Report from Dachau
Report from a thoroughly reliable quarter:
The person concerned was transported to the town of Dachau from his homeland by railway carriage together with many hundred others accompanied by Kriminalbeamte. The journey lasted approximately ten hours. In some compartments the officers were humane and even provided water for the prisoners, in others not so, so that they suffered severely from thirst.
From Dachau railway station the prisoners were crammed into some cattle trucks – approximately 100 people in one cattle truck – so that only by standing pressed against one another could they complete the rest of the journey.
In the camp the people were first shorn as a matter of course. Some of the people received a uniform; the others could keep on their own clothes, as there were not enough Drillichanzüge. The barracks in Dachau are built quite well and solidly and have stone floors. In principle such a barracks is equipped for 100 people. On one side is a dormitory in which straw is layered, on the other side there is a day room. In between are some latrines and a washroom. That would be sufficient for a hundred people, but in such a barracks 200 men are now accommodated so that the day room too is completely full.
Of course prisoners’ watch, money, penknife etc. were taken away on their entry. But my informant got his things back on release. The shift begins at 5 o’clock with waking. Then there is coffee and bread – four men have to share one Kommissbrot per day. At 6 o’clock everybody goes out, at half past 6 report for duty; Appell then lasts until 8 o’clock, for there were 12,000 Jews in this section of the camp alone. The counting itself lasts a long time, as counting such a large number of people leads to many mistakes.
After Appell drill exercises then take place until 11 o’clock, then lunch, at 1 o’clock report again, again drill until 6 o’clock, sometimes even longer. From 6 until 8 o’clock is free time, then the light is put out. Everyone who sets foot in the camp alley again after that is shot. Smoking is permitted in free time.
The worst thing is that people do not take their clothes off, have nothing to change into and the people who are wearing the so-called uniforms are almost always frozen and wet through. One can buy oneself woollen underwear in the camp for RM. 5.- but since most people have no money or do not get any sent to them or the money has not arrived, that is an impossible matter.
My informant was not in the camp for very long, only about three weeks, then he was called at Appell one morning to come for release. The release formalities lasted an entire day. The medical examination consisted of a doctor examining whether he also had any weals or bruises on his body from a kick or a blow. He asked about that with the word, "Accident?" Then he went on to the next formality.
At the end the Lagerkommandant gave a speech, "You know that you should leave Germany as quickly as possible, do not stay there any longer than necessary, behave yourselves properly on the journey, do not tell any stories of atrocities, and above all, when you are once out of Germany, never again come back. Otherwise you and your relatives will be locked away for the rest of your lives."
After this speech the people were led under guard by police officers to Dachau station, some SS men saw to it that those who had more money bought tickets for those with none, and then still under guard they were shunted from Dachau to Munich. In Munich the imprisonment actually came to an end. It was however forbidden for them to remain standing, flocked together somewhat, in the station, which was difficult as the relevant trains only departed some hours later. The prisoners then went out of the station, there they discovered various Jews pressed together against a wall in a side street, some of whom they even took with them and then brought them back in time for the trains.
Beating was relatively infrequent in Dachau, as far as my informant established, i.e. official thrashings did not take place very much. It goes without saying that the SS men slapped faces and kicked to their hearts' content. The Aryan politische Häftlinge are treated worse because they have to work extremely hard.
The camp is surrounded by electrically charged barbed wire and a trench, in addition flanked by some machine gun towers. In addition a large SS training centre lies directly by the entrance to the camp.
The worst thing is that when somebody becomes ill he is doomed unless his own robust nature helps him.
Reporter: Menko Max Hirsch, Antwerp
