This summer, my wife was transferred to her company’s Munich branch and I, being the dutiful, occupationally-challenged high school teacher on my first summer vacation, followed her. The German people are amazing, their way of life makes sense, social rules and norms are rational and seem designed to decrease conflicts between its people. The food is phenomenal, the beer is breathtaking, and the city is magical.
While my wife worked in her accounting firm’s Munich office, I had the pleasant opportunity of playing Jack Kerouac through Europe for an entire six weeks. I hopped on trains, wandered through European city and village streets, met amazing people and had the best human interactions with strangers who did not share the same language as myself.
It was, in no doubt, the most amazing experience of my life in the most beautiful city I have ever seen.
Of all my European pilgrimages, one stands out above the rest: Dachau Concentration Camp.
As a bibliophiliac child and teenager I would pilfer my father’s bookshelves. Ever the World War II buff, his stacks were filled with biographies, wartime chronologies, and historical texts of the war. But I was always drawn to those of the Holocaust. The photos haunted me. The stories riveted me. I couldn’t fathom the levels of degradation that one group could impose upon another.
If there is an epicenter of human suffering and sorrow, if there is a apogee of murderous inhumanity, it is the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. They stand as testaments of what we become when fear leads to either blind faith in government or religion, or when hateful rhetoric becomes our prime motivator. They are living gravestones memorializing, not just the victims, but also the sins of those who pulled triggers, locked gas chamber doors, or, perhaps more appallingly, turned blind eyes.
To paranormal investigators, nothing stands more savory, but perfectly sacrilegious, than an investigation at these camps. Many investigators believe that paranormal activity occurs when human events have connected emotional investments — whenever there is confusion on top of sadness on top of hate on top of pain, you will find activity. The status and histories of the camps cause our inner-investigator to salivate, and, if it were any place but a concentration camp, groups would be lining up at the doors for a single night in such a charged arena. But, while death camps possess all of the ingredients for a haunting, many investigators respectfully decline or turn away from the opportunity to set up inside these hallowed grounds.
The paranormal experiences at these camps dangle before us like some ghostly carrots, and none more than those at Auschwitz in Poland. Consistently referred to as one of the world’s most haunted locations, people report feelings multiple cold spots while wandering the fields, a sense of dread and sadness overcomes them as they enter the gates. Some even claim to feel the hands of apparitions hold onto their own as they walk through what was once the children’s centers or the gas chamber. People burst into tears upon entering and cannot contain themselves until hours after they leave. Some claim that birds do not enter the camp, and in the rare times that they do, they do not sing.
And yet, to this day, no professional paranormal group has ever conducted an investigation at any of the camps from World War II. Despite Auschwitz and other camps being the wet dream of a paranormal investigators, we stand back out of respect for all the lives destroyed, the people who survived and the families still reeling from loss.
My most important solitary pilgrimage while in Europe was to walk the grounds of a concentration camp. The city of Dachau is only 16 km away from downtown Munich, just on the outskirts of the city. And, although not considered a “death camp” as Auschwitz is known, the land that once housed over a 200,000 prisoners and absorbed the blood of approximately 25,000 people still echoed with the atrocities and horrors afflicted by human being upon human being.
The liberating American troops were so appalled by what they witnessed at KZ Dachau, the state of its prisoners and unethical treatments, that many Nazi guards were lined up along the “death walls” of the camp and executed in the same manner as thousands of Jews: a single bullet into the head.
Once again, hate trumps morality.
I took the S-Baun train out of Munich and into Dachau. Dachau is, and has been, for nearly a thousand years before it hosted the infamous concentration camp, an artists’ town. Paintings containing images of sorrow and guilt hang in local shops. The town redesigned itself with a “running water” theme; man-made waterfalls and streams pass through town in a symbolic effort of cleaning itself of its sin and recent history. Dachau is in a constant state of attempted redemption.
Upon exiting the train station, the first thing a passenger will notice is a large memorial to the thousands of prisoners who were unloaded at the same station that he or she stands in, a nod to the hundreds of thousands who were shipped to Dachau or other camps throughout Europe. To get to the camp, you must walk the same pathways that the prisoners walked, and within every 500 feet you come to a marker with a tragic and historic footnote.
The site where the deathwagon would await the two prisoners allowed to wheelbarrow the dead bodies no incinerated inside the camp to be taken away. The site where the original gate was located, a place where families wept behind while their loved ones disintegrated inside. The wall where a city billboard was in place just before arriving at the gate — the billboard was full of anti-Semitic rhetoric — one last slap in the face before you entered the camp. All are marked.
