to compare the relative degrees of hell inflicted at the different Nazi camps. Still, by comparison, Dachau was relatively humane compared to places like Auschitz and Bergen-Belsen. Dachau was one of the first camps established by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. It was one of the last ones liberated in 1945. In those 12 years, some 250,000 people died in Dachau. At Auschitz, about a million people were murdered per year. Like I said, it seems obscene to compare the camps. All were monstrous.

A man I know spent some time as a prisoner in Buchenwald, which was worse than Dachau but not as bad as the death camps. He saw horrific things, such as the mass execution of dozens of British commandos (Hitler had a standing death sentence for captured commandos).

One of the things Jim told me that really got me to thinking was that those camps were carefully engineered. Think about it - it took the collective efforts of architects, engineers, and many other educated men to design and built the camps. It might be somewhat comforting to think that the Nazis were just a bunch of thugs who seized power (and many of them were), but it wouldn't be accurate historically.