Dachau Camp with 6 month old baby

I would think that a 6 month old would be totally unaware of her surroundings.

That's what I'm thinking. I guess I'm more worried about people giving us the stink eye for taking a baby to such a place?

Obviously she's going to be completely unaware of where she is however a crying baby in such a place will undoubtedly not go down well. It's impossible to predict how a baby is going to react at any particular time and also your ability to soothe and placate her.

Personally I wouldn't do it simply out of respect for others and the location coupled with the uncertainty that I would unfailingly be able to control any crying or screaming.

I haven't been to Dachau but I have been to Auschwitz and didn't see any young children.

I'm of the opinion that having children involves making certain sacrifices and we can't do everything that we would like to do and have to do things that we don't really want to do, visiting Disney parks being one of them!

I have been to Dachau and Auschwitz. Dachau was a concentration camp, not an extermination camp like Auschwitz. Both places are evil and your visit should respect the victims that died there. Still, I don't think it would be a problem to take an infant there.

I would not take the infant to Auschwitz. For one thing, the psychological impact of what you see there is far more chilling than at Dachau.

Definitely don't take young kids to Auschwitz.

I wouldn’t think anything about an infant there. Might be easier to use a sling than a stroller. I do think, though, that walking age through early teens would be inappropriate.

I think taking an infant would be fine. I don't see crying as interfering with the seriousness...I'm sure there were a lot of such instances at the time. If people can take photographs, then taking a baby is nothing. Just my opinion. YMMV

I went to Dachau when I was two or three. I don’t remember and wasn’t traumatized. I certainly didn’t know where we were or what had happened there and no one told me. But, as I’ve been told, I didn’t like it and said it felt like witches. I’m sure your baby will be fine and as long as she doesn’t cause a fuss won’t bother anyone else but be aware the she won’t be completely unaware of her surroundings and will certainly pick up on the emotions everyone around her is feeling. I know I was quite a bit older than your baby. But babies are very perceptive.

Dachau was a concentration camp, not an extermination camp like Auschwitz.

Because death by working 18 hours a day with no food in the middle of winter and then standing at attention for a few hours in the rain, just isn't that bad?

Seriously, I really wonder at comments like this. Just because a Concentration Camp was not gassing people to death on a regular basis does not mean that 1000's and 1000's of people did not die there! They were all set up to exterminate people, one way or another, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, all of it hellish.
Places like Bergen-Belson had 35,000 people die in the space of a few months due to typhoid and starvation. In all of them, people had little to eat, had to work without any kind of warm clothing in winter and not enough water in summer (the quarries in Mauthausen). People were tortured to death (all of them), shot to death (Sachsenhausen), experimented on to death (Ravensbrück) or died on death marches at the end of the war in ALL of the Concentration Camps.

Jo, I agree with your comments regarding Dachau. Please don't misinterpret my comments about Dachau.

Many died at Dachau due to exactly what you stated. That was evil in itself.
If you read enough history, you will find that Dachau was not designed by the NAZIs to mass extermination like Auschwitz and others. Prisoners from Dachau were transferred to Auschwitz for extermination. As I recall the small gas chamber at Dachau was never used because it was not functional.
Wikipedia has an explanation about concentration vs. extermination camps:

Death camps differed from concentration camps located in Germany proper, such as Bergen-Belsen, Oranienburg, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen, which were prison camps set up prior to World War II for people defined as 'undesirable'. From March 1936, all Nazi concentration camps were managed by the SS-Totenkopfverbände (the Skull Units, SS-TV), who operated extermination camps from 1941 as well.[29] An SS anatomist, Dr. Johann Kremer, after witnessing the gassing of victims at Birkenau, wrote in his diary on 2 September 1942: "Dante's Inferno seems to me almost a comedy compared to this. They don't call Auschwitz the camp of annihilation for nothing!"[30] The distinction was evident during the Nuremberg trials, when Dieter Wisliceny (a deputy to Adolf Eichmann) was asked to name the extermination camps, and he identified Auschwitz and Majdanek as such. Then, when asked, "How do you classify the camps Mauthausen, Dachau, and Buchenwald?", he replied, "They were normal concentration camps, from the point of view of the department of Eichmann."[31]

Mass deportations: the pan-European routes to the extermination camps
Irrespective of round-ups for extermination camps, the Nazis abducted millions of foreigners for slave labour in other types of camps,[32] which provided perfect cover for the extermination programme.[33] Prisoners represented about a quarter of the total workforce of the Reich, with mortality rates exceeding 75 percent due to starvation, disease, exhaustion, executions, and physical brutality.[32]

I don't think anyone will pay any attention to an infant , even if the baby does start to cry. People will be too involved in their own emotions.
In my opinion, Julie makes an excellent point about babies picking up on emotions. Don't underestimate the impact that a visit there will have on you . The emotional strain will stay with you for some time. I would pass on the excursion this time.

I was just looking at my Poland pics again and in one of the Auschwitz ones, there is a stroller. Babies are probably not a problem as long as you’re conscientious of how a fussy baby might affect other people if you’re looking at exhibits. Don’t know Dachau, but Auschwitz has displays in each building and they can get both crowded and emotional. As long as you’re willing to step away when the child requires attention, you should be fine.

OP: you are WAY overthinking this. Take your entire family to Dachau.

Thanks so much everyone. Amazing feedback!

I don't think anyone will pay any attention to an infant , even if the baby does start to cry. People will be too involved in their own emotions.

I certainly would and even more so in a place that commands quiet contemplation. A crying infant is irritating, it's intended to be to ensure immediate attention.

I agree with JC. A crying baby would disrupt my quiet contemplation and, further, on the Dachau Guidelines for Visitors it says "it is not permitted to disturb the peace of the dead in any way".

It doesn't mention babies specifically, but you can write to them and get the official policy.

We visited Dachau less than a year ago and there was a short film shown--about 30 minutes long. Would the baby get restless? We did not see any children when we toured and did not regret seeing Dachau.