Dachau 1933-1945: The Official History, by Paul Berben. 1971. Norfolk Press, London
Dachau Comparative Victimhood: Jews Did Not Have It the Worst. Nazism Was anti-Christian as Well as Anti-Semitic
One way or another, a total of over 200,000 people went through Dachau. (p. 19). Starvation rations prevailed at Dachau, and inmates never got more than 600-1,000 calories daily. (p. 70).
This work facilitates comparison between the victim experiences of various groups. That is my main focus.
DACHAU COMPARATIVE VICTIMHOOD: NOT ONLY “DEATH CAMPS” FAILED TO REGISTER ALL THE ARRIVALS
Holocaust proponents make much of the fact that most Jews sent to Auschwitz were not registered at the camp, but simply executed upon arrival. However, the same was true, for example, for some of the Polish arrivals at Mauthausen:
Many unfortunates sent to Dachau were not registered either (p. 10, 201), including some arrivals (and not only Jewish arrivals) that were murdered upon arrival (p. 18, pp. 201-202). Furthermore, the Nazis did not register entire condemned classes of peoples (again, not only Jews) upon arrival. Berben writes, “Finally, the International Tracing Service at Arolsen confirmed the deaths of certain classes of prisoners were no longer registered after certain dates. This applied to the Russians and Poles from the beginning of October 1943, with a few exceptions, and to Jews of all nationalities from 1942 onwards.” (p. 202).
Notice the late date (October 1943) of the new Nazi policy of Russian and Polish arrivals summarily not being registered. This clarifies the usual Judeocentric “cumulative radicalization” ideas about Nazism: It reminds us that Nazi policies could grow more radical against non-Jews, and not only against Jews.
DACHAU COMPARATIVE VICTIMHOOD: NOT ONLY “DEATH CAMPS” HAD GAS CHAMBERS AND CREMATORIA
Holocaust supremacists make a big deal of the fact that the Nazi Germans employed mass gassing and cremation on Jews. Ironic to this, more than half of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Germans did not die in gas chambers. And, to begin with, the Nazis first developed the system of gas chambers and crematoria for use on the mentally handicapped, and only belatedly used it on Jews. Finally, Auschwitz was not some kind of “black hole” from which Jews could never emerge alive. For instance, many Jews dispatched to Auschwitz were diverted to forced labor and, moreover, some Auschwitz Jewish inmates were transferred to “ordinary” concentration camps such as Dachau. (pp. 245-247).
Pointedly, not only the “death camps” had gas chambers and crematoria: So did “ordinary” concentration camps like Dachau. (pp. 7-8, 176, 189). Even though the Dachau gas chamber was (allegedly) never put into operation (p. 176), this did not prevent the Germans from using mass gassing on Dachau inmates, including non-Jewish ones. The Germans send thousands of inmates, from all nationalities (including 700 Poles), to the gas chambers of Hartheim Castle (near Linz, Austria) for gassing. (Photo #4 facing p. 192, p. 240).
Holocaust narratives always remind us that the Germans removed the gold tooth fillings of the Jewish victims before cremation. However, and seldom mentioned, they did the same to non-Jewish victims. (p. 105).
DACHAU COMPARATIVE VICTIMHOOD: NOT ONLY JEWS WERE SINGLED OUT AS SPECIAL VICTIMS
The Nazi Germans did not allow Jews to write letters, but neither did they allow the Russians. (p. 73). Jewish inmates at Dachau were not allowed to receive Red Cross parcels, but neither were the Russians or Italians. (p. 68).
At Dachau, the Germans treated imprisoned Catholic clergy (notably the Poles) as bad as the Jews. Berben comments, “With the annexation of Austria arrest multiplied. The victims were almost exclusively Catholic clergy. They suffered the usual fate of prisoners but, like the Jews and Communists, were specially maltreated.” (p. 145). More on this later.
Possible last-minute Nazi German plans to kill the Dachau inmates did not single out the Jews. Berben comments, “Kaltenbrunner gave orders to start at Dachau Operation ‘Firecloud’ (WOLKENBRAND), which consisted in poisoning all prisoners, except ‘Aryans’ from the Western nations.” (p. 183).
THE HOLOCAUST WAS NOT UNPRECEDENTED
In the end, the Nazi Germans allowed some 22,000 Dachau Jews to survive the war. (p. 13, 219). This adds to the debunking of the standard claim that the Nazis were out to kill every single Jew, which is variously supposed to make the Holocaust unique, unprecedented, or exceptional. Clearly, it was not.
THE NAZI WAR AGAINST CHRISTIANITY
The anti-Semitic aspects of Nazism have obscured the fundamentally anti-Christian aspects of Nazism. In a table (p. 276), Berben enumerates the Christian clergy of many denominations and of various lands that were incarcerated at Dachau. This included 1,748 Polish Catholic clergy and 32 non-Catholic Polish clergy, 411 German Catholic clergy and 36 German non-Catholic clergy, 153 French Catholic clergy and 3 French non-Catholic clergy, etc., for a grand total of 2,720 Christian clergy from 20 different lands.
HORRORS FACED BY THE POLES: AN EXAMPLE
Berben writes, “In November 1942 some Russian and Polish prisoners arrived from Danzig-Stutthof…The journey had lasted ten days, though they had been given food for only two. About 300 corpses were hauled from the trucks. Six bodies bore traces of cannibalism, some parts having been gnawed to the bone.” (p. 97).
DACHAU COMPARATIVE VICTIMHOOD: THE POLISH CATHOLIC PRIESTS AT DACHAU
As for the Polish priests, the author leave nothing to the imagination. He writes, “The fate of the Poles was especially hard…From the Polish clergy a large number were chosen as ‘guinea pigs’ for the horrible medical experiments.” (p. 148). He elaborates on some of these. For more on the frightful experiences of Catholic priests at Dachau, see:
https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/nazi-concentration-camps-low-survivorship-malak/
