army company saw when they arrived at the Dachau concentration camp just days after it had been liberated.
White supremacists and neo-Nazis know only hate. It is incomprehensible – and scary – that there are people in America today who think that discrimination, hate, racism and bigotry are OK. They’re not.
How does this sort of fanaticism exist in America today? Is it ignorance? Do they have no sense of history?
Hitler is not just a name. He was the embodiment of evil. And there is simply no excuse for anyone today who thinks otherwise.
History is a teacher. And we must use it to educate our young people and remind everyone what Hitler stood for and the atrocities that he and his followers committed.
What my dad and his fellow soldiers witnessed in Hitler’s Germany was horrible. It was mind-boggling. And it was burned on their brains for the rest of their lives.
Dachau was a camp where more than 30,000 people perished at the hand of the Nazis. When Dad was there, he saw the ovens that the Nazis used to burn the bodies of so many of the prisoners. Even into his 80s, Dad could still vividly picture in his mind the devices they used to slide the bodies into the ovens.
He told me about going into a room next to the ovens and seeing fixtures on the walls that looked like showerheads. Those at the camp told him that prisoners were taken into these rooms and told they were going to take showers. But, instead of water coming out of the nozzles, deadly poisonous gas was emitted.
Dad also remembered walking down the road near the camp and encountering a very weak, emaciated man who had, a short time before that, been a prisoner. My dad and his buddies talked to the man and gave him food and cigarettes. They asked him if they could take his picture. He said yes – as long as it was with an American soldier. So they did.
Carl Greene was also a member of K Company. He, too, remembered Dachau. He told me that when they were there, some of the former prisoners in the camp – still wearing those unforgettable striped uniforms – actually served as their guides to show them around the camp, taking them to the gas chambers and the crematorium and the area in the camp where the Nazis would shoot prisoners in the back of their heads.
Al Eucare Sr., who served with my dad, was just 18 years-old at the time. He talked about the one-man pillboxes that stood outside the gates of Dachau. These were cylindrical pipes that stood upright, just big enough for a man to fit inside. Each of these concrete tubes contained an open slat at the top and the bottom, where guns were placed to shoot prisoners if there was disorder as they went in and out of the gates.
Like Dad, Al also remembered the horrible ovens at Dachau, which he said still contained ashes and skeletal remains inside.
These recollections are difficult to read and even more difficult to imagine. It’s one of the reasons that when the concentration camps were being liberated, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower instructed that photos be taken and films be made of the prisoners and of the unbelievable conditions in which they lived and in which so many were murdered. He wanted to make sure that we told these stories because, in his prescient words, “Some bastard will say this never happened.”
As the son of a soldier who helped liberate Europe, it sickens me that there are people in our country who perpetuate hate. The allies defeated the forces of fascism. Now, more than 70 years later, we, too, need to stand up to the white supremacists, neo-Nazis and KKK members who seek to divide us.
As I watched the racist people in Charlottesville, Va., – many in their 20s and 30s –chanting things like, “Jews will not replace us,” I was reminded of some of the most powerful stories my father, Dick DeWine, told me about what he witnessed as a soldier during World War II. Dad didn’t talk much about the war, but he did tell me about what he and his army company saw when they arrived at the Dachau concentration camp just days after it had been liberated.
White supremacists and neo-Nazis know only hate. It is incomprehensible – and scary – that there are people in America today who think that discrimination, hate, racism and bigotry are OK. They’re not.
How does this sort of fanaticism exist in America today? Is it ignorance? Do they have no sense of history?
Hitler is not just a name. He was the embodiment of evil. And there is simply no excuse for anyone today who thinks otherwise.
History is a teacher. And we must use it to educate our young people and remind everyone what Hitler stood for and the atrocities that he and his followers committed.
What my dad and his fellow soldiers witnessed in Hitler’s Germany was horrible. It was mind-boggling. And it was burned on their brains for the rest of their lives.
Dachau was a camp where more than 30,000 people perished at the hand of the Nazis. When Dad was there, he saw the ovens that the Nazis used to burn the bodies of so many of the prisoners. Even into his 80s, Dad could still vividly picture in his mind the devices they used to slide the bodies into the ovens.
He told me about going into a room next to the ovens and seeing fixtures on the walls that looked like showerheads. Those at the camp told him that prisoners were taken into these rooms and told they were going to take showers. But, instead of water coming out of the nozzles, deadly poisonous gas was emitted.
Dad also remembered walking down the road near the camp and encountering a very weak, emaciated man who had, a short time before that, been a prisoner. My dad and his buddies talked to the man and gave him food and cigarettes. They asked him if they could take his picture. He said yes – as long as it was with an American soldier. So they did.
Carl Greene was also a member of K Company. He, too, remembered Dachau. He told me that when they were there, some of the former prisoners in the camp – still wearing those unforgettable striped uniforms – actually served as their guides to show them around the camp, taking them to the gas chambers and the crematorium and the area in the camp where the Nazis would shoot prisoners in the back of their heads.
Al Eucare Sr., who served with my dad, was just 18 years-old at the time. He talked about the one-man pillboxes that stood outside the gates of Dachau. These were cylindrical pipes that stood upright, just big enough for a man to fit inside. Each of these concrete tubes contained an open slat at the top and the bottom, where guns were placed to shoot prisoners if there was disorder as they went in and out of the gates.
Like Dad, Al also remembered the horrible ovens at Dachau, which he said still contained ashes and skeletal remains inside.
These recollections are difficult to read and even more difficult to imagine. It’s one of the reasons that when the concentration camps were being liberated, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower instructed that photos be taken and films be made of the prisoners and of the unbelievable conditions in which they lived and in which so many were murdered. He wanted to make sure that we told these stories because, in his prescient words, “Some bastard will say this never happened.”
As the son of a soldier who helped liberate Europe, it sickens me that there are people in our country who perpetuate hate. The allies defeated the forces of fascism. Now, more than 70 years later, we, too, need to stand up to the white supremacists, neo-Nazis and KKK members who seek to divide us.
Mike DeWine is the Ohio Attorney General.
*Dachau concentration camp Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau, IPA: [ˈdaxaʊ]) was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany, intended to hold political prisoners.
*Dachau concentration camp Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau, IPA: [ˈdaxaʊ]) was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany, intended to hold political prisoners.
It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. Opened in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, German and Austrian criminals, and eventually foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. The camps were liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945.
Prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and terror detention including standing cells, floggings, the so-called tree or pole hanging, and standing at attention for extremely long periods.[6] There were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands that are undocumented.
Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 prisoners were sick at the time of liberation.
In the postwar years the Dachau facility served to hold SS soldiers awaiting trial. After 1948, it held ethnic Germans who had been expelled from eastern Europe and were awaiting resettlement, and also was used for a time as a United States military base during the occupation. It was finally closed in 1960.
Prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and terror detention including standing cells, floggings, the so-called tree or pole hanging, and standing at attention for extremely long periods.[6] There were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands that are undocumented.
Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 prisoners were sick at the time of liberation.
In the postwar years the Dachau facility served to hold SS soldiers awaiting trial. After 1948, it held ethnic Germans who had been expelled from eastern Europe and were awaiting resettlement, and also was used for a time as a United States military base during the occupation. It was finally closed in 1960.
Labels: Charlottesville Virginia, Cleveland Jewish News, Columbus Dispatch, Mike DeWine
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