Prisoner Memorial - Dachau, Germany - Figurative Public Sculpture on Waymarking.com

The sculpture is made of dark bronze. It features short strands of barbed wire on which skeletons are hanging with their heads dangling sharply. On either side of the sculpture are concrete fence posts which closely resemble the ones actually used to support the barbed wire fence around the camp. Underneath the sculpture are the dates 1933 - 1945, the years that the camp was used as a concentration camp for anti-Nazis.

Between 1945 and 1948 the Dachau camp was used as a prison for suspected German war criminals, and from 1948 until late 1965, it was a camp for homeless German refugees who had been expelled from the Sudetenland in what is now the Czech Republic. By 1960, construction had begun on the Memorial Site in honor of the anti-Nazis, while the homeless Germans were still living in the old barracks.

A competition among artists who were concentration camp survivors was announced on New Year's day in 1959 to find a suitable design. Forty-five of the 63 entries were exhibited in November 1959 at the Ministry for Health and Family in Brussels. The final decision to choose the entry by Nandor Glid was made by Albert Guerisse, a Belgian Communist who was imprisoned at Dachau after he was captured while working as a spy for the Britrish SOE. Guerisse was the President of the International Committee which planned the Memorial Site.

From below, you can see that the sculpture by Nandor Glid is not flat, but has a depth of about four feet. Notice the hands of the skeletons which resemble the barbs on a barbed wire fence. The sculpture is approximately 48 feet wide and 19 feet tall. It symbolizes the emaciated bodies of the prisoners who died of hunger and disease in the camp.

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Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Prisoner Memorial Figure Type: Human Artist Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Nandor Glid Date created or placed or use 'Unknown' if not known: 1959 Materials used: Bronze Location: Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site

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