Dachau, located outside Munich, Germany, is one of the most important and noteworthy concentration camps because of its longevity. It was opened on March 22, 1933 and lasted until the liberation of the camp on April 29, 1945. It was originally built to hold merely 6,000 prisoners. However, at its liberation there were over 63,000 people imprisoned here.
This diagram depicts symbols created by the Nazis to identify and categorize prisoners. For example, the green triangle means criminal prisoner, the pink triangle means homosexual, and the black triangle means asocial. These triangles were worn on prisoners' clothing as a signifier as to why they were imprisoned.
In 1968, this monument was made, commissioned by the International Prisoner Committee to honor the recognized persecuted groups. In the 1960's, homosexuals were not recognized as a people group. However, the pink triangle has since been added to represent this unrecognized group. The focal point of this monument is the chain link, which represents imprisonment, as well as the triangles to honor the different groups who died in the horrific place that was Dachau.
An additional artistic component to be found in Dachau is this sculpture by Nandor Glid in 1968. This sculpture depicts the barbed wire that enclosed the concentration camp. Upon a closer inspection, the outlines of people can be seen. Nandor Glid was actually imprisoned at a concentration camp as a Yugoslavian prisoner. In his sculpture, he portrays the idea of escaping these camps through committing suicide by throwing oneself onto the barbed wire. He combines reality into art in this sculpture to capture death and dying during this event in history.
- "The Holocaust Chronicle Appendices." The Holocaust Chronicle. N.p., 2002. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.
- http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de
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