Station 5

The admission procedure to the Dachau concentration camp was completed in the shunt room; this procedure was brutal and meant for the prisoners the loss of personal rights, liberty and human autonomy.

The current exhibition shows the former shunt room in its original spatial division. Tables were set up along the axis of the pillars, dividing the room into two parts. On the window side stood the newly arrived prisoners; there they had to undress completely. Behind the tables stood the SS men and the prisoners assigned to work there; they completed registration for all of the newly arrived prisoners, and collected their clothes and personal possessions.

As you view the contents in the tables that divide the rooms, you will notice that the first four tables display objects from the perspective of the prisoners, as they surrendered their personal effects, and in essence, their individuality. The last four tables show artifacts from the perspective of the SS officers, as they issued the prisoners numbers, stripping them of their individuality.