Additional information
by Jim Wickham (Author)
Dachau is a book written by the son of a member of the US Armed Forces that liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp in April, 1945. The camp ran from 1933 to 1945 and was the first Nazi concentration camp. The book traces the history of the camp from its beginnings as a detainment center for political prisoners all the way to its final iteration as a slave labor camp in which many types of prisoners were held.
The story of its roots goes back to the early days of Hitler's political ambitions and his objectives for seeking power, even to the point of world domination. He was a tyrant who implemented severe racist policies and who embarked on a world war that caused great destruction across Europe. The concentration camps were a systematic strategy Hitler used to abuse and subjugate people he believed to be in the way of his world conquest and Dachau was a part of that system.
The book describes in vivid detail the prison life of the detainees including the abuses they were subjected to, the hard labor they were forced to perform, their stark living conditions and the punishments they received. It also includes insights into the mentality of the inhumane SS guards who ran the facility. These troops were highly loyal to Hitler, very faithful to their training and regimentation, and cruel with every action they took. Dachau was the training center for all guards in all of the concentration camps.
When US forces were finally able to liberate the camp in 1945, they faced the immense task of providing aid to over 30,000 people who spoke many different languages and who were mostly all either injured or ill. The book describes the amount of organization and help needed to assist the former prisoners in order for them to eventually go back to live in freedom and return to their countries of origin or to a country that would take them in.
Finally, the book presents the current memorialization of the former camp. It has become a heavily visited site and it bears the purpose of educating visitors about its history. Also, it stands for the respect the spiritually and the reflection that goes with contemplating the amount of death and cruelty that occurred there and must be avoided by mankind going forward.
It is a hope this book will present a very strong case against the evils of racism. It is also a hope that it presents the Nazi philosophy as one that cannot succeed and that should not be emulated in any respect in our modern era. The people that were persecuted by the Nazi system and the soldiers that gave their lives and their service to stop it are the heroes of this book.