By the time I reached the camp and walked through the outer gates that kept thousands of prisoners locked until their deaths, my heart was melting. Walking into the camp may have been one of the most horrific experiences in my life. My sunglasses did nothing to hide the streams of tears that ran down my cheeks, my iPod’s shuffle of Explosions in the Sky/Mogwai did nothing to stop me from hearing the cries of the people standing next to me, and, even though it was a warm day, my jacket did nothing to stop the shivering down my spine at each mass grave, or the decrepit foundations of the uncountable number of barracks that each held hundreds of humans.
Out of respect, I removed my earphones yet found it difficult to listen to the intended silence. Nobody talks here. Nobody answers cell phones here. No cars honk their horns in the neighboring streets. No one does anything besides think and mourn.
My paranormal mind never turned on or attempted to tune in to anything that could be documented. There is no need to search for ghosts at Dachau or the other concentration camps throughout, not just Europe, but the world. I didn’t analyze my photographs for shadow people or anything of the sort, nor did I consider turning on my digital recorder to preserve some long but not-forgotten voice from our past.
It is in these places that the dead speak to everyone who is willing to listen. They speak through bullet holes in camp walls, they speak through smoke stained crematory chimneys stretching high into the air like gravestones, they speak to us through stained wooden slabs that were once beds, and piles of dirt shoved into corners as the only markers of the thousands of people who were buried there.
At Auschwitz and other concentration camps as Dachau, there is no need for a paranormal investigation. In these locations, it is not a matter of seeing if ghosts can communicate with the living; it is matter of deciphering what they are already trying to say.
Chris,
Just took a day trip to the Sachsenhausen Camp and Memorial last week. Pretty heavy business. Thanks for the piece. I am looking to take a trip to Poland and Bayern to see more of these sites.
i love to rap and pay my dues home skillet buiscit crigga dawg.
im suprised to see how they treated people and how long that lasted and to see how cruel that was
ill give you hugs and kisses home unit 
no but the holocaust is serious i think that people dnt respect htat.
Hi all,
My friend and I took night time pictures with a camera-phone last week, whilst waiting at a bus-stop outside the Sachsenhausen camp. Each one has a large bright light in the shot and one even features what my friend thinks is a strange snarling beast. I’m a photographer and yet cannot account for this strange light phenomenon. My friend is a self-styled psychic by the way. I’m open-minded about the paranormal.
Neil
this shit is sick son ya mean
YO THIS SHIT IS TIGHT SON YA MEAN
In 1976, I was there. To put it blunt, it was scary. No birds, absolute silence. U can feel the ghosts touching you. This is no lie. You could feel their horror.
Chris,
Thank you for reminding us about our human frailties and what can happen when “fear leads to either blind faith in government or religion.” God does promises us that He will heal out land in II Cor. 7:14. His grace and mercy shall bring peace to once tormented souls.
This was well written. Thank you for this.
Having spent a day at Auschwitz I & II (Birkenau), you have done an amazing job of capturing the feelings and emotions one feels when visiting a concentration camp. Thank you.
auschwitz was and will always be aplace of mourning, grief and saddness. but it, and all of the camps need to be remembered to ensure it is never repeated.
I am part of a paranormal team in Germany and we are going to be investigating Buchenwald Concentration Camp this month. We understand the respect issue and plan on being very professional. We want to help the spirits understand that its ok to leave now and that they no longer have to be afraid
hey champ is that you writing paranormal german blogs now? i just googled your name and germany bc the last i remember you ran off to germany. get back to me man email is 707paradise@gmail.com.
The article was ver nicely done, and I appreciate the respect you had for not conducting any sort of investigation, or whatnot.
To the poster ‘Carissa Johnson’: as a girl who had most of her family murdered in Buchenvald, I’m horrified to hear that you plan to ‘investigate’ there. Must their memories be desecrated too? Leave their graves in peace, it’s the only thng we have left.
Thank you devoiri for your kind words – and I agree with you. These places are sacred sites for all of human culture, regardless of ethnicity or religion – and to belittle them to the level of a haunted location is sacrilegious. I think Carissa in her own way feels that she is helping to a certain extent, I hope that it doesn’t become a typical “hunt” – the area, the survivors, and those who died deserve better.
I’ve been drawn to the “Holocaust” and anything related to it since I was in my early teens. I’ve read everything I could fine; The Wall, Schindler’s List, The Ghetto, Escaper from Sobibor. Excellent heart rending reading. I never thought of the camps being haunted. I find that funny (odd) that I wouldn’t have considered it. Them being haunted I mean. Because hauntings and ghosts have been a passion of mine for years as well. I won’t even go into Ufology.
