jgg

Is a tour guide or audioguide recommended for Dachau? If you advise a tour guide can you recommend one?

Viajero2

Dachau has an excellent museum right at the entrance which provides a good background on the camp. You can then go on to explore the grounds, not a big place really, some structures still up. I always go for the audioguides (if available); a really smart, economic way to pace yourself while getting relevant info.

Back in 1997, when we visited Dachau, there was an old gentleman who used to answer questions and point to places. A book was even written about this gentleman, who says he was a former prisioner at Dachau and was very vocal about gas chambers in Dachau, even though the local authorities have always denied that there were any. The government has even denied he was even a prisioner there. I read the book and was very interesting, a really great book to read ahead of time if planning to visit Dachau. Let me know if you are interested and I'll browsed my shelves to get you the specifics.

I have to point out that even back in 1997, we could not get a local to point the camp for us. Even the concierge at the hotel, pointed to about 3-4 OTHER sights before finally answering our question on how to get to Dachau Concentration Camp Museum. Really weird.

Pvoyageuse

Audioguides in several languages are available just before you enter the camp.

hausfrau

I spent 5 hours at Dachau in summer 2006 without an audio or tour guide - the exhibition and signage are excellent on their own. I don't think they offer verbal tours, just the audio, perhaps because verbal tours would disturb the somberness of the setting. I did see people walking through with the audioguide and it seemed like that was the "speedy method" for seeing Dachau because they didn't seem to spend a lot of time in the exhibition. Personally, I needed to walk through at my own pace and absorb the tremendous amount of material and information on display. The exhibition is relatively new, completed sometime in the past 3-4 years I believe, so other posters here may not have seen it. In addition to a detailed history of the camp itself, the exhibition provides the best explanation I have ever seen as to how and why WWII and the Holocaust came about.

They do not try to hide the fact that for many years, the town of Dachau tried to bury all memory of the camp (for obvious reasons). That all changed in the past few decades with the establishment of the memorial and museum. While they still encourage you to visit the town for its own sake, you will no longer see any form of denial about what happened at Dachau, including the gas chamber.

CIB

We visited Dachau in September and did not do the audioguide. I believe it is only self-guided tour and audioguide; I don't recall seeing a tour guide option.

The audioguide does seem to rush you through the exhibits. There are plenty of written things about each exhibit that you really don't miss anything. Reading about each exhibit seemed to give us the time to actually absorb everything.

Visiting Dachau was one of the most moving experiences I have had.

(By the way, we went from Munich on the train. When you get off at Dachau, there are city buses that take you there and back to the station.)

jgg

Thank you all. This information has been most helpful. I think we will skip the audioguide and move along at our own pace.

Curious

I can't suggest strongly enough to do as much research as you can before going to Dachau. It will make the somber experience that much more meaningful.

Just type Dachau into Google and go from there.

Curious

jgg

Viajero - I forgot to say that if you can find it, I would like to have the title and author of that book you are referring to.

Viajero2

The book that I referred to on my previous post is titled "The Last Survivor-- In Search of Martin Zaidenstadt" written by Timothy Ryback, a former Harvard lecturer and a noted Holocaust historian. He also have distant relatives who were members of the SS and Nazi simpathizers....

The book contains the author's research on Martin's background in the context of Dachau then and today. I was completely unaware of all this story until I actually met Martin Zaidenstadt at Dachau. He was exactly as the book depicts him; approachable and vocal.

The author never found Martin's name on Dachau camp records. However, almost all the Jews that were rounded up in Martin's town were sent to Auschwitz. Even Martin could not explained him been derailed to Dachau, which could explained the missed record(s).

This is the only book I have search in Amazon.com whose price have gone up even for the used copies. I would look it up in local libraries/web. It was published by Random House publishing and I believe it has been published on paperback.

Best of luck and great travels!