This is day 2 of the German Localisation program. Today, we had the opportunity to visit the Dachao concentration camp in Germany through the convenience of our home. Although we were not able to experience the physical weather and feel of the place, I could still feel the sadness and agony of the prisoners captured in this camp when Hitler rose to power.

This was a concentration camp built by Nazi Germany to capture Hitler's political opponents and the very common known group, the Jews. They were exposed to force labour under harsh conditions with insufficient amount of rest. Throughout the tour, I got to see how the camp looked like. The space each prisoner was entitled to was simply small. All they had was a bed and a small shelf to put necessities like toothbrushes. For the toilet, the toilet bowls were exposed right next to each other with no walls in between. There were only 2 sinks for like around 100 prisoners to share. Under such circumstances, all I could see was a form of inhuman treatment and purposeful humiliation. The prisoners had no freedom and ability to retaliate but suffer in silence.

Another thing I learnt was control in the camp. At every area, for example cleaning, there will have to be a person watching over to make sure the prisoners are doing their job. This job is not done by one of the Nazi officers, but instead a prisoner there. The prisoner chosen would have to be tough and ensure that the job is well done. One privilege would be that he gets to sleep in whichever place he is in charge of for instance, the common room for prisoners, where he does not need to squeeze with the other prisoners.

The whole camp left me with chills both how inside and outside looked as it is definitely not a place anyone in this generation would be able to survive in. The guide shared that by keeping this camp, it was a reminder of the past act of Germany, and that such an act would never happen again. This would be in relation to the 16 federal states Germany has now, to prevent one strong power like Hitler from happening again.