Your piece was tastefully written. It is a wonderful work with words. Thank you for it. And thank you for behaving like a human being at the camps. There’s no need to describe the opposite of your character. Mainly because we (the world) must witness it daily in the form of bully leaders, countries, dictatorships, etc. How can one get respect from “those” when they commit the very acts we deplore. Anyway. Thanks again for your contribution.
Sincerely and with the utmost respect,
George Murray
great article. i’ve been to belsen, you can just feel the souls who cannot find rest. the air is thick, you know exactly what happened just by walking the grounds. once
Your writing is beautiful. I hope to eventually visit the camps, being a bibliophile myself.
This story was personally, very moving! I have always been curious to know about the WW2 time period(especially the camps) and the stories from the many survivers of that time. I hope to someday visit Auschwitz one day. I also am interested in anything paranormal and thought it most respectful of you to approach your visit in such a way. Thanks for a wonderful account and hope to read more in the future! Please feel free to contact me anytime!
Warmest Regards, ~Tracey
Sir,
awe sum writing i must say…..
the way you expressed everything about the camp touched me a lot..
while reading the article itself there was a chill running down my spin
thank you for writing this article……
i”m an ardent reader on wwii history,its atrocities inflicted on common innocent citizens of all participating countries in the war and on top of it, the horrific, inhumane acts of Nazis over their conquered nations especially on the Jews suffered in the concentration camps all over Europe. You said nothing could stop tears flowing on your cheeks while you were physically on the spot of holocaust, but i shed tears uncontrolably even reading your experiences in Auschwitz. Its highly unlikely for me to pay a visit and submit my respects to all of those great souls whose lives were snatched away by rude nazis for reason of paucity of funds.
I wasn’t going to say anything but then I got to the footnote, which says you teach literature. You are a terrible writer. Never mind your flawed premise that paranormal investigation is a disrespectful act- you simply let the words get away from you, letting clauses pile up into maudlin piles of fragmented cliches (“long but not forgotten?”) You will notice that many responders who praise this piece can neither spell nor construct a cohesive sentence. One says she wants to visit a death camp because she is a bibliophile.
Perhaps you will dismiss me as a pedantic journalism major with nothing better to do than criticize the writing of a stranger. So be it. I just have the crazy notion that in order to teach a literature class, one must know how to write.
Beautifully written. What an experience it must have been. I would be very interested in visiting as well. Like you, I’ve always read on WWII and been intrigued to know and understand more on it.
This subject is so interesting. Ive been interested in the Holocaust since I was a young child even though I’m not jewish or anything. I’ve always felt drawn to it and have felt the need for some sort of internal resolution as to how/why this could happen. I visited Berlin last year and was going to visit the Sachsenhausen concentration camps but decided not to as I was strangely overcome by a feeling that spirits there would follow me after I left. I’ve always been “psychic” but have never seen dead people or anything (thank god). But I have a DEEP knowing that there are definitely spirits in these camps (for obvious reasons) and ,as a very empathic and generaly sensitive/psychic person , I feel that if I went to one of these camps some of these spirits would cling to me. Anyway, I couldn’t shake this feeling so decided to look up the subject and thats how I found this site. I will definitely visits the camps the next time I’m in Europe as I plan to live in Berlin for a while. Thanks for sharing this.
B. Smith: how about respecting the writing for the content?
Well captured! I enjoyed your input
I visited Dachau before. At Dachau, they would hang their prisoners up by their arms, but by puling the arms back as depicted in the first picture.
When I ventured into the room where that happened, my shoulder blades began to ache. It was a terrible pain and made me feel faint. I had no idea why I felt that way. I decided to go outside to get some fresh air and after a few minutes of sitting on the steps the pain just vanished. Maybe, I think, I felt the prisoners pain? Though it wasn’t as intense. Either that or it’s a strange coincidence.
That was well written. this comes to show what human evil is capable of doing.
that was a great report Chris thank you for shearing that with us.
my grandfather toured Dachau just as it became liberated during the war,he wrote many times to my grandmother as and loving husband would while fighting a war.He was with the 48th when he got there and we found the one and only letter he wrote from there describing the bodies all over the place,he saw the rail cars with bodies stacked on top of each other even mentioned something about finding dead SS troops beaten to death by the prisoner’s.It changed him for ever,the letter was the only time he had mentioned it to anyone,but he lived the rest of his life till 73 when he died.He was real quit from it from what my mother told me.I do have the letter dated to when he was there would love to share with you one day if you have time.God bless you for your hard journey and what you want through.
Good post Chris? Very interesting to hear it first hand. I myself would never really have thought of the respect issue vs. scientific research.