KZ Gedenkstädte Dachau, Dachau

A visit to Dachau, the remains of Germany's first concentration camp, is an experience you will never forget. Built shortly after Hitler seized power, its aim was to extinguish opposition through incarceration and/or murder. Dachau has been preserved and is open to the public as a reminder of the horrors of Nazi Germany. The former work house is home to a permanent exhibition which describes in horrifying detail the history of the camp; a memorial to the victims of fascism (erected in 1968) stands in front of the building. The barracks have also been kept intact, for it was here that the prisoners - social democrats, communists, Jews, gypsies and prisoners of war - were imprisoned. After the war, the camp was used as a temporary home for innumerable displaced persons. The northwestern part of the site includes the crematorium, where over 30,000 of Dachau's victims were cremated.