I just toured Dachau, with a tour guide.
We did tour the crematoria (there are two) and the fumigation/gas chamber.
The way it was explained to us, the rooms at the back (the pass-through rooms) were fumigation chambers for clothing.
However, the middle rooms, through which we walked, were set up to look like a series of showers, into which people were intended to be herded. They were set up to look like showers to avoid panic, with floor drain-holes (that went nowhere) and fake shower heads. In the side of the central chamber were several little chutes:
These were where the crystals were to be introduced.
The chambers were never used extensively at Dachau; most of those cremated at Dachau died from starvation and overwork while building the rest of the camp (it was a work camp, not an extermination camp). Others were shot against the wall behind the crematoria.
One thing about Dachau: it was the first camp opened, in 1933, and was originally intended to be a re-education camp for political prisoners. The guards there kept very good records, including possessions of their prisoners, starting right off the bat, as some of the prisoners were supposed to be, and actually were, released in the mid-1930s. That record-keeping extended into the time during which the camp began to accept gypsies and Jews.
That means there are tons of records, including photos and film, taken by the Nazis, documenting the camp. These are now available to us to review. Many of the films and photos depict medical experiments done at the camp, such as introducing air emboli into the brain.
I fail to understand how anyone can visit Dachau and come away thinking it was all somehow faked. The infrastructure, photos, film, witness recollections, and paper trail are all there in overwhelming amounts.
Here, by the way, is a photo of one of the crematoria:
This is the second one; the "business" got too much for the first, smaller one and another was built. by the time Dachau was liberated, "business" had overwhelmed this larger one as well, and bodies were stacked in the yard waiting for cremation (photos & film available at Dachau - also of the train standing in the yard containing hundreds of bodies).
